The obvious reason that Arlen Specter switched parties is that he saw he could not win the Republican primary and would soon be an ex-Senator if he didn't switch to run in the Democrat primary. Maybe things aren't so obvious though. I just read at Politico that Joe Biden talked to Specter 14 times.
In the Democratic Party's courtship of Arlen Specter, no one may have played a bigger role than Vice President Joe Biden.
Biden has been trying to convince Specter to switch parties for at least the past five years, but those efforts were stepped up once he was sworn in as vice president, a senior White House official said.
Biden has met or spoken on the phone with Specter an average of once a week since the Inauguration. And after Specter became one of three Senate Republicans to support the administration's stimulus package, those conversations were increased.
Maybe it was not a desperate, last ditch effort to save his political hide after all. Maybe Specter just wanted to shut Joe Biden up. It's not like he'd be the only person Joe Biden had driven crazy.
As if Specter did not get pressure by voting for the porkulus. Nobody switches unless they are predisposed. Rush was right, Specter was always a democrat.
Posted by: jo | Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 03:07 AM