Prominent Republican Senator switches to the Democratic party!

So it appears another Republican has seen the writing on the wall and decided to jump ship.

Senator Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania has decided to switch from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party.  Senator Specter wasn’t the most conservative Republican in the senate and he voted with the Democrats on numerous occasions most recently he was one of three Republican senators to vote for the stimulus bill and he may have suffered for it and he knew that he most likely would have lost his upcoming senate race in Pennsylvania as well.

But that doesn’t change the fact that a man who has been a Republican for over 40 years was unwilling to stick around to help rebuild the party that you can arguably say helped to make him the politician he is today. That’s tough regardless of how you look at it.

What this means for the Democrats? It takes them to an almost 60 seat majority in the US Senate. It currently stands at 58, Specter’s seat ups the number to 59 and when Al Franken is declared the winner of the Minnesota senate race Democrats would have reached that filibuster proof majority.

Honestly with such major losses to the GOP over the past few years what will this party look like in two years?

How can Republicans expect to be a competent , competitive national party if they can’t hold on to moderate Republicans like Specter?

I really hope his departure will quicken the GOP’s metamorphosis into a 21st century American political party.

Look, Republicans can compete with the Democrats on many issues in almost every state in the US but until they realize that cutting taxes, support of guns and opposition to gays are NOT ENOUGH to win votes anymore they will continue to wander in the political wilderness.