The Unfortunately Not-So-Strange Case of Arlen Specter
As everyone who has not caught the swine flu now knows, Arlen Specter, the Republican Senator since 1980 from Pennsylvania, has switched parties. He is 79, and felt that he couldn’t win the Republican primary in 2010.
So rather than try to put up a courageous fight against the odds (as he sees them), or retire instead of seeking a term that would end when he would be 85 (he is the 12th most senior Senator), he did what others would find unthinkable: He switched parties in order to try to ensure another term. He will attempt to gloss this over with a thick brushing of ideological unhappiness with his party and the belief that he can be more effective if….yada yada yada.
Is anyone still surprised that many of us believe our elected officials are primarily in the game for their own power and perquisites?
What a great standard to establish! Imagine if a point guard in a playoff basketball game saw that his team was losing by 24 points heading into the fourth quarter and decided that, instead of rallying his teammates, he’d just switch sides! I’m glad the Navy didn’t feel that way at Pearl Harbor, or the Red Sox when they were down 3-0 to the Yankees in the playoffs, or Truman when he was “sure” to lose to Dewey.
I would imagine that Lincoln might have made overtures to Jeff Davis early in the Civil War, but that Lee would have quickly offered to join Grant after Gettysburg and Vicksburg changed the playing field.
I don’t believe that Senator Specter’s defection has anything to do with ideology. There are Senators on both sides of the aisle who have had mixed feelings about their own party’s legislation and position on many occasions. With very rare exception, they weren’t prompted to crawl under the fence. No, I think this is about simply ensuring he gets elected for a still another term so that he retains his perks and power (even though he would lose some senior committee positions).
It’s not about serving the electorate. It’s about being self-serving.
Now isn’t that just a great example for all of us?
© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.
Steven Levy
I think this is inaccurate, Alan.
Specter wants the opportunity to run in the *general* election. As a sitting senator, he does, I think, have the right to have the state’s poplulation as a whole vote him in or out. What he was objecting to was that a limited subset of voters, not in any way reflecting the general voting population, would be the ones to determine his future.
That’s what happened with Joe Lieberman recently. He was challenged from the left by a candidate who could and did win the primary. Lieberman was insistent that the general population of his state be the ones to judge whether he was the one they wanted to represent them. He was lucky that he had the resources to run as a nominal independent.
Specter could have done the same thing. He chose to deal with it now, rather than a year from now.
Both Lieberman and Specter are more centrist than their (former) parties’ core. That is part of why the people of their states like them. (Both are also more thoughtful than a lot of politicians, a trait that CT and PA voters appear to actually value, which itself is increasingly rare.) But it makes it hard to get to the general election, which is where the real referendum on representation occurs.
I will grant that between Specter and the news media, his position has been poorly explained. Still, I had expected thoughtful, intelligent observers to supply the missing context.
Alan Weiss
This thoughtful, intelligent observer provided the content and context as he sees it. Lieberman, if I’m not mistaken, was defeated in the primary, then took the option of running in the general election. Hardly an analogy. More like a rationalization.
I’m sorry, switching parties just to perpetuate yourself is heinous, and brings self-serving up to an art form. You may believe that he’s thinking of the greater population, but I think, at 79 particularly, he’s thinking of himself. His position is crystal clear, not poorly explained at all.
All politics are local. The real referendum is local. He wants to bypass it to continue in power. It’s legal, but it smells.
Danielle Keister
Thank you for posting this, Alan. I was starting to think I was the only one who felt there was something wrong with this picture. To me, it clearly illustrates a lack of integrity and congruency. And he made it clear that he wasn’t switching because of ideological differences (which I would find more honor in); in the reports I listened to, he stated in no uncertain terms it was merely to stay in the game and get elected. Is there no shame anymore? You either have principles or you don’t.
Alan Weiss
It’s quite disgusting. There is no more ideology, there is only “me.” He wants to serve until he’s 85. There is such a thing as term limits, they occur every six years when these clowns are up for reelection, but somehow we seldom enforce them and just keep electing them to their privilege and perks.