It's been fun during the last 24 hours or so watching the GOP flail around for spin on Arlen Specter's defection. We've had it all, ranging from the rueful "this is bad for the party" reflection from the likes of Olympia Snowe to the "Good riddence and take John McCain with you!" attitude from Rush Limbaugh and gang to the "freedom tent" blathering of Jim DeMint. It's been an entertaining mosaic.
Yet leave it to the offical Stupidest Man In the Senate, James Inhofe, to come up with the biggest "WTF?!" spin of them all. According to Inhofe, Specter's defection means the GOP is on the comeback trail
"Now the evidence of this was found out when Arlen Specter made his decision," Inhofe explained. "And that is all of a sudden, we find out that Arlen Specter is down in the Republican Party, down in terms of his popularity. The guy that ran against him and was defeated by Arlen Specter's own advisers said there's no way that you can win this thing unless you change to the Democratic Party. Now to me, that's the evidence it's coming."
So, according to Inhofe, since Specter is so unpopular with the PA GOP base that he must switch parties to survive, that must mean the public is turning against Obama! A new Republican landslide is coming! 1994 all over again!
Now, if the GOP base were representative of the country as a whole, that might be true. But unfortunately, what Inhofe doesn't get is the reason Specter switched: the GOP has driven out everyone but the hard right base. They are now a minority and Specter, by switching parties, is now likely assured of victory if he is the Democratic nominee.
Perhaps Inhofe mistakes Oklahoma with the rest of the country. Or he's just being Inhofe again. Apparently, the "global warming is a hoax" story was getting stale, so he decided to create some new fairy tales instead.