This diary is just going to be about the advantages Democrats and Republicans get from Specter's party switch.
Advantages for Republicans:
- Specter has moved to the right to prove he is "independent" (EFCA, opposing Obama's judges, and opposing health care).
- The RSCC does not have to waste their money in a futile attempt to save Specter from certain doom in his primary against Toomey.
- The Republicans can now scream "Dems have 60 dems have 60 dems have 60!!!" and blame everything that goes wrong on the Democrats. Could actually work, too.
- The Republicans have a reliable vote on the other side of the aisle, perhaps even more reliable than Ben Nelson, then they would've had if a real Democrat had beaten Toomey in 2010.
- The DSCC has to waste their money defending Specter.
- Specter dukes it out with Lieberman as most obnoxious and annoying Democrat.
- If he is primaried, can make the Democrats look like the "radical leftists" that Specter railed against.
- May displace REAL Democrats on committee chairmanships.
- Will now make it harder for Obama's SCOTUS pick to be approved, as the rest of the R senators on the judicial committee are extremists.
Advantages for Democrats:
- Gloating/bragging rights.
- Having an imaginary, in name only "filibuster proof majority".
So tell me, would we have been better off with Specter as a Democrat or a Republican? Feel free to suggest more to add to either list. As far as I'm concerned, the negatives outweigh the slight and possibly non existant benefits from Specter's party change.