Arlen Specter Redux

The Party’s Over – How the Extreme Right Hijacked the GOP and I Became a Democrat – Charlie Crist (Dutton Books)

The late Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter was a legendary master of self-serving politics at its worst; a Philadelphia liberal, who loved to lay claim to being a moderate Republican, who in reality wouldn’t take a principled stand if his life depended on it. Not able to muster the spine to vote to remove the impeached President Bill Clinton, Specter famously chose to wipe his backside with the Constitution by citing Scottish law and voting “not proven.” Specter later whined that the Republican had somehow abandoned him when in a desperate attempt at re-election; he finally swapped political parties to become the Democrat he truly had always been.

Now along comes former Florida Governor Charlie Crist to attempt to lay claim to the Specter mantle in his new political memoir The Party’s Over – How the Extreme Right Hijacked the GOP and I Became a Democrat. While Crist is a well tanned, slick looking package, he can’t quite muster half the political savvy and cunning that Specter demonstrated on countless occasions.

His actions are so outrageously ham-fisted and self-serving that he can’t even bring himself to point out that his departure from the Republican party didn’t reach it’s Democrat party destination until it made a pit stop as an independent. If he was the true believer, convert that he claims, why not go big; rather than licking a finger and sticking in up in the breeze? Crist’s self-serving desire to remain in office has caused him to delude himself into believing that his incessant flip-flopping isn’t at the root of his problems with the Republican Party.

Crist tries mightily to re-write his history; unfortunately his very public sideling up to Barrack Obama clearly defined exactly who the former governor really was. He utilizes so many Democrat talking points and ridiculous lies like the claim the Ronald Reagan wouldn’t be conservative enough for the Tea Party and his allusions to race and his empty claims to “values I hold dear.” As if to reinforce his status a master flip-flopper Crist recently changed his stance on Cuba, a political issue near and dear to Florida voters. Here’s hoping that Sunshine State voters demonstrate the wisdom to keep Crist on the political unemployment rolls this November.