Ok this Senator from PA has been a Republican for 35 years. Has been very active in the Republican arena. Now he learns that his party wont support him running in 2010, so he jumps ship, and has decided to declare himself a Democrat.

I personally wouldnt vote for a man that jumps ship after 35 years only to further himself. He has been quite vocal on many issues, and has never been one to follow strictly to party lines, and has been out spoken on tons of issues. He has been pretty well respected, and gotten many hard jobs done. Now he is bad mouthing the GOP and talking smack about many that got him, and kept him where he is.

I dont get it. Can someone explain this to me?

1) He's a politician (not to be confused with homo sapien— Latin: "wise human" or "knowing human").

2) Everything/one has its/his price.

3) He's at that age where he wants to be taken care of.

4) He's a turncoat, plain and simple.

5) Since when do career politicians make sense?

He's a putz. I hope that the democrats that he jumped ship for dont vote for him in the next election. Since if he can turn his back on the republicans like he did, he could do it again against the democrats if it suits his needs. Kind of sounds like he studied at the Machiavelli School of Politics. (that's not a real school...Machiavelli is the guy who said "the end justifies the means".)

Nebraska had a republican senator who voted pretty much demorepublicrat. (Chuck Hagel) I think he retired from politics so he didnt bother jumping ship.

I dont trust any politician from any party that can just switch party affiliations like that.

cindy and you just about said it all. he's playing both sides of the aisle because the climate has changed and he won't keep his job unless he changes to a dem.

gotta keep that big taxpayer pension ya know.

He was a Democrat before he was a Republican and now he's a Dem again.

True~

As a democrat, I'm glad that there might be another one in congress. But as a person, this is disgusting. He figured he couldn't win the primary as an R, so he switched (again). It really makes me sick.

I guess I believe so much in my ideals that I can't imagine someone who can turns theirs on and off like a light switch. I mean, I can change my mind, but I don't think my basic beliefs could ever change that much!!

I'm very relieved that I don't have to decide on whether or not to vote for him.

I will try to not be too political here:

Since being in the Senate, Arlen Spector has been a moderate Republican and has often worked with senators from the Democrat party. Now he, along with a few other Republican senators, are being ostracized by the Republican party. There does not appear to be room in the Republican nationalparty for moderate Republicans at this time. The battle for the "soul" of the Republican party appears to have been lost by the moderates.

I have always admired Arlen Spector for his commitment to the issues that he feels are important regardless of his party stand. He has not changed his position on issues! It is true he could not be nominated by his party. Conservative and Evangelical PAC's have been targeting him with millions of dollars in ads since his last reelection in 2004. I would rather he had just stated he was switching parties because the Republican Party he identified with no longer exists. But he really does not want to lose his seat in the Senate!