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AndyJ2158 months ago

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I wonder if Specter's decision to switch parties was due to the GOP pro-TORTURE position, or due to their pandering to the fundamentalist fringe, or their bathroom sex and similar scandals.

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  nuiloa8 months ago
  
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  Mainly it has to do with the fact that the GOP has shrunken to the point where only the most hardcore conservatives are left -- there's no longer any room for moderates.
  
  In that environment, Specter wouldn't be able to win the GOP primary in 2010. Now he's almost guaranteed re-election.
  
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    Beau78908 months ago
    
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    I completely agree with your first paragraph, but I'm not certain another Dem can't beat him in the primary...I guess it depends on who'll run.
    
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      chevydog8 months ago
      
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      I'm not much into politics. But I'm willing to bet that there is general agreement among the Dems to stand back. He brings a lot of oomph for PA that a freshman Sen would be hard-pushed to have.
      
      I do wonder some about his age/health. He'll be 80 at the time of the election, and has had problems in the past. While 80 isn't as old as it used to be, there's nothing foolproof at that age. This could all be the prelude to a dignified retirement--though I must admit there may have been more (faux) hosannas had he done so as a Repub.
      
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  Tangent0018 months ago
  
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  I think much of it has to do with how far the GOP has swung to the right. Perhaps a better analysis would be how far the GOP has re-defined the right to stand for things decidedly un-conservative. They abandoned fiscal conservatism and foreign policy non-interventionism under Bush 43. They are entrenched in the trickle-down economics camp. Welfare for people is inherently bad, yet unaccountable welfare for large corporations is inherently good. There is nothing 'conservative' about their energy policies. Ultimately, they have no ideas to offer except cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporations.
  
  When they hollered about the re-authorization and expansion of the GIVE Act being tantamount to Obama setting up socialist indoctrination camps, they officially jumped the shark in my book. Since when is national service NOT a conservative value?
  
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