Arlen Specter, who has held his seat as Republican Senator from the state of Pennsylvania since 1980, decided to switch his allegiance to the Democratic Party the other day (despite giving assurances to the contrary in the very recent past).  Per the man himself, the rationale largely revolved around the lurching to the right of the Republican Party, something which left him conflicted on principle.  On its face, this would seem a laudable move.  I’m all for standing up for what you believe in.  However, what appeared obvious to many was what he cited as a secondary, perhaps even tertiary, motivation – that being his dwindling prospects to (yet again) win re-election in the 2010 Senate race.  Considered a moderate of sorts (though the only consistently liberal position I can identify is his stance on abortion, which itself is hedged with the “I’m personally against it but I support a woman’s right to choose” disclaimer), Specter had apparently alienated his Republican base back home by supporting Obama’s stimulus plan.  While I give him props for sticking to his guns and going against the conservative grain by supporting the bill, I can’t help but cry bullshit with this latest maneuver.

Winston Churchill once said that “some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party“.  Replacing “party” at the end of that quote with “own ass” would perfectly capture the spirit of Specter’s machinations.  Clearly, the dude read the tea leaves and decided the best move for him politically would be to jump ship, with assurances of support from Obama and Biden securely in hand.  This provides yet another example of how politicians are in the game for one reason and one reason only – to look out for number one.  Forget the legions of Republican supporters back home whose steadfast support left him in his seat for the past three decades.  More important in Specter’s mind is his desire to get re-elected, loyalty be damned.  And he proved just that.  This has nothing to do with principles and everything to do with political opportunism.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who himself was being recruited to run against a Republican Specter in 2010, summed the situation up best when he made an appearance on Countdown yesterday.  The 5:25 mark onward is truly rich.

In any event, this can’t be a good sign for the Republican Party.  Assuming Specter plays ball and votes the way his new party wants him to – and assuming they do a good job of holding their party together – the Dems would have a filibuster-proof 60-40 majority in the Senate.  That would leave the liberals squarely in control of policy for a solid 1.5 years (until the next round of elections), during which time plenty of damage could be done.

I’m thinking that with all this lurching to the extremes on both sides, there has got to be a wide swath of people down the middle who find themselves alienated by such posturing and thus ripe for the picking.  In my view, now would appear as good a time as any for a third party to split the difference.

I’ve been meaning to blog about the comical Roland Burris for a time now, something of which I was reminded when I came across an interesting article on the man himself in The New Yorker.  A couple of things amazed me about the Burris story, each of which combined to form what is, in my view, the perfect portrayal of what makes a successful Washingtonian power broker.  Watching the Burris story unfold was truly a study in the conniving narcissism required of virtually all political elitists.  Here’s a guy who’s been dead set on attaining power for pretty much his entire career, power gained for power’s sake and, more importantly, for the aesthetics of the titles themselves.  In addition to being motivated by blind ambition, I’ve come to appreciate that equally important attributes for politicians include also an undying love of one’s self (i.e. an ego of gargantuan proportion) and an uncanny ability to genuinely believe the endless amounts of bullshit one spews on a daily basis.  Now that I think about it, the latter attribute may very well be a direct function of the former.  Whatever the case, it takes a special kind of talent to lie on command in so consistent a fashion, all while maintaining a straight face and never for a moment betraying an ounce of reservation.

You see, Burris sacrificed his credibility and honor by taking the senatorial post that Blago offered him, a post clearly tainted by the ex-governor’s corruption investigation and thusly considered highly toxic by those possessed with reasonable fortitude.  Indeed, people worthier than Burris actually turned down the position when they were offered before him, choosing to avoid the black cloud associated with the clearly insane and corrupt Blago.  This was, of course, not only the right thing to do but also the savviest, for anyone who actually accepted the title would undoubtedly serve only as a placeholder until a real election was held for the seat a couple years later.  In the meantime, that person wouldn’t be afforded even the slightest respect by his senatorial colleagues and thus would be nothing more than a muted voice for Illinois on Capitol Hill.  But Burris, eager to capitalize on what was very likely his best (and only) option for ever being appointed to the U.S. Senate, jumped at the chance.  In doing so, he threw integrity to the wind and sold his soul for political gain, raking his heretofore good name through the mud in the process.

It was quite fun watching Burris impotently claim that his appointment was legitimate in front of a press horde clearly enamored with the idea of seeing political ambition on such blatant display.  They were on the case like flies on shit, and we the observant public couldn’t get enough of the ludicrousness of it all.  And the gift keeps on giving as, since his appointment, it’s been brought to our attention that his selection wasn’t necessarily devoid of the hijinks that ultimately got Blago booted from office (shocking!).  Of course, Burris denied any wrongdoing (in hilariously tautological fashion) even as he tied himself in logical knots.  It was really quite the sight.

The most glorious part of all this is the wonderful revelation that Burris has erected a monument to himself in a Chicago-area cemetery.  The comedic beauty of this was captured in a New Yorker blog post entitled, “Memorials for Myself: Roland Burris Edition“, which explained:

What kind of man engraves his own memorial while still alive? The kind of man, perhaps, who shows up on his first day at work knowing full well that none of his colleagues want him there…

Emblazoned on the audacious tombstone, whose size dwarfs pretty much everything else in sight, is a list of accomplishments, most of which relate to Burris being the first African American such and such.  My favorite is the part where he points out that he was the first African American exchange student from Southern Illinois University to the University of Hamburg in Germany.  Come on!  How trivial is that?  That’s like me looking for special recognition that I was the first person from Garland, TX to attend Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago, Chile as part of Lake Forest College’s foreign exchange program.  I bet I was indeed the first person to do that, but I can assure you I would never consider that something I would list among my life’s more notable accomplishments.  Not to mention the idea of erecting a tombstone in my honor would most definitely never cross my mind.  Nor would it cross the minds of probably 99% of the American population.

Adding fuel to the egotistical fire, I’ve come to learn that Burris has a son whose name is Roland Jr., something we would quite naturally expect.  Better yet, though, is that Burris also has a daughter.  Her name?  You guessed it.  Rolanda.  This man’s ego is truly a sight to behold.

Thanks to the unintentional comedy factor provided by Burris, here’s wishing he doesn’t leave the public eye anytime soon.  I’m hoping a wave of support develops for him during the next round of elections similar to that which engulfed the talent-deprived Sanjaya Malakar on American Idol a couple years back.  How awesome would that be!?!?!

You can’t argue with the numbers! Expressed graphically here (via Andrew Sullivan)…

…and here (via Mottram Station):