13 Years Too Late, Arlen

So Arlen Specter lost in his bid for re-election to the U.S. Senate tonight. He switched from the Republican to the Democratic party in order to stay in office, and it didn't work. He lost the Democratic primary. It's a big political story nationwide, in part because he's been in the Senate for 30 years. It's an interesting story because I've always felt he should have switched parties long before he finally did.

On March 31, 1995, Specter announced that he was running for the Republican presidential nomination in the 1996 elections. According to Wikipedia:

He entered the race claiming his party needed a candidate who did not conform to the stereotypical religious conservative image. He was critical of Patrick J. Buchanan, Pat Robertson and Ralph E. Reed, Jr., saying all three were far too conservative. "Neither this nation nor this party can afford a Republican candidate so captive to the demands of the intolerant right that we end up re-electing a President of the incompetent left."

Before even one primary was held in 1996, Specter dropped out of the race. The Republican party, becoming increasingly controlled by the ultra-right, ultra-religious faction that now is more correctly referred to as the American Taliban, was never going to vote for Specter in the primaries, which tend to draw out the more hard-line voter than the general elections.