Talk About A Specter

As Pennsylvania waxed Democratic, Sen. Arlen Specter was facing another primary challenge from the right. He probably would've prevailed, but at 79, why bother? Why battle in a rightward-tending party for the privilege of representing your constituents and honoring your centrist principles? So today, he switched parties.

Lots of Republicans will say good riddance. Ed Rollins hinted last year that a John McCain defeat would be good for the GOP, since being relegated to the wilderness would accelerate the party's return to its true, Goldwater-Reagan roots. So I imagine Rollins is among those exulting today as the wilderness express picks up steam. Assuming Sen. Al Franken (that was hard to type) is seated, then President Obama and the Democrats will have the makings of a filibuster-proof majority. Yessir, Ed -- we've got 'em right where we want 'em now!

Even the smartest conservatives seem to have trouble seeing what's happening, such as Josh Trevino, who writes today at The New Nixon:

Specter’s party switch is the latest in a long trend of ideological party-sorting, in which the Republicans get the conservatives, and the Democrats get the leftists.

Uh, no. The Specter move means that the Republicans are keeping the conservatives, while the Democrats are keeping the liberals and getting the moderates. Let's do the math together.