When Arlen Specter announced that he was switching his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, the loudest reaction seemed to be the collective yawn from the Republican party.  Normally, losing a senior senator to the opposing party would cause a great deal of angst and gnashing of teeth.  But nothing is ever normal when it comes to the self-serving chameleon, Arlen Specter.

So, how could Republicans not be upset about Specter’s latest self-serving move?  Because we know Specter, especially those of us in Pennsylvania who have always had an insider’s glimpse into his true motivations.  Specter is true to only one person --- Arlen Specter. Specter has but one true friend --- his index finger, which is permanently wrinkled from wetting it and sticking it into the political winds to determine his next move.  It was obvious that Pennsylvania Republicans were going to give him a finger of their own in the 2010 primary election and rather than face a sure defeat, he went into his usual self-preservation mode and claims to have had a revelation  that he just doesn’t agree with the Republican platform of lower taxes, strong military, smaller government, free markets, and fiscal responsibility.  Funny how he exploited those issues to sustain his power and lavish lifestyle for the past 29 years.

Further, what many people don’t remember or never knew is that this switch to the Democrat party isn’t just a switch.  It’s a switch back to the Democrat party. Specter, born and raised in Wichita, Kansas started out as a democrat.  He later switched to the Republican party to ride Reagan’s coattails into the Senate in 1980.

Since then, Specter has only been a Republican in election years, saying the things he had to to get elected, then going right back to being his true self.  It was almost like clockwork.  Faced with a tough primary challenge in ’92, Specter suddenly takes up the lead in blasting Anita Hill during the Clarenece Thomas confirmation hearings to sell himself as a true conservative.

Then in 1998, when the Republican tide was at its most powerful, his wet finger pointed him in the right direction on the Clinton impeachment.

Now, after the Republican party has imploded from acting like Democrats, his finger tells him that his conscience is bothering him and that he’s not a Republican after all.  And he says that with a straight face, 

Of course, Specter’s had alot of practice telling the big lie with a straight face.  Don’t forget that it was this soulless, unprincipled bastard that devised the ridiculous “single-bullet/magic-bullet” theory as part of the Warren Commission’s investigation of the John F. Kennedy assassination, and then tried to sell that garbage to the public with the same straight face.

Perhaps the funniest part of Specter’s self-serving switch back to the Democrat party was his use of the word “principle” in his speech.  I can only imagine how many hours his handlers had to put in working with Specter on how to pronounce the word and teach him what it meant.

Republicans are also comforted by the fact that Specter has already learned the hard lesson about making deals with Democrats, as Harry Reid screwed him out of his committee seniority status.  Of course, with Specter you never know what to believe.  He claims that he was promised by Reid that he would not lose his seniority status.  But that could be another ploy to blunt the question that will be on Pennsylvania voters minds in the next election, ‘Did Arlen Specter sacrifice Pennsylvania’s power in the Senate to preserve his career?’  Oh, perish the thought.  Not our little Arlen.

On behalf of the Republican party, Arlen, I say we hardly knew ye.  Neither will the Democrats.  Goodbye and good riddance.