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Retreat from Moscow 2009

By John Batchelor on April 28, 2009 at 1:20 PM in Arlen Specter, Current Affairs, Democratic Party


Arlen Specter goes over to the new Tsar. The senator has been warning on this maneuver at least since he challenged Dick Cheney and George Bush in 2007 on war-making powers (above).

napoleon-on-horseback-in-retreat-from-moscow.jpgSusan Collins, Olympia Snowe and John McCain are watching with cunning interest. The Grand Army retreat from Moscow 1812 was much colder and more ghastly than the Grand Old Party retreat from Washington 2009. Still at the end, the people did get to drive Bonaparte from the palace . He flared again; no matter. When do the Republican voters get to drive the disgraced and defeated Republican leaders from the Hill?  Do they go now or do we drive them out with laughter? Put a powdered wig and leg stockings on Mitch McConnell and Judd Gregg and Dick Shelby, and you have the world’s most undead Tories waving their useless pistoles at the mob that’s coming for them. Smell the tar! Get up those chicken feathers the old-fashioned way!

From The John Batchelor Show blog.

  • Zut alors

    Certainly, this reduces the GOP’s Senate powers to that summed up by the phrase “all hat and no cattle”.

  • Hank

    Does he deserve to get re-elected? Just to win an election…

    • http://noquarter foxyladi14

      NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Nocturnal Warrior

    The good news is, now we get to see him in a potential Democratic primary against Chris Matthews. Oh, what fun!

    • politicalidentitycrisis

      But who’d want either one of them??????

      • Portia Elizabeth Crockett

        Lord help Pennsylvania!

    • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

      I thought Matthews had decided against it. No?

      • Boxer Mum 06

        I really don’t think Matthews is going to run. My hunch is that this was not a sudden decision. Specter knew his time was up and that the GOP was not supporting him as they have in the past.

        My guess this switch by Specter is part of the reason Matthews changed his mind – that in addition to his brother not having the stellar performance he once had.

        Quid pro quo with Obama – I’ll give you my vote if you give me $$ to run and as a Democrat. The real race with be between Specter and Casey. Should be interesting since Casey is such an Obama man and promised him the Cathoic vote in the primary that went to Hillary.

        Pat Toomey WILL be the GOP candidate and Specter knew this. They did polls recently here and Toomey cleaned his clock.

        This is a calculated move by someone that does not know when to take his marbles and go home! Instead of bowing out gracefully, Philly will see another Steve Carlton. A truly like guy that didn’t know when to leave and forced us to watch his demise,.

        • catherine

          Casey vs Specter?!?! Holy cow! Who the heck is Bam Bam gonna come out swinging for??? Hahahaha, oh this WILL be fun to watch :)

          • http://noquarter foxyladi14

            pass the popcorn…..

        • AOK

          Specter will run against Pat Toomey who should win the GOP primary for that senate seat. Sen Casey was elected in 2007 so he is the junior senator and won’t be up for re-election until 2012.

  • Portia Elizabeth Crockett

    You lost me when you mentioned our senator, Judd Gregg (R – NH), with derision. May I remind you that Sen. Gregg was willing to embrace bipartisanship, even to considering an O cabinet post? After consideration he chose to be true to his personal standards, stood up and refused the post, and spoke out against the policies of the WH hat he found objectionable. While he may not be a radical Right Republican, Judd Gregg is a man of sound judgement and principles who, if he weren’t talking retirement, might be a force to reckon with in 2012.

  • Manu

    Never understimate the GOP. They are sturdy warriors, and as soon as Obama seriously messes up, they will return.

  • oowawa

    So Specter is going to become a Dem.

    My hatred of all of these phonies is non-partisan:

    Party Unity My Ass!

  • http://www.homestudioessentials.com/windows-7-to-the-rescue/252/ A-Nony-Mouse

    This is brilliant! Now let’s get Al Franken seated and get to work moving America in the right (left) direction. I’m excited.

    • Greetings From Jersey

      Amen to that!

    • Delios

      Hear hear!

    • SN in MN

      I think you took a wrong turn somewhere.

  • HARP

    With integrity like that, he belongs with the current crop of socialists.

    • jjsmoof

      Pretty much my thoughts when I heard about this.

  • Docelder

    Not sure it makes much of a difference anyway. He already pledged allegiance to the socialist party when he signed off on porkulus. At any rate, he is no longer one of the people he used to represent.

  • HARP

    TERM LIMITS would solve this.

    • Doc99

      I second that emotion.

    • HelenS

      Harp, I agree 100%

    • FLDemFem

      The problem with term limits is that it infringes on the right of the states to send who they wish to the House or Senate. That is a basic states right. And should not be trifled with by Congress.

    • http://noquarter foxyladi14

      we the people have term limits.Harp.its called a vote.
      i say fire them all

  • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

    There’s that he surely thinks this switch will make his reeelection easier.

    But I also wonder if these more moderate Republicans — and I favor moderates in both parties, which i why I call myself a “Hillary Democrat” — have become increasingly distressed by the rightwing flavor of the GOP, with Dick Cheney continuing as a major mouthpiece for the party and the promotions of Rush Limbaugh and Sara Palin, both very, very conservative, as party mouthpieces.

    There are some truly fine Republicans who I admire, but they don’t seem to get as much consideration. In the House, there’s Thaddeus McCotter (who’s been a guest on John Batchelor’s show because he’s so sharp) and Paul Ryan, the ranking member on the House Budget committee (he was on Morning Joe today, and I’m writing him up in a little while), and Lindsey Graham and the two women from Maine.

    The Republican party needs to move towards the current political center more. It’s their one shot at regaining House/ Senate seats and the presidency. They can’t run extreme rightwing candidates. They learned that in 1964. But Barry Goldwater had 10 times the wisdom, intellect and experience than the likes of Bobby Jindal (yech).

    • J.J. (The P.U.M.A.)

      The Republicans put up their most moderate presidential candidate since Gerald Ford last time and McCain got clobbered. I am afraid that the moderate wing of the Republican Party is dead, and the moderate (Clinton) wing of the Democratic Party is not calling the shots.

      By the end of 2010 the Federal Government will be deciding who gets health-care, and who pays for it, what types of energy are subsidized and what types are killed off, and what types of cars Detroit makes.

      • catherine

        The explanations for all of that are just too lengthy to go into but we’ve covered it here ad nauseum. The problem was’nt the centrists of either party. The problem was the message , the disinformation campaign and propaganda.

        And it was pretty obvious that after 8 years of Bush/Cheney the republicans were simply not going to win.

    • catherine

      True. The conservative Club for Growth which hounds moderate republicans is the equivalent to the Left’s MoveOn.org crowd that’s gunning after moderate Dems.

      It’s time we Centrists take back our respective parties from radicals and extremists otherwise known as Progressives and Neocons.

      If you look up their history you’ll find Progressives and Neocons share a common origin ….and old rivalry.

    • Jim S

      By running McCain, the GOP leapt to the left. McCain ran a lousy campaign and moved so far to the left that he was unelectable.

      • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

        and moved so far to the left that he was unelectable.

        So how did That One get elected since he was to the left of Mccain? LMAO

        I take in then, that in your opinion, anyone even slightly more centrist than the late Generalissimo Francisco Franco (who is still dead), such as McCain is a liberal.

        LMAO again.

  • HARP

    No matter what he says THIS is the reason he switched:

    A Rasmussen poll from just a few days ago put Toomey ahead by a 51%-30% margin. Specter was viewed unfavorably by 55% of the GOP electorate, compared to only 42% favorable. The pollster’s analysis also pointed out that 79% of them had a favorable view of the Tea Parties — not exactly a receptive audience for a pro-stimulus Senator. This was the first poll since Toomey officially got in, but other polls before that also showed Specter way below 50%, with a high undecided number, and the only question was whether Toomey could pick enough support to pull ahead.

    • Docelder

      79% of them had a favorable view of the Tea Parties — not exactly a receptive audience for a pro-stimulus Senator.

      Nobody in this administration has publicly acknowledged that they even understand that the Tea Parties were a legitimate venting of people who feel their government no longer cares about them or what they think anymore. But behind the scenes… oh yes, they get it very clearly. How they respond in turn will determine the fate of the third party that exists now only in spirit.

      • HARP

        Right you are. I am now convinced his vote for the stimulus bill was “arranged” by Obama himself. What was promised ?

        • Docelder

          He has past history of being a tool. Single bullet theory. Right.

      • Zoom

        79% of 55% of the GOP electorate…in Pennsilvania? Wow, really scary.
        But I agree, teabagging is very good for ‘legitimate venting’…

        • Portia Live-Free-or-Die Elizabeth

          Oh, we’re so very glad you’re here.
          Now go away.

        • candymarl

          I’m guessing you’re well versed in teabagging. You’re the one that introduced the subject.

          Using tea bags as a protest item and teabagging are two different things.

          Just saying.

    • Owllwoman

      Don’t forget, Spector wants to maintain his great medical insurance. He has health problems. This change wasn’t about honesty and political programs etc, it was about staying alive and having the best insurance to do it with. Thirty years is enough for one man to hog the Senate Seat. It was never intended to be a lifes work.

  • politicalidentitycrisis

    I’d really like to see a bunch of dems switch over to Republican!

    • JozefAL

      They did that back in the 1980s and 1990s. (That’s one of the reason so many Southern Congresscritters are in the GOP.) Alabama’s Richard Shelby did so in the 1990s simply to spite Bill clinton. The asshat Shelby, incidentally, had just been re-elected as a Democrat in 1992 and switched in 1994–the day AFTER the GOP retook the Senate.
      At least Specter is switching at the END of a term, so he can face some potential opposition. As I recall, Shelby never had any serious Dem opposition (in AL, an incumbent rarely has in-party opposition during a primary) when he ran as a Dem in the 1992 primary, and trounced his GOP opponent by a 2 to 1 margin in the gen election.

      • DCMediagirl

        Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Switched from Dem to Repub in 1995.

  • ziggy

    Arlen Specter didn’t retreat from anywhere or abandoned anyone. None of his positions have changed. What has happened is that the GOP has retreated from him.

    Republicans are abandoning the center ground to regroup even farther to the right, despite the clear warning messages of the last two elections. The political center is becoming democratic territory by default.

    I can’t imagine what the GOP strategists are thinking.

    • HARP

      Congratulations. You have finally proven the theory….Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

      • politicalidentitycrisis

        HARP-LOL!

        • http://noquarter foxyladi14

          oh.Harp you are good…

      • ziggy

        The decisive political battles during the next 2 elections will be for centrist voters. The democrats have been moving toward the center, while republicans show every sign of moving even farther to the right. Their fundamental problem is that they don’t perceive where the political center actually is. The more extreme among them really do seem to believe that John McCain is a liberal, and that social democrats are actually hard-line socialists.

        Unless something changes, the 2010 and 2012 election outcomes are predictable.

        • Docelder

          The parties are both drinking their own koolaid. Nobody owns the center, nor do they currently care about it. That is why it will be lost to a third party forever.

          • ziggy

            I’d be in favor of anyone who became a true vehicle for centrist sensibilities. Centrists should clearly fly the centrist flag in thought, word, and deed. If they did, I wouldn’t much care which party they belonged to. The whole party concept might actually be a big part of the problem.

        • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

          The decisive political battles during the next 2 elections will be for centrist voters. The democrats have been moving toward the center,

          God, where do you get that utter tripe? Do they feed it to you intravenously? The Democratic Party is neither centrist nor moving that way, because if it were and had moved in that direction, HRC would be president and you would be back to being a caricature of a comic strip character, which better suits your rather suspect talents anyway.

    • http://deleted Aaron

      The Dems don’t own the center! The DEMS lean heavily left and since the country is leaning left, they are the beneficiaries. Republicans will win when they lean heavily right and offer a different choice, not a similar one. We need 2 vibrant parties and 1 party rule is a scary thing in any Democracy! Republicans win when they run on conservative issues and Democrats win when they run on Liberal ones. Both parties lose when they try to placate moderates and run on the other parties strengths.

    • Portia Live-Free-or-Die Elizabeth

      Well, well well.
      Ziggy, if you can grasp that, how is it that you cannot understand how so many former Democrats have left their party?

      • Ani

        Very well put.

      • Sfhillary

        How many Democrats exactly do you believe have left the party? There were more registered Democrats in 2008 than in any year in history. And Obama won with more votes than any other candidate of either party has ever received on a presidential ballot. How many could have left?

    • J.J. (The P.U.M.A.)

      Ziggy may be(is) disgusting, but on this is correct. The Republican right drove Specter out of the party. I consider myself to be, at heart, a moderate Republican. But, since there is no such thing, I am a Clinton Democrat.

      • http://deleted Aaron

        There is no such thing as a moderate Republican it is a oxymoron. Conservatives want a limited government intrusion in their lives. The problem with the Republican party is that they think it is okay to intrude when they are lead the parade. There is no excuse for foreign adventures and keeping people from their constitutional rights. If you want limited government you do all the time not just when it is convenient.

        Keep the government small and under control while expanding programs that work and empowering states to succeed. Don’t forget that the Federal government was viewed as a tool to help states not dominate them. Keep the government out of our wallets, bedrooms and churches.

  • politicsisdirty

    I am happy with the development. Liberal Republicans should leave the GOP. The party should only be composed of conservatives and moderate conservatives.

    Shall I say McCain, Snowe and Collins.

    • Zut alors

      Olympia Snowe (R – ME) just said Specter’s defection was “devastating” and that the GOP was no longer a happy home for moderates. When sitting Senators say this, there’s a problem. Snowe and fellow ME GOP moderate Collins might be tempted to leave too.

      • Portia Live-Free-or-Die Elizabeth

        Snowe is already a RINO. Why on earth is she surprised?

    • Boxer Mum 06

      The ONLY reason Specter is leaving the GOP is because he knows he will not get re-elected and will not get the $$ needed to run and beat Toomey and then any D that runs.

      The only thing Specter wants is to keep his seat – he doesn’t care what party he represents. It should be no surprise to anyone to know that many, many Democrats have devotedly voted for Specter. I know b/c I was one of them … but no more!

  • Ray SF

    The answer is not to have the Republican party move to the center. It is to create a NEW CENTER THIRD PARTY! A party that represents moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans. Leave the far right to the the Republican party and the far left to the Democratic party! MOST AMERICANS ARE CENTER THINKING PEOPLE. The time is NOW. We are all ripe for a new party that represents most of how average Americans think.

    • HARP

      Lets call it the party of Common Sense.

      • http://noquarter foxyladi14

        i like that..common sense..

    • http://firefox Martha Washington Collier

      I couldn’t agree more.

    • politicalidentitycrisis

      I have written to Michael Steele and told him that same thing. I told him the GOP can rule forever if they become the party tolerant of all people and the party of liberty and freedom!

    • Docelder

      Regular working people just need to be appreciated for the contribution that they make in this society. They need a voice and they need to feel appreciated and heard. Why can’t the parties even let the people have just that one little bit of reassurance?

    • Boxer Mum 06

      How about the UNITED PARTY?

    • J.J. (The P.U.M.A.)

      I have been monitoring the environment for a third party ever since 1992, when I think Perot could have pulled it off had he not been a “nut-job”. I would consider 2012 as the least hospitable environment for a third party presidential candidate since 1992. Why? Because you first have to get the incumbent party below 40%. That will never happen with Obama. His intense support among African Americans and the left wing will keep him above 40% no matter how bad he might turn out to be.

  • Peggy Sue

    So, Specter whines about expanded Presidential powers and ideological-driven decisions in 2006, and then joins the Dems who have shown no inclination to rescind those powers and are dedicated ideologues themselves.

    In addition, the Senator from Pennsylvania wants us to believe that this was a “principled” decision.

    He’s been sniffing the pixie dust.

    I wonder how Harry Reid sweetened the pot to encourage the good Senator to jump across the aisle?

    It just gets better and better. Specter should have retired. I do believe he’s a moderate [a good thing from where I sit]. But this is political expediency, masked as an act of nobility. And I’m really, really weary of that!

    • oowawa

      Here’s for his “principled” decision:

      WASHINGTON (AP) – Veteran Sen. Arlen Specter says President Barack Obama has promised to campaign for him in next year’s Democratic primary in Pennsylvania.

      Well Hallelujah! He must be so proud of himself . . .

      • Docelder

        Being at 60 then he only needs to buy 6 more republican senators and he can have his treaty proof senate.

        • Docelder

          Excuse the mental lapse he needs 67.

  • SoCalDem

    Arlen Spector is a tool!! He is just like Lieberman, he’s just trying to keep his seat, it dosen’t matter to him which party he represents as long as he is still in the Senate. I hope the Dems in Pa don’t fall for this crap. Its time to get rid of these people that have been in office for so long without doing anything we ask of them. The last Dem congress was complicit in all things Bush/Cheney did while in office. I can’t support any of those Dems, I hoping for a third party, in the middle is the way to go.

  • benny

    Spector will lose the next election. and then he’ll just be a memory. lol

  • oowawa

    O benny–”Spector” is Phil who wrote “To Know Him Is to Love Him” and produced “He Hit Me, and It Felt Like a Kiss”; “Specter” is “Arlen” who wrote “If I Only Had a Brain” and “If I Only Had a Heart” and “Ding! Dong the Witch Is Dead.” O wait, that’s Harold Arlen. This all gets so confusing sometimes . . . It all makes me feel like I’m stranded somewhere over the rainbow . . .

  • CG

    “Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.” — Arlen Specter from an email I just received from Bob Menedez on behalf of the Democratic Party

    • oowawa

      So Arlen likes to live in a Big Happy Prosperous Tent, and it seems that now the Republicans have a Little Demoralized Tent, whereas the Dems have a Great Big Joyous Revival Tent with mystic holy light and hopey songs streaming out of it. There is also the promise of lots of campaign cash and personal support from The One Himself.

      But in between there are plain non-partisan tent cities, and you see them springing up around the country everywhere. That’s where I live, in a tent of my own.

      • andrew 191

        I always thought you were intense, oowawa.

        • oowawa

          LMAO Andrew–soon a great many of us will be in tents!

  • http://noquarter foxyladi14

    tent city.s are sprouting up all over the place..

  • Tom Cat “wodiej” Jefferson Esq

    Spector is a big ass wuss who knew he was going to lose in re-election for his Republican senate seat. He is a traitor anyway for voting for the pork bill so he may as well wear the title. Good riddance. The two women from Maine can sniff behind his ass too as far as I’m concerned. Get a fucking spine and take a side.

    All Democrats are not voting for Obama socialism and Spector was voting w him anyway so no loss.

  • bone

    Spector is another example of the Republican party moving farther and farther to the right and away from what the vast majority of Americans believe in this country. The Republicans have drive almost all of the moderates out of the party.

    More good numbers out for Obama. 80% of American like Obama and most think he is following the right policies. These are unbelievable numbers for all the tough issues that Obama has had to deal with in the first 100 days. I guess the 12% that don’t like him or his policies are you very small minority of NQbots. All your BS on this site is so far from the mainstream and is so unaligned with what the people want and the direction they want to go in this country. You NQbots and your tea parties are a small minority and alll your BS is wrong.

    “More than eight in 10, 81%, said they personally like the president on the eve of his 100th day in the Oval Office. Of those respondents, 51% said they like him and his policies, while 31% said they like him personally while disapproving of his policies.

    Just 12% said they don’t like Obama or his policies, and only 3% said they don’t like him but approve of his policies.”

    http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/04/28/wsjnbc-news-poll-they-like-obama-they-really-like-obama/