Quid pro quo from Big Labor

May 14, 2009 at 5:01 pm

“Call and tell Senator Specter Pennsylvania’s for him . . . as long as he’s for the Employee Free Choice Act.”

That’s the quid pro quo coming at the end of a new ad sponsored by “

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Whose side is Senator Specter on?

May 11, 2009 at 8:30 am

It’s the question MoveOn.org asked in a recent e-mail to supporters, calling on Pennsylvania residents to call Senator Arlen Specter and “hold him accountable for his vote” on the failed “Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009.” Specter was one of 14 Democrats to vote against the proposal to ease mortgage restructuring, which only garnered 45 votes in the Senate. MoveOn has begun running an ad in Pennsylvania hitting the Senator for his vote.…

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Political battleground taking shape in Dem Senate primary

May 6, 2009 at 7:00 am

CNN’s political ticker had two pieces running back-to-back earlier that, taken together, paint a fascinating picture of the current politics behind the Specter Party Switch.

On the one hand, amid grumblings from people like James Carville and Howard Dean warning Specter to “ Full Story

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A Specter-Toomey blowout

May 5, 2009 at 9:25 am

Surprise, surprise:

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Guess who wanted a party-switching ban in 2001?

May 1, 2009 at 10:41 am

You got it: Arlen Specter.

In 2001, then-Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords stunned the political world by changing his party registration from Republican to Independent. Jeffords’ defection threw the balance of power to the Democrats, putting them into the majority.

Specter, at the time, said he felt like “there’d been a death in the family.” Jeffords was part of a weekly lunch group Specter had with Northeastern Republican moderates Senators Chafee, Snowe, and Collins, and a…

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‘Senator Specter is Still a Bush Republican’

April 29, 2009 at 11:22 am

That’s the headline of an e-mail I recieved several weeks ago from Democracy for America, a progressive group that at the time was raising money to put pressure on Arlen Specter to support a Commission to investigate allegations of torture committed by the Bush administration.

A lot has changed since I received that e-mail. Specter has become a Democrat. At first, I couldn’t help but be caught up in the sense of euphoria that swept…

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Live-blogging wrap up

April 28, 2009 at 3:02 pm

Hey folks, seems like we had a little technology issue and lost the last 15 minutes of analysis of Specter’s news conference. In brief, I want to summarize what I think are the key take-aways from this press event:

1. Specter has made it plain that he is doing this for political survival, not because of some ideological revelation. The polls showed his goose was cooked in the GOP, which he frequently referred to as…

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Live-blogging the Specter news conference

April 28, 2009 at 2:42 pm

Specter is giving his news conference now…

2:22 Specter explaining how this move really began with his vote for the Stimulus Package, calling it “indispensable” to stop another Great Depression.

2:23 this plays into Steele’s hands – Specter marginalizing the “jury” of the Pennsylvanian Republican Primary Electorate – treating these people like the tea bagging fringe they are (or at least are perceived to be).

2:24 This is how he will frame his run: about…

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WOAH! Specter blows up Washington with party switch.

April 28, 2009 at 2:08 pm

Sixty in the Senate?

Those are the words on eager Democratic lips as Arlen Specter stunned the political world today by announcing his pIn his statement announcing his intention to switch, Specter writes:/p
blockquotepSince 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…

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That Specter-Toomey ad: Point by point

April 27, 2009 at 9:59 am

In a clear sign of the high stakes of Pat Toomey’s primary challenge to Specter, the Senator launched this Full Story

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