After 29 years in the US Senate, Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter has crossed the aisle to join the Democrats. Unsurprisingly right-wing commentators — who long distrusted Specter as too “liberal” — have reacted with fury (my favourite so far is “Arlen Specter, Traitor”, followed by Rush Limbaugh’s demand that Specter take John McCain with him).

The political consequences are far more significant: Specter’s move final will give the Democrats the “filibuster-proof” 60 seats in the 100-member Senate if last November’s Minnesota election is resolved in favour of Al Franken. Even though Specter was facing a difficult primary challenge next year from another Republican, and thus may struggle to hold his seat, this is an immediate symbolic and short-term political boost for the Obama Administration.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 10:26 and is filed under US Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.