Obama 'Thrilled' to See Specter Join Dems

(NEWSER) - Arlen Specter is jumping to the Democrats, leaving the party excruciatingly close to a filibuster-proof Senate majority, reports Politico. Sources say VP Joe Biden was key to the effort to recruit the Pennsylvania senator. “Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right,” Specter said in a statement. “I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.” More»

They're as out of touch as Republicans were in Bush years: Brooks

(NEWSER) - The Republican Party turned away from America during its years in power, writes New York Times columnist David Brooks, by paying more attention to echo-chamber media outlets and yes-men pollsters than voters. Now the Democrats are doing the same—instead of Southern conservatives, now it's left-wingers from the coasts who are leading a "liberal suicide march." Nancy Pelosi is even less popular than Dick Cheney, "and yet Democrats have allowed her policy values to carry the day." More»

(NEWSER) - Roland Burris made it official this afternoon: He won't run for a full term next year, the Chicago Tribune reports. “I love serving the people of Illinois,” the current holder of President Obama's old Senate seat said. But “political races have become far too expensive in this country. And in making this decision, I was called to choose between spending my time raising funds or spending my time raising issues for my state.” More»

(NEWSER) - Joe Biden is the Democrat perhaps most responsible for Arlen Specter’s defection, Politico reports. The VP told a crowd yesterday that he had been trying to convince the Pennsylvania Republican “that he is really a Democrat” for more than 20 years. Specter's onetime Senate colleague recently stepped up the pace. “I have been working on that in earnest for the past 4 years and double-time for the past 100 days,” Biden said. More»

Senate ambitions may have played role in governor's courtship

(NEWSER) - Arlen Specter’s party switch was a "seriously Machiavellian" move by Joe Biden and, particularly, Gov. Ed Rendell, writes Eleanor Clift of Newsweek. Biden’s self-interest in the matter is obvious: Specter represents the all-important 60th Senate vote. But the "gregarious, ambitious" Rendell, an even closer friend of Specter’s, is up to something more personal: He's angling for Specter’s seat. More»