Specter the Democrat

Talk about brand dilution! The San Francisco Chronicle's Carolyn Lochhead is the most faithful stenographer for Beltway Village conventional wisdom that I've come across. She writes about it in Specter's defection changes game for Dems 04/29/09.

It was easy to guess that the Village would love this part:

It also could shift the ideological fulcrum of the Democratic Party, which is led by liberals such as Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi but now more than ever is beholden to its rising centrist wing.

What's next? A "bold" Harry Reid initiative to "reduce the partisan rancor" by appointing Republicans to head all Senate Committees? That should reduce the influence of all those actual Democrats wicked liberals like Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.

Welcoming Joe Lieberman back into the fold with open arms after the Presidential election was bad enough. now we're talking about even more serious brand dilution.

And I think we-need-60-votes business is nonsense. The Democrats can eliminate the filibuster rule with a 51-vote majority. Instead, they are hiding behind the 60-vote filibuster excuse to duck responsibility for not delivering on important measures Democratic voters want and for doing baffling deals like welcoming rightwing Republican and loyal Cheney-Bush supporter Arlen Specter into the Democratic Caucus, letting him count his full time in the Senate as a Republican toward his Democratic seniority.

Well, I guess it was because the Republicans won such stunning gains in the 2006 and 2008 elections that Reid thinks he needs to broaden the Party's appeal to Republican voters. No, wait...

Tags: arlen specter, democratic party, republican party