...let us remind ourselves on this Sunday of the "Barack Obama and the Democratic Party have once again bought a Specter in poke" that we ourselves told ourselves that one Joseph Lieberman, if not spanked and sent to his room without his committee assignments, would flaunt his insurrection, prancing, inebriated, around the Senate in his underwear (I apologize in advance for that image) making mischief as he took the Democratic agenda and used it as the "other" in his old-wrinkly version of the beast with two backs.
Instead... he's said fuck all of nothing... and stayed out of the way.
Joe Lieberman has yet to vote against Barack Obama's agenda.
Arlen Specter will be no more of a problem.
Look, Barack and Rahm have plans for Arlen.
There are votes they'll call "Arlee" to make... and others where they'll assume they have to find one of the other RINOANP (Republicans In Need Of A National Party) to get their filibuster-buster.
Should Specter come through on those former votes... Arlen will likely get the support he needs to win the Democratic nomination in 2010.
Should he NOT... should Arlen turn into Joseph before Joseph had his mute button pushed... well then one campaign stop and two fundraisers is NOT going to prevent us from going full-Lamonty in Pennsylvania.
(And now take a moment to imagine if President Obama had listened to "ourselves" and turned Joe into the SPURNED ONE, instead of something so ordinary as 1 of 59, no more pretty than the rest.)
All this said, what Barack Obama knows (and what he's trying to teach us) is what the Republicans are incapable of (that being a truly BIG TENT) and what Bill Clinton envisioned WITHOUT THE OUTRIGHT AND COMPLETE FUCKING POLITICAL CAPITULATION:
A large, national party, with varied and often conflicting viewpoints, but with an overwhelming majority, such that no single representative can derail an increasingly progressive agenda.
We won't win every legislative fight, but with each new tool (and a tool is all you can ever expect a RINO turned DINO to be) we'll win MORE of them. (Think in inches and feet, not yards and miles.)
Arlen Specter is nothing more than another possible vote, who will or will not satisfy the Democratic base in Pennsylvania, but until that point, I'm pretty sure we'd all MUCH, MUCH, MUCH rather have him standing in the looming "who's your daddy?" shadow of the 44th President of the United States of America, then say the shadow of The Club For Growth or CPAC or even The Daughters of the American Revolution.
Don't believe me?
Ask Joe Lieberman... that is... if you can find him.