PA-Sen: Rendell tries to spin his friend's Arlen's conservative record

Rendell: Pensylvanians know, and particularly Democrats, knbow what Arlen Specter has done. On every key gut issue that went to Democratic core values, he was with us.

Huh. Interesting.

I never realized backing President George Bush over three quarters of the time to be in line with gut Democratic core values.  He voted with his party 76% in the 107th Congress, Bush's first, 85% in the 108th, 77% in the 109th, and 70.5%, after Bush's popularity had plummeted, in the 110th.

Apparently, that's all TOTALLY in line with Democratic core values.

One of the few key votes against his party -- voting for EFCA a few years ago -- is now moot, since he betrayed labor with new opposition to card check at the beginning of this Congress. Sure, he was moving right trying to head off the primary challenge by Pat Toomey, but he's still on record against EFCA. (Had Specter reversed himself again on EFCA, his state's powerful labor unions would've likely headed off any primary challenger.)

So this is all pretty weird. Rendell says he's "ticked off when I hear that Arlen Specter is a guy with no principles". But the evidence is clear:

Specter has no principles, and will flounder around trying to find traction however necessary. That is, until after the election, when he can be free to doing what Arlen does well -- being a Lieberman-esque pain in the ass.

Rendell will obviously do whatever necessary to back his buddy, even if it means boldly lying about Specter's record, but the numbers objectively paint a very different picture.

Good thing Joe Sestak is now officially primarying Specter.