What did he expect?

Arlen Specter jumped from the Republican ranks to the Democrat ranks thinking he would keep his committee seniority, supposedly because he had been told so by the Democrats brokering the deal.

Surprise. Life-long Democrats were not happy the new kid on the block was going to take their places and so they complained. As a result, Sen. Specter now finds himself the junior senator from Pennsylvania.

Reportedly, Harry Reid himself promised the seniority ... yet Harry Reid himself read the resolution stripping Specter of that seniority.

Knife in the back....

GOP donors demand money back from Specter

"They gave that money to elect a Republican. They did not give that money to strengthen [Democratic Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid's majority," NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh said. "I expect a lot of people will be looking to have their money returned."

Uh-oh. One thing politicians never like is having to hand back the money ... and it looks as if Republican turncoat Arlen Specter is going to be returning tens of thousands of dollars demanded by angry Republicans after his switch to the Democrat side of the aisle.

How much is he looking at? A quick glance shows:

$5,000 - Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
$5,000 - Lamar Alexander's (R-TN) Tenn PAC
$5,000 - Sen. John Cornyn's (R-TX) Alamo PAC
$5,000 - Sen. Bob Corker's (R-TN) Rock City PAC
$10,000 - Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-K) Bluegrass Committee

One Republican is even demanding that Specter return all campaign donations:

Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Robert A. Gleason Jr. isn't satisfied with Mr. Specter returning campaign contributions on request. He wants the senator to return all of his campaign loot voluntarily.

Mr. Gleason told CNN that the new Democrat should "do the right thing and proactively return any and all campaign contributions he has received in recent months to run as a Republican in the upcoming election."

He also wants Mr. Specter to apologize to the state's Republicans for misleading them.

Mr. Specter, long considered among the more liberal Republicans in Congress, said he switched parities in part to avoid a formidable challenge from staunch fiscal conservative Pat Toomey in the Republican primary for the 2010 election.

Specter surveyed the landscape ... saw he couldn't win ... and he defected.

Loyalty ... betrayal ... turncoat ... there aren't even enough adjectives to describe someone like that.

Benedict Specter ... fair weather friend

He betrayed his principles ... he betrayed his team ... he saw the Democrats had the upper hand and decided to save his hide and join them. Many are now calling him Benedict Specter.

Investors Business Daily called it like they saw it:

No one is falling for Specter's hand-wringing rationale that "since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right." He was just as uncomfortable with Reaganism back then as he is now, all along relishing his role as RINO — Republican In Name Only — whose vote was up for sale.
...
There has never been a more important time to temper the power being wielded in Washington, never a time when putting country before political ambition was so consequential. The system of economic freedom that built and sustains America is at stake, as are the fortunes of our children and grandchildren.

Thanks to Arlen Specter, that destructive power may now be absolute. Reserve a space for a new addition to history's Rogues' Gallery.

No checks-and-balances ... one Party will rule D.C. ... Benedict Specter....

Could this be true?

Human Events is reporting that Arlen Specter is changing parties today. Could this be true? Apparently ... yes.

Andy Card: McClellan's book "tawdry"

Ouch, ouch, and ouch. Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's former fellow employees do not agree with his assessment of the White House in his bash-the-President book ... and they continue to pubicly speak out about it.

Andy Card, former White House Chief of Staff and long-time George W. Bush friend, is the latest to weigh in on the tell-all book. He, like other former staff members such as Karl Rove, is not impressed.

Addressing the issue, Mr. card said:

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for people who are assistants to the president to do that, to write these kind of books.”

Card says, “I’m sad, because it has created a climate that makes it more difficult for a president to get unvarnished counsel if he has to think — or other people on the staff — have to think that what they talk about could show up in a book contemporaneous to their service.”

Card adds, “It’s troubling that a trust was broken. So I view the book as tawdry; the fact of the book is tawdry.”

A trust was broken ... a president cannot discuss issues internally with his trusted advisors without having one break away and, for profit, betray the very people who relied on him.

This continues to be a sad episode....

Previous posts on this subject:
- Scott McClellan: Former "team player" throws the team under the bus
- Bob Dole blasts turncoat McClellan
- Scott McClellan's 15 minutes of fame have slipped away

So this is what RINOs mean by the big tent?

I think I finally get the big tent theory as proposed by John Warner and other moderate Republicans: Endorse Democrats so you can be "bipartisan." Why have two separate political parties when we can all be one big happy family?

In today's Washington Post Vince Callahan, former Jim Gilmore ally, said he was going to announce his endorsement of U.S. Senate Democrat candidate Mark Warner because, " 'The figures Gilmore used [for the car tax reduction] were so utterly erroneous and far-fetched that they were mind-boggling,' said Callahan, who helped Gilmore push his car tax proposal through the House of Delegates in the late 1990s."

So let me be sure I've got this right. Callahan objects to Governor Gilmore's efforts to reduce the tax burden on Virginia's citizens ... so he's lining up against him with Mark Warner who imposed the largest tax increase ever in Virginia's history.

I get it. That must be the "big tent" theory.

The Post added:

Warner, who succeeded Gilmore as governor, said Callahan's endorsement "reflects the kind of bipartisan approach we brought to Richmond and hopefully we can bring to Washington."

"Bipartisan" must be another word for "sell-out." Keep in mind Callahan joins John Chichester, one of the Gang of Five -- that group of Republican state senators who voted against other Republicans and with the Democrats throughout the years -- that group of Republican state senators who were in charge of a Republican state senate but did not lead as if they were the majority -- in endorsing Warner.

With Republicans like that ... who needs Democrats?

Cross-posted at Bloggers 4 Jim Gilmore