Day: April 28, 2009

Senator Arlen Specter joins a distinguished group of party switchers who have made history by their decision to switch parties.

Among the party switchers are three senators who I wrote about in my book TWILIGHT OF PROGRESSIVISM, published by The Johns Hopkins University Press.  The three are George Norris of Nebraska, Robert La Follette, Jr. of Wisconsin, and Henrik Shipstead of Minnesota, all during the 1930s.  Also switching were the following distinguished senators:  Senator Robert La Follette, Sr. of Wisconsin (regarded as one of the top five senators of all time); Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon;  Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont;  Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut;  and now Senator Specter.

Also switching parties were three Southerners who I am  not a great fan of:  Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, Senator Harry Byrd, Jr. of Virginia, and Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama.

Basically, only maverick types who either were ahead of their party on some important issues or Southerners rebelling against the civil rights movement, and therefore representing regression, have been party switchers.  Having said that, Specter joins an interesting group of influential senators who have chosen to break their party bonds.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a good friend of Senator John McCain, has expressed great concern at the marginalization of the GOP that is evident with the switch of Senator Arlen Specter to the Democratic Party.

Unlike his fellow Senator Jim DeMint from the same state, and Senators Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn, and also the talk show host Rush Limbaugh, as well as other talk show hosts, Graham is a realist who worries that the Republican party is doomed to become more weakened if it continues to eliminate or discourage moderate Republicans such as Specter.

Graham is wise in his warnings, and some can wonder if the Republican party might not be doomed to go the way of the Whig Party in the 1850s.  It could  indeed become irrelevant, and the conservatives might be seen as the cause of the downfall of the GOP, which is historically a party that has had great leaders and principles but now seems a skeleton of its old self.

Finally, the 99th day of the Obama Presidency, his cabinet is complete with the confirmation vote for Kathleen Sebelius, the Governor of Kansas, as Secretary of Health and Human Services.  It certainly is a necessary situation to have an HHS Secretary finally, with the Swine Flu crisis that has emerged these last few days in America.  Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Secretary, has been filling in during the early days of this new challenge.

Now the question is how far will Obama go to obtain a real reform of our health care system.  In many ways, this is the biggest domestic policy issue after dealing with the economic crisis that became evident last September.  Sebelius should be able to articulate a program that will gain the backing of the Democratic majority in both houses.  There is no time to waste, as we remain the only industrial democracy still allowing health insurance corporations to control the destiny of the people and allow nearly 50 million Americans to have no health care plan other than the emergency room.

The Second Hundred Days ending in early August will be judged to a great extent by the action on a health care plan.  It is time for the party of the President to unite around the President as he attempts to bring necessary health care reform, which is long overdue.

No sooner than Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announces his switch from the Republican to the Democratic party,  than the GOP  Senate leader Mitch McConnell is saying it is a disaster for the country, and Rush Limbaugh is saying that Specter should take John McCain and his daughter Megan with him to the Democratic Party!  As the saying goes, OY!  LOL

With this kind of mentality, it sounds like Maine Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe are also being pushed by implication out of the sinking Republican minority.  How can the GOP expect to revive if they keep on making themselves more narrow in their base?  A recent poll indicates only 21 percent of the American people call themselves Republicans.  Do the Republicans have a death wish?  Polls indicate vast majorities favor the Obama Presidency at this point, and instead of trying to appeal to these people to come back or at least consider the Republican alternative, instead the reaction is to "cut off their nose to spite their face", as the saying goes.

Until the Republican party can appeal to the moderate center and not consider the word "liberal"  a dirty word, they will languish in the wilderness, seen as an historical curiosity.  New leadership, based on a broad understanding of the American population, is desperately needed if we are to have a viable alternative at any time in the future!

Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announced today that he was switching his party affiliation from the Republican to the Democratic Party, therefore returning to the party he originally was in before switching to the GOP in the mid 1960s, when he was a young ambitious district attorney in Philadelphia, beginning his political career.

Obviously, Senator Specter, having switched parties twice now, at the beginning and near the end of his political career, cannot be praised for party loyalty, but despite that, it must be said that Senator Specter has had a long, distinguished career and has often shown principle and courage in tough political moments, including his decision to back President Obama’s Economic Stimulus bill , one of only three Republican senators ( the other two being the two women Senators from Maine, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins) to do so, which allowed the bill to get through the Senate, instead of being filibustered by the Republican minority. The action by Specter likely assures him another six year term in the Senate as he nears 80 years of age in 2010. 

His addition to the Democratic caucus now makes that a 59 member majority,  and eventually when Al Franken takes the Minnesota Senate seat still being contested by former Senator Norm Coleman in state supreme court, the Democrats will have reached the magic number of 60, therefore creating a filibuster proof Senate, assuming of course that all Democrats stay loyal on every piece of legislation promoted by the Obama Administration.  As a result, Obama should be able to accomplish his goals on health care, the environment, education, as well as other initiatives.