baklawa
New member
Hey, we gave you guys Joe Lieberman, so you owed us one. Although I definitely think you guys got the raw end of that deal.
WASHINGTON - Veteran Republican Sen. Arlen Specter disclosed plans Tuesday to switch parties, bringing Democrats closer to the 60-vote supermajority they need to push Barack Obama's agenda through the Senate.
"This is a painful decision," said Specter at a Tuesday afternoon news conference. "I know that I'm disappointing a lot of my friends and colleagues...the disappointment runs in both directions."
Specter would give Democrats and their allies at least 59 Senate seats. One vacancy remains from the state of Minnesota, where Democrat Al Franken holds a narrow lead in a race being disputed in courts.
With 60 votes in the 100-seat chamber, Obama's fellow Democrats would have the three-fifths majority necessary to stop Republican filibusters, a stalling tactic used to delay or defeat legislation.
Specter, 79, a veteran of 29 years in the Senate, has found his party dominated by conservatives and himself becoming one of a handful of Republican moderates remaining among the 535 members of Congress.
"I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans," Specter said in a statement posted on a Web site devoted to politics in his home state, Pennsylvania, and confirmed by his office.
"It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable," he added.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30456741/
WASHINGTON - Veteran Republican Sen. Arlen Specter disclosed plans Tuesday to switch parties, bringing Democrats closer to the 60-vote supermajority they need to push Barack Obama's agenda through the Senate.
"This is a painful decision," said Specter at a Tuesday afternoon news conference. "I know that I'm disappointing a lot of my friends and colleagues...the disappointment runs in both directions."
Specter would give Democrats and their allies at least 59 Senate seats. One vacancy remains from the state of Minnesota, where Democrat Al Franken holds a narrow lead in a race being disputed in courts.
With 60 votes in the 100-seat chamber, Obama's fellow Democrats would have the three-fifths majority necessary to stop Republican filibusters, a stalling tactic used to delay or defeat legislation.
Specter, 79, a veteran of 29 years in the Senate, has found his party dominated by conservatives and himself becoming one of a handful of Republican moderates remaining among the 535 members of Congress.
"I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans," Specter said in a statement posted on a Web site devoted to politics in his home state, Pennsylvania, and confirmed by his office.
"It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable," he added.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30456741/
