Do you think political philosophy or a tough re-election fight motivated Specter's party switch?

Republicans would never allow another party to come to power unless they got to the point where they were helpless to stop it. Expect Eric Cantor to make bold moves in the coming years. Even though he can be a complete idiot at times, the fact that he had the sense to tell Republicans that releasing an alternative budget with no actual.... budget.... in it on April 1st is not exactly a wise political decision, shows that he at least knows when to play ball and when not to.

He's no Herald Ford, Jr., but he's the best Republicans have imo.

GOP is helpless to stop another political party from forming. There are at least three others now.

Wow - if the Republicans would stick to the good they can do, instead of concentrating on starting wars and gutting the Constitution, I could even see returning to the party one day. I pulled a Spector and switched parties 'long about the Clinton Witch Hunt - just couldn't be associated with such an unprincipled bunch of yahoos any more (and I was several years late in doing it). Bundle up the neocons and theocrats in one party, leave the fiscal moderates in another and - voila! You're onto something. And just as I was getting used to being a Democrat, too.

I hope the Republicans start producing alternative ideas and debates that make sense instead of a party with no message and no messenger. Eric Cantor and Palin are not an option, they are both flawed beyond repair. The Democrats had the same problem until Obama was discovered. I am sure in the next eight years or so a good Republican leader will emerge.

The Republican Party is too far to the right, they have no good ideas just criticism. No matter what anyone says about Obama they can't deny the fact that he is going to do what is best for our country and our citizens instead of being a flag bearer for big corporations and special interest groups that don't help the country as a whole.

The Republicans can say what they want but when they had their chance they totally blew it. I pray that the Democrats will not do the same and learn from the Republicans mistakes. We are one country with two parties but at the end of the day the most important thing to remember is that we are ONE COUNTRY above all else.

I happen to agree. There are going to be people who think that there needs to be more a more conservative party because the Republicans aren't conservative enough.

I also think that there needs to be a larger number of parties in general. There are some people who only think about a few things like evangelicals who are anti-abortions and anti-homosexual. Maybe a few smaller parties would help bring some issues to light.

What the Republicans haven't figured out is that neither party wins along straight ideological lines, you have to have the swing/moderate voters. Bush/Rove managed for a short time to use divisiveness as a wedge to alienate people from the Democrats but they have gotten so hard line in their beliefs the Republicans are now the party of the South and Right Wing fringe only

As an outside observer (neither Democrat, nor Republican, Independent - social liberal, fiscal conservative, and mostly Libertarian) the Republican party is in real trouble. They've pretty much alienated all the moderates in the party and lost the entire North East as a result. And while they might have some hope of recovering due to the recent focus on economic issues and we're seeing the Libertarian aspect of the party on the rise again, they're still not there. The Neo-cons, the Hannitys, the Coulters, the Limbaughs, have run the party into the ground and pretty much made a mess of things that few people support outside of just the South it appears at this point, and that doesn't bring enough votes to get by.

You're seeing some Republicans revolting finally and pushing more Libertarian ideas again, which is very much in line with traditional Republicanism - but there is still pushback from the extremists on the radical Right. It's a fight for the soul of the party, and I'm not sure where it ends or who's going to win. If it's the radical right extremists, I think the party will be fundamentally broken, fractured beyond repair, and you'll see the Libertarian party itself picking up a fair amount of new voters while the Republicans stay hardcore conservative and push themselves into corner from which they lose a major amount of power. If it's the Libertarians that wind up winning out, I think the party recovers and finds itself back as a Big Tent party representing a lot of different interests including the hard core conservatives, but not them exclusively.

It'll be interesting to watch it all play out. Personally, I'd be happy for the party to fracture and have the authoritarian social conservatives painted into obscurity and have the Libertarian party become moderate and larger and able to win, maybe pick up some of the ideologically similar Blue Dog Democrats and become a force to be reckoned with.

I'm not sure that'll happen, but we'll see.

Arlen Specter is 79 years old (ie, he could retire if he wanted).

OBVIOUSLY he feels very strongly about this as a person who wants to do good for his country.

OTHERWISE, he would just retire and say, good luck.

I agree with you 100% - the republican party of today is no longer like the party of the 50's or 60's. A large number of fiscal conservatives do not want to listen to the likes of Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Shawn Hannity and the Christian right. They are conservative but they want thoughtful leadership - not anger and ignorance. And they dont want to deny things (like global warming and eveolution) that are right in front of them. But the new reublican party leadership will not be seeded by many from the current republican party. The new party leadership will come from independents, moderate republicans, and moderate democrats. The big loser will be the far right and (oh boy!) Fox News.

There has to be a balance. I notice that no one has noticed that the Democratic Party is governed from the loony left--abortion, tax and spend to excess, and give the ghetto scum anything it wants while bankrupting the working class.

Oh but the "working class" are the ones who left the Republican party in droves and voted for Obama. The "working class" knows that Democrats care far more about them than Republicans do. Republicans are all about making the rich richer.

The once America first Republican party, has become a haven for the extreme factions of religion, corporate control, private interest fringe groups. The only way it can survive is to return to its roots of the Eisenhower and Goldwater philosophy. Non- regulation of the financial sector and corporate control of foreign policy has caused the collapse of the Republican moderates. We are a centrist country, the pendulum always centers itself in the long run.

Dave in MN. Republicans did not start the war, the terrorists did. You are naive to think otherwise.

Obviously you're not familiar with Sen Spector. He has been more of a Democrat than a "Republican" (or what passes for a Republican) for some time now.

The Democratic party will be better off having Arlen Spector in it.

Yes, what Josh said. Spector is one of the very few thinking Republicans left, in my opinion, and a welcome addition to the Democrat party. I can vote for him even on the Republican ticket, but now I can vote for him without feeling conflicted about it.

We definitely <i>do</i> want him.

I agree with Josh. Sen. Specter has long been a moderate who always seemed to weigh each issue with careful and reasoned analysis. He did not tow the party line with the Republicans and I suspect he won't with the Democrats either. I applaud his honest approach to the issues and wish more Senators would follow his example on how to do their jobs effectively. I welcome Sen. Specter as an intelligent man who is being honest with himself and his constituents.

Phil finds himself in a party of do-nothing conservatives that will cost him is seat come 2010. He made the correct choice and will be welcomed into the Democratic party. We need the to 2 senators from Maine to complete the switch over. It shows how much the Republicans hate anyone who votes for the change people want.

mr wise?... I wonder.

I agree with you Mr Wise. I think Sen. Specter will betray Pres. Obama the same way that Judd Gregg did. Gregg volunteered for the position just to get information to take back to the GOPs.

If you nuts keep it up you won't ever win a major election for the foreseeable future. Create a big tent and kick the right wing out of it. Tell Rush and the folks at Fixed news to go to hell. We need a new party with fresh ideas to give the Democrats some competition. The one party system won't work. The rednecks in the south need to realize they are fighting the party that's trying to help them. Is that stupid or what?

Specter is one of a handful of Republicans that I ever voted for because I respected his independent streak. I expect more of the same - he won't turn into Feingold overnight just because he switched parties, but it's a welcome change. And I think it signals even deeper trouble for the Republican Party, which is in danger of being marginalized into obscurity, unless they can reverse direction and become more inclusive.

Spectror is about 30 points behind in the polls in Pa. He's trying to cash in on Obumma's celebrety and the ghetto vote. For a long time he's voted with the scummocrats--so why not be one?

no, he's always been an independent thinker. you used to have MORE moderately thinking senators before you let the crazy right fringe take over your party. you deserve to be marginalized and obscure. your party doesn't care about anyone, even the poor trailer folk that support it due to your white noise issues (guns, gays, god, babies) while they rob the country blind to line their own coffers. you're just another 'republican' who doesn't understand anything about policy, voting against your own interests. enjoy.

Very well said!

You annoy me. Conservatives are for smaller government which is what our country was founded on. Thomas Jefferson is rolling in his grave with what the current bunch of loosers are doing to this Country!

I think your "conservatives" just spent the last eight years overseeing the largest expansion of the federal government since FDR. Jefferson started rolling in his grave when W first started hallucinating about a Dept of Homeland Security.

LOL, you may think you know the leaders of the party, but you can't name them... Do you think that you would like living in the USSR? do you like the direction the dems are taking us, Nationalized banks, Healthcare, Kids force into service, Nationalized automakers.... Just like East Germany and USSR....

Keep your head in the sand, but this is the direction the country is heading quickly under Obama, Reid, and Polowsy. You want to depend on the government to live? Good for you....

Just remember when one promises to rob peter to pay paul, one will have paul's support!

Do you work for the government? Do you work for a homeless person? Do you work for someone who's rich? Do you work for your family?

You must be poor, or homeless since you support robbing the rich to pay the poor.... You must think that the poor homeless people deserve to have the same things you have... Why don't you take one in to live with you and support them?

You think you deserve more, why not start your own business so you can get more if that is what you want?

You're just looking for handouts, you dem lovers think you deserve more just because.... no reason, just because... it's ok to take form someone else and give it to me....

Dem supporter, you are all just a bunch of lazy people who think the rich Dems in government are going to take care of you... LOL

Ask yourself this, after the dems tax the rich into poor people, who will anyone go to work for???

why go to work if there's never a chance to get ahead? why work harder if every extra penny i make has to go to the government to pay for those who are satisfied being poor taking the handouts from the government...

Wake up people, follow the money... the dems want to nationalize the banks now... duh, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac.... they showed us how good they are at running banks and regulating them haven't they... now we are suppose to trust them in running all the banks and regulating them as well..... Duh.... wake up.... people... time to see what's really going on....

Paul, go take your medicine and enjoy FOX news.

Do you work for a homeless person?

that has to be the most senseless thing i have ever seen on the 'vine since the election...

and that says a lot!

teabag, we're not bailing out, were taking over. You repugnats had your shot, destroyed our great country, and have been thoroughly and completely rejected.

Um... Last time I checked, the Dems took control of Congress half way into Bush's last term. That's when things started getting destroyed!

Boy, "palinthejoke" for a liberal, you sure don't have much respect for a strong minded, independent woman in office, do you?

Thank you. We'll take him. You keep Rush, Dick, Georgie and Rummy.

Let me know how you feel when your $13 per paycheck evaporates at the end of the year. When our taxes go through the roof because of all of the spending by this president, you can pay my increase too.

All of you will be begging for conservative fiscal discipline when all of this spending comes home to roost.

JIM ---- get this straight! GW Bush was our "President" during the worst fiscal crisis in almost a century! President means VETO and un-matched power and influence!Accountability. I know Dems share some here, including Clinton, but all of this happened under YOUR WATCH. You people make me and any honest person sick and you are not a man because you will not take take responsibility for what you created.

Can you say "irrelevance?" That's what your party is coming to symbolize ... enjoy it - we are ...

and have been thoroughly and completely rejected.

Don't pay attention to these bitter Republicans. The GOP has become the G-"No"-P. They have nothing left to run on but the politics of fear and hate.

The "Tea Party" this poster named himself after was nothing more than a bunch of children throwing a tantrum because they feel they shouldn't have to pay taxes like everyone else.

There are many strong minded, independent women in office but people don't have to support someone just because she's a woman. Even John McCain does not endorse her now when asked who he thinks would be a good republican candidate for 2012.

Obviously you don't get the point! You think the president is absolutely in control of everything? You think he has ultimate power? If that's what you think, you fit right in with Obamanism and soon he will have the ultimate power that you seek to give him. When the rest of the world calls us on our $10 Trillion debt orchestrated by the democraptic party, you can bet he will gladly show us a way out. It's called a Socialist Dictatorship! All Hail Obama!!! Moron!!!

Boy, "palinthejoke" for a liberal, you sure don't have much respect for a strong minded, independent woman in office, do you?

You kidding me? Strong-minded? She's an idiot! Even to set her political views aside, she's just not intelligent in general! Women certainly have a place in all public offices, Sarah Palin probably should not have qualified to attend college. Perhaps we should have some kind of standardized testing for public officials. It's really not in our best interest to be led by anyone with below average intelligence, democrat or republican.

Yes, tea party...conservatives are definitely far better off without the other 79% of the nation. Bitter grapes will kill the party yet. It's inevitable, it seems.

Bailing out??? Are you kidding me??? Of course he's bailing, just like all smart people should do with the extremist, hate & fear mongering GOP. Sean Hanity and Rush can just keep the jawing and leave the rest of us to depart the GOP and get on with restoring some sense of fiscal and social responsibility in this country. YOU had your chance and YOU blew it with extraordinary incompetence.

And your fearless leader is blowing up the deficit!!!

And we will take any more senators that will fight for the change people want. You've made my day. Why don't you toss out the two senators from Maine if you hate polititions who will vote for change.

JIM=695285 your tired arguing points are without any substance. I don't know of anyone who is "happy" about having to spend the hundreds of billions of dollars that have recently been spent, but in light of the current economic meltdown in this country there was little choice to make. It does appear that certain ideas (like bailing out the car makers) was a knee jerk and misplaced since it appears they (GM) is going into bankruptcy anyway. So, on some of the finer details there may be room to debate. But to complain about the cost of a tow truck after the truck has been run into the ditch is futile. I would like to know just how much blame you do ascribe to President Bush and the Republicans for the current wreck the economy is in. The misguided war in Iraq that has cost over $1 trillion and growing certainly hasn't reduced the deficit or has contributed to the cause of good conservative financial policy.

You mean a war that was voted for nearly unanimously by both parties until it got a little bit ugly. As I recall, Reps and Dems were murdered on Sep. 11, 2001. Bush made no bones about going to get those responsible and we all supported him. Most of the bad guys were in Afghanistan some were in Iraq. Al-Quaida network is very large. It just so happens we had an old score to settle with Hussein and he was supporting Al-Quaida, too. Two birds with one stone. And you can't tell me there were absolutely no WMD in Iraq. Hussein just had the sense to move them over to his brother in Jordan.

Anyway, war is historically good for the economy. It generates jobs. The fact is this one was too until the newly elected Democratic Congress screwed it up by creating distrust with the American Public by convincing everyone that we needed to worry about ourselves instead of going off to fight someone else's war. Guess what, this is our war!

jim 695285 - no, it is you who does not get the point, and you have no room to call another poster a moron. you are the one, sir, who does not get it. the gop has turned into a bunch of hate mongering baboons who are being led by the likes of a skirt chasing alcoholic who shirked his military responsiblilty, a drug addicted radio talk show host and a tv talking head. how embarrassing for you. and how sad that you cannot see what is so crystal clear.

Ken G! Love it! I couldn't agree more. Fools, that's all they are is fools and they see!

Yea, Like you have any ideals or solutions to help this country get out of the Bush mess. Crawl back under the rock you came out of and let up fix the country.

Palin hater you should listen to Jim... Dems have had control over congress for over the past 2 years, and now with obama and his Chicago thug cabinet we will all go into socialism... your party is killing this nation!

Funny how Repugs are still fighting the fight that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. I'll ask you the same thing Al Sharpton (who I don't like) said is what he'd ask Pres. Bush during the 2004 debate for democrats, "where's osama?". That is why Bush was a failure. Besides the shredding of the constitution.

And anyone who thinks this financial meltdown's causes started within the past 2 years, I have some land to sell you in Florida, cheap...

Palin is strong minded? Yeah, like a donkey is strong minded.

There's a huge difference between ego and intelligence. Often, too much of the former precludes any of the latter.

jeesh, what a bunch of war-mongering cry babies...

if ya'll keep this up it'll just be a high school gym somewhere in texas that you'll hold the republican't convention to nominate the bachmann/palin ticket for 2012...

JIM-695285 you really need to unplug out of the Fox News Network and come back to earth for a reality check. There wasn't one thing you mentioned in your last post that was even remotely factual. If you can't even get your facts straight on things that actually happened, what makes you think anyone is going to listen to you when you rant on about things that are yet to happen and take it seriously? Hey, you can believe what you want but the only one you are fooling is yourself.

Everything I said was factual! Point out one thing that isn't. I dare you!

And before you go spouting off about what kind of man I am like the other clueless ones, remember, it's people like me who fight for your freedom to voice such useless nonsense.

You mean a war that was voted for nearly unanimously by both parties until it got a little bit ugly.

A war that was pitched and sold to the American people and to the Congress based on faulty information and in some cases information that had already been proven to be erroneous and in some cases exaggerated.

Bush made no bones about going to get those responsible and we all supported him. Most of the bad guys were in Afghanistan some were in Iraq. Al-Quaida network is very large. It just so happens we had an old score to settle with Hussein and he was supporting Al-Quaida, too. Two birds with one stone.

False. Al Qaeda had no dealings or associations with Saddam Hussien. This is a well known fact that has been substantiated by several sources for years now. In fact, Saddam and Al Qaeda were known enemies and hated each other. Saddam was a secularist and Al Qaeda were fundamentalist extremists - the two do not mix well together. The only thing they shared in common was a hatred for the US. The Al Qaeda network did not even exist in Iraq until after the US invaded and created a power vacuum in the region enticing extremists to expand their campaign into Iraq to fight the US. These facts are well documented.

And you can't tell me there were absolutely no WMD in Iraq. Hussein just had the sense to move them over to his brother in Jordan.

This is pure speculation on your part - there is absolutely no proof whatsoever that that ever happened. Had the Bush administration paid closer attention to the UN weapons inspectors on the ground and listened to their information like they should have, this whole war could've easily been avoided. Al Qaeda was not involved so there is no link to 9/11 and there were no WMDs - so why did we attack them? Many theories exist, but the most probable one is that they were an easy target and the US was hungry for revenge.

Anyway, war is historically good for the economy. It generates jobs. The fact is this one was too until the newly elected Democratic Congress screwed it up by creating distrust with the American Public by convincing everyone that we needed to worry about ourselves instead of going off to fight someone else's war. Guess what, this is our war!

I will agree that wars do generally create jobs because of the increased government spending that is required to operate a war. Historically, wars have also required huge tax increases to fund those wars because of the increased government spending. That is just sound, logical fiscal reasoning. But guess what? Bush and company had a war and CUT taxes - probably the most fiscally irresponsible and stupid thing anyone could do. He put policy and politics above reason, logic and principle. The results were disastrous. To blame the failure of the war on the Democratic Congress who finally got a toe hold in late 2006 is completely without merit. Up to that point the COngress was controlled by the Republicans who only served as a rubber stamp to whatever Bush wanted. He abused the executive powers and minimized the legislative branch of government and they didn't even question it. They just went along with it - again party over principle.

It is never my intent to insult or demean anyone and I trust I have not done that too you. If you serve the country and fight for our freedoms then you have my deepest respect. Understand that this discussion is only an honest debate of the issues and the opinions expressed. Opinions should be based on facts and evidence and not just on whatever you want to believe or what you find convenient. Unfortunately we live in a world of wide spread misinformation and disinformation being spread out as facts and one must be very careful to sort through the information and look for corroborated evidence as to what are the facts. Clinging to ideas that have soundly been refuted by evidence should not be a position anyone would choose to embrace.

Watch that..... dems voted for the war also...including Kerry, Clinton, Baucus, Bayh, Biden, Breaux, Cantwell, Carnahan, Carper, Cleland, Daschle, Dodd, Dorgan, Edwards, Feinstein, Harkin, Hollings, Johnson, Kohl, Landrieu, Lieberman, Lincoln, Miller, Nelson in FL, Nelson in NE, Reid, Rockefeller, Schumer, Torricelli. These are the democrat senators who voted yes for iraq war. You only hear what you want to believe.

Tea Party - no one, certainly not me, is arguing that Democrats didn't vote for the Iraq war. That's a matter of public record. The point that you miss, however, is the reasons why they voted for the war. The reasons were based on erroneous information and exaggerations provided to the Congress from both the CIA and the Bush administration. The Congress does not have access to the same national security information that the executive branch is privy to. The Congress relies on the President and his administration to provide them with information. It is a moot point to argue that the information presented as justifications for going into Iraq were anything less than erroneous - even President Bush finally admitted to this fact. Now the question is, do you believe that or do you still believe there were WMDs and that we were justified going into Iraq? If you do, then perhaps you are the one who is choosing what to believe over evidence.

Pre-War Quotes from Democrats

"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line."
President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998.

"Together we must also confront the new hazards of chemical and biological weapons, and the outlaw states, terrorists and organized criminals seeking to acquire them. Saddam Hussein has spent the better part of this decade, and much of his nation's wealth, not on providing for the Iraqi people, but on developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them."
President Clinton, Jan. 27, 1998.

"Fateful decisions will be made in the days and weeks ahead. At issue is nothing less than the fundamental question of whether or not we can keep the most lethal weapons known to mankind out of the hands of an unreconstructed tyrant and aggressor who is in the same league as the most brutal dictators of this century."
Sen. Joe Biden (D, DE), Feb. 12, 1998

"It is essential that a dictator like Saddam not be allowed to evade international strictures and wield frightening weapons of mass destruction. As long as UNSCOM is prevented from carrying out its mission, the effort to monitor Iraqi compliance with Resolution 687 becomes a dangerous shell game. Neither the United States nor the global community can afford to allow Saddam Hussein to continue on this path."
Sen. Tom Daschle (D, SD), Feb. 12, 1998

"Iraq is a long way from [here], but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face."
Madeleine Albright, Feb. 18, 1998.

"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983."
Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb. 18, 1998.

"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs."
Letter to President Clinton, signed by Sens. Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, and others Oct. 9, 1998.

"As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I am keenly aware that the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons is an issue of grave importance to all nations. Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process."
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998.

"Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies."
Madeleine Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999.

"This December will mark three years since United Nations inspectors last visited Iraq. There is no doubt that since that time, Saddam Hussein has reinvigorated his weapons programs. Reports indicate that biological, chemical and nuclear programs continue apace and may be back to pre-Gulf War status. In addition, Saddam continues to refine delivery systems and is doubtless using the cover of a licit missile program to develop longer-range missiles that will threaten the United States and our allies."
Letter to President Bush, Signed by Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL) and others, Dec, 5, 2001.

"We begin with the common belief that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a threat to the peace and stability of the region. He has ignored the mandate of the United Nations and is building weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering them."
Sen. Carl Levin (D, MI), Sept. 19, 2002.

"We know that he has stored away secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country."
Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002.

"Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power."
Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002.

"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction."
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002.

"The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October 1998. We are confident that Saddam Hussein retains some stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to build up his chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Intelligence reports indicate that he is seeking nuclear weapons..."
Sen. Robert Byrd (D, WV), Oct. 3, 2002.

"My position is very clear: The time has come for decisive action to eliminate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. I'm a co-sponsor of the bipartisan

"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force — if necessary — to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security."
Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002.

"There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years .... We also should remember we have always underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction."
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D, WV), Oct 10, 2002.

"He has systematically violated, over the course of the past 11 years, every significant UN resolution that has demanded that he disarm and destroy his chemical and biological weapons, and any nuclear capacity. This he has refused to do."
Rep. Henry Waxman (D, CA), Oct. 10, 2002.

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members.... It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct. 10, 2002.

"We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction.
Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL), Dec. 8, 2002.

"Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime .... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction .... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real ...."
Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003.

In the 1970s, Iraq was unsuccessful in negotiations with France to purchase a plutonium production reactor similar to the one used in France's nuclear weapons program. With French assistance, Iraq then built the Osiraq 40 megawatt light-water nuclear reactor near Baghdad. When Israeli intelligence confirmed Iraq's intention to produce weapons at Osiraq, the Israeli government decided to attack. According to some estimates, Iraq in 1981 was still as much as five to ten years away from the ability to build a nuclear weapon. Others estimated, at that time, Iraq might get its first such weapon within a year or two. On June 7, 1981 Iraqi defenses were caught by surprise and the reactor at Osiraq was destroyed.

It is estimated that the Iran/Iraq war cost the two sides a million casualties. Iraq used chemical weapons in that war extensively from 1984. Some twenty thousand Iranians were killed by mustard gas, and the nerve agents tabun and sarin. This marked the first time a country had been named for violating the 1925 Geneva Convention banning the use of chemical weapons.

On March 16, 1988, the Iraqi Air Force appeared over the city of Halabja. At the time, the city was home to roughly eighty thousand Kurds. The attack on Halabja was the most notorious and the single deadliest gas attack against the Kurds killing 5,000 civilians and injuring 10,000 more. But, it was just one of some forty chemical assaults staged by Iraq against the Kurdish people.

On April 3, 1990, four months prior to the invasion of Kuwait, the Los Angeles Times

After invading Kuwait, Iraq attempted to accelerate its program to develop a nuclear weapon by using radioactive fuel from the Osiraq reactor. It made a crash effort in September, 1990 to recover enriched fuel from this supposedly safe-guarded reactor, with the goal of produced a nuclear weapon by April, 1991. The program was only halted after Coalition air raid destroyed key facilities on January 17, 1991.

After the first Gulf War, on April 3, 1991, the U.N. adapted ceasefire resolution

On January 18, 1993 the Seattle Post-intelligencer

On January 21, 1993, the day after President Bill Clinton was inaugurated, the Los Angeles Times

On September 15, 1996 the Washington Post

On March 26, 1997 Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

On November 16, 1997 the Sunday Times

On November 20, 1997 the New York Times

On November 23, 1997 CBS News "60 Minutes" ran an

On December 15, 1997 the Associated Press

On January 28, 1998 the Senate passed Concurrent

On February 10, 1998, Yossef Bodansky, director of the U.S. House of Representatives Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, published a

On February 17, 1998 President Clinton

By late February 1998, U.S. forces in the gulf region had reached more than 40,000 and were reinforced with British and other allied contingents. The U.S. military build-up was due to Iraq's obstruction of U.N. (UNSCOM) weapons inspections. On February 18, 1998 President Bill Clinton said, "If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow." Five days later, however, Kofi Annan struck a deal with the Iraqi dictator that once again allowed U.N. inspectors permission to inspect. As the crisis receded, U.S. forces were drawn back down to their pre-1997 levels. Ten months after Saddam accepted Annan's offer, Saddam kicked U.N. weapons inspectors out of Iraq for good.

On February 26, 1998 CNN reported that Iraq is attempting to develop an unmanned aircraft capable of delivering nerve gas or the biological agent anthrax.

On March 24, 1998 the Daily Mail

On May 1, 1998, President Clinton signed Public Law 105-174, which made $5,000,000 available for assistance to the Iraqi democratic opposition for such activities as organization, training, communication and dissemination of information, developing and implementing agreements among opposition groups, compiling information to support the indictment of Iraqi officials for war crimes, and for related purposes.

On August 3, 1998 the House of Representatives

On August 20, 1998, President Bill Clinton ordered a cruise missile attack against a chemical weapons factory in Sudan. The chemical weapons factory the U.S. hit was funded, in part, by Osama bin Laden who the U.S. believed responsible for the U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. Thomas Pickering, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs,

On August 27, 1998 NPR's Mike Shuster reported that US justification for destroying a pharmaceutical factory in the Sudan had shifted from focusing on links to Saudi dissent Osama bin Laden, to alleged Iraqi chemical weapons experts believed to have been working in the Sudan to avoid UN weapons inspections in their homeland. US officials said Iraqi technicians came to the Sudan soon after Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War to continue their work on chemical weapons in Sudanese pharmaceutical plants.

On October 23, 1998 the BBC reported a Chief Petty officer in the Royal Navy was sentenced to 12 months in jail for leaking information to the media about a plot by Saddam Hussein to launch anthrax attacks inside the UK. The deadly toxin was to be smuggled into the UK disguised as harmless liquids. The story appeared in The Sun on March 24, 1998 under the headline 'Saddam's Anthrax in Our Duty Frees.'

The

On November 15, 1998 the New York Times

On December 16, 1998 President Bill Clinton

On December 17, 1998 The Washington Post

In an August 3, 1999

On November 25, 2001 The Washington Post wrote an

On September 12, 2002 George W. Bush gave a

On September 24, 2002, the British government released a

United Nations weapons inspectors returned to Iraq on November 27, 2002 for the first time since December 1998. In February 2003, one month prior to the outbreak of war, 14 shells containing mustard gas were destroyed in Iraq under UN supervision. According to the official United Nations

On March 19, 2003 President George Bush announced, "My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger." Bush said, "We will meet that threat now, with our Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines, so that we do not have to meet it later with armies of fire fighters and police and doctors on the streets of our cities."

During the 9/11 hearings, former Clinton Defense Secretary William Cohen

On May 17, 2004, the U.S. military said a roadside bomb containing sarin nerve agent had recently exploded near a U.S. military convoy. The discovery of nerve gas was followed by a second revelation from the military that another shell, equipped with mustard gas, had been found two weeks earlier.

On January 25, 2006, Former Iraqi General Georges Sada gave an interview to FOXNews regarding Iraq's missing WMDs. Sada, a top military advisor and the number two man in the air force, claims that Iraq's chemical weapons were moved to Syria prior to the war. Georges Sada is the author of the book called, "Saddam's Secrets: How an Iraqi General Defied and Survived Saddam Hussein."

in Iraq. On June 21, 2006, Senator Rick Santorum (R, PA) called press conference and stated, "We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons." Reading from a declassified report Santorum said, "Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq's pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist."

That is because you are a socialist.

Me too and now I will respect him as a Dem. :)

Me, three!

AMS - and the rest of you GOP idiots - look up the term socialist. You people are a joke! We had greater taxation under Nixon and first term Reagan........... the only redistirbuiotn that has taken place in the past 8 years is to the rich. FREAKS!

True, you aren't socialists. You're communists. You know, where the government owns all and allows you to breathe...so long as that's convenient.

Boy you right wingers really are crazy. There's no stopping your nonsense, is there? The minute someone doesn't agree with your ideas they're automatically communists and they hate America. I've never seen anyone cry so much over a 3 percent tax increase only on the income OVER $250,000!!! How can anyone not live comfortably on a salary that high? Quit your whining it's so annoying!!

Dan-299885: True, you aren't socialists. You're communists

Like I said, the GOP is a party of hate & fear, that's all ya got left............Thanks to Bush, this country has become more Socialistic than ever before. Now the GOP wants it's minions to believe the Democrats will turn us into Communists. Gosh, maybe you're right, I see evidence all around me of the Federal Government taking over industries, banks and financials institutions........NOT!!! They're continuing to BAIL THEM OUT just like BUSH.

Get a grip, stop the Communist fear-based mantra and get with the program to reverse the GOP sponsored re-distribution of wealth from the lower 98% to the upper 2%.

Go DEMS

Okay, ams and Dan(not-in-Rochester)...I'm a socialist. And a communist. A leftist peacenik. Anti-American and dull-witted. Head-up-my-butt, acting like a sheep with no ambition or education. Taking free handouts everywhere I go. Fine. I get it. Whatever. Things have changed for the better, and nothing you can say will make that any different. You're in a minority, your party-of-choice is impotent and dying, and it continues to reject the only hope it will ever have for survival: rising above the bitter and petty partisanship of which you yourself can't let go. Keep on keeping on. The rest of us will do the same. And more like Spector will distance themselves from you.

Getthepoint, you're either a liar or you're frankly not intelligent enough to warrant access to a keyboard. Our new "Chairman" has tripled the deficit, and created more debt than any president in history - all under the false guise of "Economic Crisis" but really to advance his incredibly socialistic programs. He - and you - are a farce.

Now many more will respect him.

Well then baby boy (Dan-299885), take a hike and leave America for us Americans. And when things turn the corner and we Americans are again enjoying the good life as a strong democratic country, do us a favor and don't come back.

Slowclimber, you truly are slow. I love how Reps are now crying foul about spending and a deficit, when "W" was the one who got us into the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan. We are spending BILLIONS a day in both countries, but it was OK when baby Bush decided it didn't need to be part of the budget. Now that we have some fiscal responsibility in the White House you're pointing fingers and yelling Socialist or Communist (which you obviously lack a correct definition of). "Under the guise of an Economic Crisis??!!" What rock have you been living under? I hope you're really not this stupid, and you're just trying to get a rise out of someone.

The National Socialist party is the Nazi party. Nazi's hated everyone except the Aryan race so your logic makes no sense. You hate that a black/white man has managed to get this country to wake up and realize we have beed getting screwed for decades. You will never get us to go back to the hateful evils of the past. Down with the rednecks and the Klan.

Who let McCarthy into this discussion forum? Is the red scare really back? What a joke.

The sad thing is that I agree with your comment about the Republicans in Congress being self righteous and do nothings. If they were true Conservatives and not concerned so much about their power, they would stand on principles of a limited federal government that is constrained by the Constitution, and is concerned with upholding our right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness!

And the poor white guy in the South still votes Republican while the Party is run by the Rich White guy. The poor Southerner is hurt worse by Republican 'Ideals' than any other group in the Country.

SOOOO true!! Republicans are the party of the Rich and Selfish. Not to mention rednecks and extreme religious right. What a mix.

That is the sad but true irony. The people who have the least in common with the Repug Party elite are the only ones voting for them! You can't make this stuff up! Its just plain old nuts!

Do you really think that as a Conservative, I would have more in common with liberals like Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi? The issue with the Republicans are that they try to please by passing things like medicare prescription drugs and no child left behind in contrast with true Conservative principles..... my view are much closer to them than those on the left who view the public as ignorant and think the government should control the country. The Democrats who vote are the ones who are nuts to think your leader care one minute about your right or your well being!

Rich and selfish? With the Dems having more millionaires among their party, that's a rather ignorant comment. No matter, Specter is a coward and a feeble old man. You can have him.

Let's see - Michelle Obama gets paid $317K/year for a part time job at an institution that her husband as a Senator also earmarks for $1M in funding. They jointly made in excess of $2M last year. But it's REPUBLICANS who are the party of the rich?

What an a$$.

That shows you rich democrats aren't the whiners that republicans are. You should joing the American socialist party AKA the Nazi party.

Once again Slowclimber, you know not of what you speak. Did you actually look at the Obama tax return, or are you just quoting something you read on Fox News? If you read the tax return, you would have found out that 75% of their income came from Obama's book deal.

MikeM you do not know of what you speak. Income is income no matter how it is earned and if you do not believe me, why don't you read up on Al Capone?

OMG - where do you all get your facts?

-The republicans have become nothing more than the political party of the Rich and selfish.

Look it up - who comprises the top 2% of the wealthy and elite in this country? It's the liberal dems! Those that also own ALL of the media sources (to include Hollyweird) in this country - that continue to brainwash you. With the exception of the few conservative outlets that, funny, they want to overthrow with their Fairness doctrine. What a bunch of crap! You'll let them take our free speech and everything this country was founded on and everything else you've worked so hard for.

No you got it bass akwards, it was Bush who shreaded the Contitiution and spyed on all Americans without any judicial involvement. Get your head out of your arse and see the truth for a change. You nut cases can call Democrats all the evil names you want (Socialists, Fascists, Marxists but it's not working) Maybe you should go back to the N word. I know you use that one in private so be honest and use it in public and see what it does for you.

Mr. Lopez, stupid comment, the only one's who use the "N" word are the "N"s themselves and that's deemed by them to be okay!

Here's a related part of history that I just don't understand...Maybe one of you wise a$$e$ can explain. Conservatives/Republicans freed the slaves. - Abraham Lincoln - the FIRST REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT, FREED THE SLAVES, yet somehow, at some point in history, the freed slaves decided that those who wanted to keep them in bondage - the LIBS of the south - were their friends and saviors and those that freed them were evil. BO was sworn in on the LINCOLN BIBLE - a REPUBLICANS Bible! OMG! So explain it to me from your "N" word point of view....did you decide it was better to be whipped and raped by your owners as long as you were fed from the leftovers of their tables - if that? Is that what you're hoping for, a little bit of the "LEFT" over wealth of the 2% of the rich class - THE DEMOCRATS - to trickle your way without having to work for it?

Someone please tell me when this got twisted around and the devil themselves became the blacks best friends???

So, clickit, why would you object if they vote to increase taxes on themselves, and give the remaining 95% a tax cut? Also, have you taken stock of the damage the Republicans did to our Constitution and ideals?

Give me your stock. Please.

And please explain your numbers/percentage on tax cuts - and that 95% of working class is what percentage of population??

Good job clickit! Corner them with the facts and they cower down into sniveling little babies.

Actually, Mike, you're showing YOUR ignorance. If YOU had bothered to look at the results of their tax filings, you'll see that the book dealings were more than $2M - not just $317K.

More BS rhetoric based on flawed data from a unethical liberal I guess.

LOL Pat Toomey is going nowhere in eastern PA, he's dead in the water as a Senate candidate for Pennsylvania. Sorry :)

Pat Toomey is going nowhere in western PA either. Many of the same people who voted for Sen. Specter in his last election voted for President Obama in the last election. They'll now work to defeat Toomey or any other right wing extremist that the Republicans put up.

Toomey will crush Spector. Spector is too OLD just like many of those Senators. You don't think well at 80 yrs old. BTW Look at Byrd..

"I hope Toomey crushes him." Good luck with that one. Pennsylvania has *several hundred thousand* former Republicans who have abandoned the (sinking) Republican ship; meanwhile, Democratic numbers have grown in PA similarly. The state is trending Democratic, and Toomey is a hard-right Republican. Couple this with a party responsible in its presidential and congressional wings for torture, abusive interrogations, faith-based unnecessary war in Iraq, faith-based politicization of the Justice Department, faith-based government dictation of private medical decisions (Terri Schiavo case), faith-based tax cuts for the rich (always and forevermore), and nominating the least qualified and most obnoxiously anti-intellectual VP candidate in history in Sarah Palin. Spector may face some Democratic primary opposition, but I'm confident he'll prevail in the primary, and he will CRUSH Toomey in the general election. As a Democrat, he will remain a moderate voice, and I think he will be every bit as welcomed in the Democratic Party as he is now scorned in a Republican Party whose de facto leaders are Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney and a cabal of right-wing Southern governors (Perry, Jindal, Perdue, Sanford) who think it the epitome of public-policy virtuosity to refuse federal stimulus funds in states hammered by unemployment and foreclosures. Watching the Republicans crack up in the Obama era: PRICELESS!!!

Obviously, you haven't been looking at how Pennsylvania's voting patterns have been trending. Obama's campaign went into the state and registered 100's of thousands of new voters, and many moderate Republicans have switched political affiliations.

Also, Rep. Toomey is considered too far to the right for statewide election. This election will see Specter getting between 60-70% of the vote.

In your dreams.

Spector is a good man who is fed up with the party of no. It's time for the people in Wasington to switch the Democrats and vote for change. Who wants to be the party of Hoover?

I agree he's a good man and he always was. I hope he does support the Dems on card check after all, but either way he is one of the few elected officials that actually votes in the best interest of his constituents and not in lockstep with his party, whoever that may be.

You converted because you do not pay taxes. Specter is converting because he did not want to loose his seat. He sold out.

So you're just another one I should thank for destroying our beautiful and once prosperous Michigan. You must think Granholm has done wonderful things for us or be Time Magazines 3rd worst Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick's "stand-by-her-criminal-man" wife. It's sick that I just leaned that BO just took control of over 50% of GM with the government putting in less than half of current bond holders. How does that work?!?! Must be a new US Socialist math. Funny, I thought he already took control when he had the audacity to fire it's CEO. The country is doomed under the stench of BO. Specter matters not.

You hit it right on the head Wildondeferful, he knows he can't win in the primary, so he jumped ship like those he will be in bed with, the GOP is better off without him.

The sad thing is you do not realize that there is not such thing as a Moderate Republican. If you are guided by principles, not feelings, you cannot be moderate in your views. You can be tolerant, sympathetic, empathetic, and general concerned for those who do not hold your principles, but principles do not waver with public opinion or evolve in a progressive way. You were always a liberal, you had just not embraced the right group of people, because the democratic party does not stand for any one thing but only consist of groups of issue oriented people with little or no principles.

Yea, and look how much better Michigan is doing now. Shades of things to come? I hope not.

The wingnuts who hijacked the party claiming that REAL republicans were never republicans is hilarious ... your daddies were chased from the DNC, for being backwards and racist, and now the party you invaded is leaving you alone to wallow in your muck ... enjoy being a party made up of less than 30% of Americans ...

I couldn't agree more. The people will never give power to a Republican who wants to sink our economy into a deep depression. If they can get away from the Republicans America will be just fine. Thank you Republicans for driving out the moderates! Two more to go now.

Conservatives convert because they don't want to pay taxes. They only want to tax the middls class in order to eliminate them. The rich and big corporations don't want to pay taxes. The truth is hard to take sometimes. It's sad you hate the 95% of us who working hard but can't get ahead like the rich. Well, thats going to change because the common sense people finally woke up and see what the GOP was doing to us. I can't wait for Al Fraken to make the 60th senate vote to stop the Republican agenda. We could get both senators from Main as well. They know they won't survive if they stay with the party of no.

cm

You think there are no antics to the following

Harry Reid

Nancy Pelosi

Chris Dodd

Barney Frank

Ted Kennedy

Al Sharpton

Charles Rangel

Diane Feinstein

Jesse Jackson

Ted Kennedy

We could go on and on for the rest of the day

There is no difference in a Democrat and a Communist

For every one you name there's a Newt, Larry, and Tom. You can HAVE your Grumpy Old Poops!

When I was in highschool, we all had to take a class called Americanism vs. Communism to compare the two systems. Obviously you either flunked that class (if you are old enough to have had to take it) or too young to know better and probably took Physical Education or shop instead of any type of history classes that required you to compare the philosopies of Democracy and Communism. If you can't tell the difference, then please move to Russia because we don't need you here. My ancestors didn't fight a revolutionary war to have the country destroyed by republicans like you.

WildWonderful, you are proof positive of the direction the GOP is going in. You seem to be the kind of person that supports and worships the extreme ground it now stands on. Black or white.... liberal or conservative.... with us or against us.... Pro-American or Anti-American.... communist or fascist... all or nothing! Unfortunately there are a lot of shades of grey in American politics and your kind of rhetoric alienates the majority of them.

Actually, he's/she's nothing but a parrot - repeating everything he's/she's heard on Faux News ... I think it's funny when people call others names they cannot define ("Communist," "Socialist"),while supporting a regime that was the closest the world has seen to the Nazi Third Reich since the Fall of Nazi Germany in 1945 ...

There is no difference between a Democrat and a Republican. When has our country EVER been in a good place? Look at the years of jawing back and forth between the Dem and Rep parties, with little work ever getting done on any level, from municipal to the state to the federal. I have never registered for either party, it feels too much like a team mentality (us vs. them), and my views fall equally on both sides. Moderates are NOT "people who can't make up there minds," we are a silent growing group of honest, hard-working Americans who are sick of the way things are and are looking for the candidates who will fix our country, not just join the most popular "teams."

Any good governments will use a good mixture of capitalism, socialism, and ideas that are both "tried-and-true" and "forging a new path." Any singular idea is doomed to fail.

All the name calling from both sides is childish and un-American, and calling someone a name without a smart rebuttal makes you (and your region/political party) look unintelligent and generally ignorant.

If you want to do something for OUR country, quit the pointless posts (they are not as funny/cool as you think), get off your butt, and go volunteer in your community, give your neighbor a helping hand, or give to a wothwhile charity.

Spector is a man from a blue dog state. We welcome him to our party.

What about your John Bonehead and the other minority leader (he can't say anything right so can't remember his name and the lame brains like Bobby Jindal & Sarah Palin?They've all got their head in the sand. They talk about bi-partisonship. They don't even know what it means. Did they try to compromise? No ! All they do is criticize and say no. They don't have a good idea in their heads. I hope all their constituents can see them for what they really are and vote them out of office and get a few good people with brains.

You got that one right. The party of no wants to steal your brain and convince you to vote against yourself. Only a tard would do that. Join the rest of America and take back the middle class for a change. Help us allow working people to be able to unionize.

The problem with the GOP is we have had too many like Specter and McCain who claim to be Conservative, but bail on core Conservative principles too much. When you do not stand firm on your principles, people no longer respect you and that is why he was loosing support. The GOP needs to return to Conservative principles and stop trying to be the party of pleasing. People respect these principles when they recognize their true meaning, but when we try to look like everyone else it ends up being hypocrisy and fake.

I love it when someone who claims to have principles rails about Republican values and principles . After 45 years of being a Goldwater conservative I gave up on 'my party' because we no longer had principles. I worked hard to elect our new president precisely because he has principles and values, knows the Constitution, and is a true American. You can't say that about 90% of the Republican leadership and virtually all of the whacky right wingers who post on Newsvine. Most of them wouldn't recognize an American principle if it jumped up and kicked them in the a$$.

Show me where Obama's stances and actions in the first 100 days line up with the Bill or Rights or the powers designated to Congress & the Executive branch in the articles of the Constitution..... Just because you went to college and studied the Constitution does not mean you believe in it or understand the true power of it. While your at it, tell me what principle or part of the Constitution you stand on that justifies abortion, nationalizing of GM & Chrysler, embryonic stem cell research, etc..... would love to hear that debate...

The problem with the GOP that they are only in it for themselves. They don't care about being conservative they only care about making two classes the RIch and the Poor and then take away more from the poor. Oh no we cannot teach sex ed, we cannot teach you methods of birth control and if you end up pregnant because we made you ignorant from preaching the Lord instead of why you get pregnant don't expect them to help the poor pregnant teen. The party of NO = GOP . NO, NO NO we will not help, we will not be your government, but we will be your Lord.

You have your lord don't you?? Isn't the sitting president the savior as everyone so put it.

Keith, the problem isn't that Specter isn't a conservative. The problem is that the Republicans have moved so far to the right that anyone even an inch to the left of them is considered "liberal."

I used to be a Republican but the GOP no longer has a place for rational, moderate people. Instead, it's been taken over by the lunatic fringe and every redneck in PA will vote for Toomey just because he's a Republican and not because they think he'll benefit the state in any way. The GOP has become the party of "toe the line" and "party above all." I do believe that was one of the themes of the Nazi's, wasn't it Brains and an independent mind such as Specter has are not welcome in the GOP and until they finally get that through their heads and moderate their position they will keep losing voters.

Your state is one of the best in America. We welcome you to our party.

It's better to vote for change than to only offer tax cuts to the rich as the only option for getting us out of the Bush mess.

etownrhoads - I solute your state and I hope the very best you you.

...and your point is? I don't wanna leave my cushy job either.

He was sure to lose his job if he didn't do what the people want. Yes we can!

True... Sen. Specter is not a muskateer (or a mousecateer for that matter) but a politician. Politicians are true to their constituency first and their party affiliation second. The kind of lock step party you talk of is for the dittoheads.... no original thinking, no creativity, no looking to solve problems with new approaches, just the same old musty slogans from 30 years ago. That's no way to run a country, IMH(onest)O.

Arlen Spector is for a woman's right to choose, 3% higher taxes on the top 2 - 5% like it was during the Clinton years when the average familiy's income went up $9000 a year and that same family's income went down $2000 a year under Bush. Obama hasn't taken a gun from anyone but the nuts with machine guns are making it hard to understand why we sell them since they are only used to kill people. We will never lose our hand guns or rifles used to hunt. I have a gun and no one will take it from me. You need a drug test.

you guys continue to just parrot whatever your talking heads tell you to say. its easier, isn't it, than having to actually think.

rush says 'call him a socialist' and >voila< every right wingnut on the net is spouting 'socialist! socialist!' and you don't even know what that means, do you?

specter was a moderate, IS a moderate. it simply shows how far to the right your party of miscreants has moved, and the fact it says it wants to 'rid itself' of moderate voices tells me that we don't have to worry about you crazies for a long time to come.

i just get tired of listening to you spout the same nonsense. and not be able to back it up with a single talking point. not one. just more anger and insanity. its what your party has become, and you are welcome to it.

that must make you a republican sorry i mean an assh.....e too then by your tone.

...silly elementary statement. Get some depth to your thinking and opinions. The same for your 'name'.... why would you choose to disparage Sarah Palin who is an intelligent, patriotic American? And why would you want to represent your Party with such drivel?

His tone shows he cares about our country while the Republicans want us to fail. Rush is all the help we need since he wants this country to go down the tubes.

In ten years, we'll all be forced to change; change into Europeans because they will own us. Thanks to the "open-minded" Democrats who are selling out this country faster than you can say "stimulus package". Do you think the rest of the world is not going to call our $10 Trillion debt at some point in the future? Thanks Dems!!! You wanted change? Get ready.

BTW - My Grandpa used to tell me, "It's okay to be open-minded as long as you are not so open-minded that your brains fall out."

How about the far left of the democrat party? All you people want to complain about the GOP being too conservative and you are so far to the left that you don't even recognize the most left wing president in history is in office right now and that we are quickly becoming a socialist nation.

to

China owns us already, not Europe. at least get your talking points right!

ams-1060909

Where have you been living all your life? When I was in highschool in the late 60's/early 70's we were taught that the United States practiced democractic socialism and the Communists practiced communistic socialism. A big difference being that we get to vote and express our opinions publically as we do in this forum without being disappeared to Siberia or a mental hospital where we would be tortured and drugged into mindlessness.

All countries have some form of socialism. Socialism occurs whenever society at large makes a decision to assist those who are in need for reasons beyond their control.

Guess the Republicans hid that information from you all these years.

And when that "society at large" is called the government that thinks it needs to be in control of everyone's problems and lives, it's called Communism.

Remember when the Republicans took over as the majority in congress, I remember. Everyone said that the Democrates where imploding and were finished. This is a political cycle. what goes up will come down. what goes down will come up. They should give those Senators over 80 a mental ability test if they can keep them awake long enough.

AMS, to back to school and take an economics class. It's clear you have no idea what socialism is and is not. Quit reiterating the GOP's talking points--more fearmongering--and educate yourself.

Jim, seriously and all other ultra-right wing posters who want to yell "Socialist" or "Communist." Please go and do some research, read Marx's "Das Kapital", and get a better grip on these terms before you start slinging them around willy-nilly. It just makes you sound uneducated, which I am sure you are not. But please get your economic terms correct. Thank you.

Republicans want the country to fail so they can be right. To hell with our people as long as they get what they want. I urge all true believers in America to follow suit with Specter.

Why would any one want to be in party with rednecks who are getting tax cuts but are too stupid to see the truth. They are mindless sheep indeed.

Ok Mike. Let's get educated, shall we?

Communism -

1 a: a theory advocating elimination of private property b: a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed2capitalized a: a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics b: a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production c: a final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably d: systems collectively -

Hmmm.... based on revolutionary.... single authoritarain party.... state-owned means of production

Wow! those sound very familiar....

based on revolutionary = America voted for "change"

single authoritarian party = Dems control Presidency and Congress

state-owned means of production = Newly acquired GM corp.

I'm glad you suggested I get more educated. Thanks!

Thanks for the definition Jim, but you are still missing the point.

State owned means of production. Because the Obama Admin stepped in, and forced GM and Chrysler to rework their failed business strategies before they gave them anymore money, is a reason to decide that ALL production is state owned?? Single Authoritarian Party. You forgot the Judicial Branch of the governemnt. They have every right to step in and say that any policy or law that either of the other two branches create is unconstitutional. Based on Revolution. C'mon, really?! Because you're party was voted out, it's now some how a proletarian revolt??

Jim, no offense but I think you're stretching it a bit...don't ya think?

ams-1060909 - If the far left wing was running this country why would any moderate or independent join with us. It is never good to polititiona to be too far left or right. We must govern from the center. By the way, when was the last Republican who added Republicans to his cabinet? Clinton and Obama did it and things went pretty well. You don't see those Republicans leaving his cabinet. You must be a right winger.

ams-1060909 - If the far left wing was running this country why would any moderate, independent, or Republican join with us. It is never good to run the country too far left or right. We must govern from the center. By the way, who was the last Republican who added Democrats to his cabinet? Clinton and Obama put Republicans in their Cabinets and things went pretty well. You don't see those Republicans leaving his cabinet. You must be a right winger.

Not stretching at all. Just looking ahead instead of putting my head in the sand until it's too late. GM is just the first step.

No I didn't forget the Judicial Branch! But when the majority of the Supreme Court Justices are bleeding heart liberals, you don't think they are politically motivated to lean to the side of the Dems?

And as far as revolution, hasn't Obama's entire campaign and administration, thus far, centered on one word "Change"? Change to what? Where do you think revolutions get support from? I'll tell you. One charismatic individual shouting "CHANGE" at the top of his lungs, working the general public into a frenzy so that they follow him wherever he leads them.

You sure hit the nail on the head. Only if the rednecks could wake up and see the truth. You have to be stupid to fight the only party that waqnts to help you.

Good point...and there's more...

Common sense is a key point. Let's examine common sense from a Repug perspective: They claim to for individual rights, don't they? Except when it comes to a women's right to chose of marital rights or the right to end one's own life with dignity. Where's the common sense in that? How can such hypocritical positions be rationalized? Oh, I'm sorry! I forgot...it's that pesky little Bible again!

You can't have common sense when you legislate from the pulpit.

It’s as if two thirds of the country woke up one day with REAL common sense and rejected the philosophy of fear, bigotry, hate and phony religious pandering. I predict by 2012, admitting that you’re a Repug will be equivalent to admitting you’re a Klan member...or worse!

The Klan loves the Republican Party because they believe the same things. You just don't give 95% of the people tax cuts, healthcare, and assistance for getting a college education. Give tax cuts to the wealthy which don't include rednecks. I've heard people in these discussion groups talk about joining the National Socialist Group AKA the Nazi party to stop the rest of us from getting help from our own country. We don't need healthcare, education, tax cuts, any infrastructure improvements, of a 21st century power grid with power from wind or solar. We also don't need fully electric cars. We need to keep borrowing money from the Chinese to purchase Middle Eastern oil.

That's true. I was going to change to Republican in order to vote for Specter. Now I don't have to, and the Repubs won't be able to spin "the massive defections from the Democratic party in Pennsylvania". Which you know they would have, they love to lie and distort the facts.

GOP.... Rip

I have many friends in PA who switched to Democrat or Independent. I think they will be very happy that Specter has joined the Democratic party. We are all sick of the rightwing religious rhetoric. It drove me away.