Today Senator Arlen Specter announced he was leaving the Republican Party and changing his affiliation to the Democratic Party.

There are lots of opinions as to why he did this  . . . . but one fact is absolutely clear:

“Incumbent Senator Arlen Specter trails former Congressman Pat Toomey by 21 points in an early look at Pennsylvania’s 2010 Republican Primary. Fifty-one percent (51%) of Republican voters statewide say they’d vote for Toomey while just 30% would support Specter.”  Source :  Rasmussen.

Arlen Specter is a coward that changed his party affiliation so that he could avoid the ultimate judgement he has brought on himself.  This is not the story of a “moderate and principled man” who has to leave a “party of extremists” as the left is spinning it.  This is a man who turned is back on his constituents and voted for things they disapproved of AND just when he’s about to be held accountable by those supporters he changes his affiliation to garner support from the same party that spent $4.6 million dollars in an attempt to unseat him in 2004  Source : OpenSecrets.com . 

So exactly how principled or moderate is a man who according to this 2004 opponent  voted with George Bush 89% of the time.

“It’s sad to see that Arlen Specter is so desperate to keep his job that he will say anything to change the subject from his 89% support for the Bush-Cheney White House”  – Joseph M. Hoeffel  Source:  Project Vote Smart 

Appearently voting with the Evil One (George Bush to the rest of us) qualifies you as a moderate.

Please don’t feed me some BS about how principled Specter is, if he were principled he would have stood up for re-election by those who supported him in 2004 and if he lost then he could have done what Joe Lieberman did in 2006 which was to run as an Independent.  Where Lieberman won and was returned to the Senate.

Instead let’s call it was it is  . . .  politically expedient for both the Democrats and Specter.