"Congress should reject any Social Security plan that requires deep benefit cuts or a massive increase in debt."
GLEN JOHNSON, AP

In one exception to the party divide, five Republicans broke ranks and voted with the Democrats in favor of a resolution declaring, "Congress should reject any Social Security plan that requires deep benefit cuts or a massive increase in debt."

Democrats argue that Bush cannot establish private investment accounts, his signature proposal for revamping the retirement program, without cutting benefits or adding to the federal budget deficit.

"They're nervous. They're worried. But their hands are tied as long as the president sticks to privatization," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, the top Democratic spokesman on the issue in the Senate.

The vote on the resolution, offered by Sen. Bill Nelson D-Fla., was 50-50, with Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania joining with the chamber's Democratic minority. Roll Call

Daily Kos has more

Update: As noted in the comments, the GOP (with five exceptions) just voted for deep social security cuts and massive debt. Start cutting the ads!

Kevin Drum has his take here

This is how the game is played, folks. More like it, please.

On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace asked some of the right questions to Dan Bartlett, counselor to the President.:

Bush said he would not lobby the Senate to pass a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage.

Wallace: Isn't he breaking a campaign promise he made to all those social conservatives, that he was going to push an amendment?

Bartlett: Absolutely not....

Video

President Bush talking about Social Security(video)

Bush: ...will be flat bust, bankrupt unless U.S. Congress has got the willingness to act now.

Wallace: Ahh..As a simple fact, isn't that wrong?

Bartlett: Absolutely not...

Notice that Dan gave the same exact answer twice to start his defense of the president. In response to the "gay marriage" issue, Bartlett used the type of reasoning to justify his answer that Arlen Specter gave while talking about judicial nominees that had the Evangelical Christians up in arms. By the way talking about the Evangelicals, on the Focus on the Family website, there is a story that says just the opposite of what the president has said: Push for Marriage Amendment Restarted: A federal marriage amendment will be reintroduced in the Senate later this month. On Social Security going broke; well that's just a flat out lie.

Jail throws book at Berkowitz

Son of Sam serial killer David Berkowitz is in trouble for breaking a prison rule: He gave a Bible to another inmate. He admitted giving a Gideon's Bible to a convict, but called the charge against him - an "unauthorized exchange" - pointless. Berkowitz was fined $5.

According to his Internet postings, he's a born-again Christian and jailhouse preacher.

On Dec 8th, 9th,and10th, Focus on the Family did a three part radio show called David Berkowitz: Son of Hope

Part 1-Convicted of six murders, feared and hated, David soon discovered that God still had a plan for his life

Part II-discusses how poor choices led to the horrific murders he committed, and how he eventually became a Christian

Part III-He was lonely. He was angry. He was lost. And it all culminated during one hot summer in 1977.

Obviously it's fine for James Dobson and the Focus on the Family group to "support" a serial killer, mass murderer, etc., as long as Christ has entered his life, but make an honest statement regarding Supreme court nominations like Arlen Specter did and you are the devil!

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It's always fun to watch Election Night on Fox, especially when they get their hopes all fired up and things kind of fall flat instead.

They wanted to get all excited about Rand Paul's big win in Kentucky -- but then there's the little problem with Paul's win being a big fiasco for the GOP establishment. So the excitement was a little muted there.

What was unmentioned: If you look at the complete Kentucky results, the liberal Democrat, Jack Conway, who Paul will face in the general election collected about 22,000 more votes than Paul, and Democrats in general garnered about 170,000 more total votes than Republicans. No one should start assuming that the seat is Paul's just yet.

It was also tough to spin Blanche Lincoln's almost-certain runoff with progressive Bill Halter in Arkansas as a conservative win, considering that Lincoln had screwed herself with the Democratic base by playing games with health-care reform and financial reform. Mostly that race went ignored.

And then there was Joe Sestak's win over Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania. Again, it was a little difficult to spin this as a win for conservatives, considering that Sestak is a progressive Democrat and Specter had just switched parties after decades as a Republican. Instead we heard a lot of talk about "anti-incumbent sentiment."

But the biggest deflation of the Tea Bag came in Pennsylvania's 12th District, where Republican Tim Burns -- a Tea Party fave who got heavy media play at Fox for the past couple of weeks -- still couldn't pull off the victory against Democrat Mark Critz, a longtime John Murtha staffer who leaned heavily on his old boss' legacy to keep his seat. This was a race that had been touted on Fox and elsewhere as a likely pickup for Republicans. Quoth Tory Mazzola, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which dumped $200,000 into the race: "The fact that we have a strong GOP candidate, Tim Burns -- committed to job creation and repealing ObamaCare -- combined with a favorable Republican environment has turned this historically Democratic seat into a swing district."

RNC chairman Michael Steele had even guaranteed a Burns victory. Ooops.

So of course, having invested heavily in promoting the "Mini Super Tuesday" election as a referendum on President Obama, Fox had to figure out some way to spin the results that way. This meant getting out their spinmeister "pollsters", Frank Luntz and Doug Schoen.

Luntz managed to turn PA-12 into an anti-Obama referendum by pointing out how Critz ran to the right during the campaign. (Um, OK, Frank, whatever. Tea Party Dude still lost.)

Schoen even more bizarrely tried to claim that Specter's loss was "anti-Obama," because the president had endorsed the converted senator. Um, so, lessee if we have this straight: In DougSchoenland, Pennsylvania Democrats rejected a conservative ex-Republican and replaced him with a progressive Democrat not because he was a piss-poor Democrat, but because he wasn't right-wing enough? Come again?

OK, you knew they had to spin it as a victory for the Tea Partiers somehow. It just took some ... imagination.

From what I hear, despite Arlen's efforts to reassure state Dems, Sestak is running anyway. Should be interesting!

A few days after he switched parties, Sen. Arlen Specter went on Meet the Press and hotly denied reports he had promised President Obama he would be a "loyal Democrat."

In dozens of conference calls and meetings since then, Specter has been trying to reassure Democratic elected officials, county chairs, and party activists around Pennsylvania of the opposite proposition: that he can be counted upon to support the president.

Participants in these efforts say that Specter has been relaxed and direct as he lays out his case, dwelling on instances in which he bucked his former Republican Party during a 29-year Senate career. Specter has been received well, they say, though some skeptics are eager for a Democrat with a more liberal record to challenge him in the 2010 primary.

"I've read about his diligence before, but I've been really impressed to see how they're reaching down to the very base of the grass roots," said Jack Hanna of Indiana County, chairman of the state party's Southwest caucus, who was on two conference calls with Specter. "The guy's on top of it."

This weekend, Specter faces the biggest public test so far of his appeal to party regulars, appearing at the Democratic State Committee spring meeting in Pittsburgh. He is scheduled to host a dessert reception after a fund-raising dinner tonight and to make a major speech tomorrow.

U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak of Delaware County, who has said he intends to run against Specter for the Democratic nomination, also plans to attend.

On Monday, Specter had a breakfast meeting with Democratic leaders in Montgomery County, moved on to Delaware County for lunch, and met with Chester County leaders in the evening.

At the Montgomery gathering, held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Fort Washington, Specter faced a couple of challenging questions about his support for key elements of former President George W. Bush's agenda, including the tax cuts for the wealthy and the Iraq war.

"He was one of the enablers in the Senate because, as a moderate with a lot of seniority, he was in a position to stand up to Bush," said Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel. "I have a hard time getting past that."

Should the nomination play out like this, it would foreshadow a dramatic power shift within the Republicans party:

"Unless there's something that comes out that's very much out of the ordinary, this is likely to be a smooth confirmation if Republicans are smart politically," said John Ullyot, a Republican strategist who served seven years as a senior Senate staffer.

...

"Politically, it's better to conserve our powder and live to fight another day and not pick a fight that a) we know we can't win, because we don't have the votes and b) could really hurt us politically," Ullyot told AFP.

Unfortunately, Ullyot staffed Arlen Specter and John Warner, one a former Republican, the other a former Senator, both part of the G14. It's unlikely that he'll influence right wing legal activists, who have clear incentives: "By ginning up controversy where none exists, these activists get free press and free money and a micro-movement with which to corral fellow travelers into common cause."

And in turn, every victory for the GOP base is a black mark for the GOP brand. Robert Lovato summed up the predicament over at FDL:

So it will be the GOP and not Sotomayor that will be on trial in this high-stakes judicial confirmation of the post-Bush era of Republican dominance. Latinos will watch to see if GOP leaders will use the Sotomayor hearings to distance themselves from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and others many Latinos consider to be anti-immigrant extremists.

And we should all be watching to see if Republicans are prepared to use the Sotomayor confirmation as a way to communicate a willingness to redeem themselves for the great injustices of our recent past.

Arlen Specter dealt a serious blow to the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said he opposes the “card-check” union organizing measure, dealing a setback to U.S. labor’s top legislative goal. Specter said that he is likely to be the “decisive vote,” to block the Democratic-backed bill that would make it easier to form unions.

“The problem with the recession makes this a particularly bad time,” Specter said on the Senate floor today. Employers fear the measure “will result in further job losses,” he said.

Back in 2007, Specter voted for "cloture"which means that he cut off the debate of the topic and stoped Republicans from whining about it which is a show of support for EFCA, but now he's using his "cloture" vote as a way to give him a cowardly excuse not to vote for it this time.

In voting for cloture - that, is to cut off debate - in June 2007, I emphasized in my floor statement and in a law review article that I was not supporting the bill on the merits, but only to take up the issue of labor law reform. Hearings had shown that the NLRB was dysfunctional and badly politicized. When Republicans controlled the Board, the decisions were for business. With Democrats in control, the decisions were for labor. Some cases took as long as eleven years to decide. The remedies were ineffective.

UPDATE I: Specter’s Defection On EFCA Fails To Win Over Right Wing

If Senator Arlen Specter had hoped that bailing on the Employee Free Choice Act yesterday would make him the toast of the town among his right wing critics, he probably woke up this morning feeling like he has a pretty crushing hangover — after doing a lot of drinking alone.

Conservative groups and politicians, far from won over by Specter’s announcement, continue to hammer away at the embattled Senator, suggesting that his abrupt move on EFCA will do little or nothing to reduce his vulnerability to a primary challenge from the right...read on

Howie Klein sizes up the playing field to see what our options are.

The math says that if Ted Kennedy is healthy enough to vote and Al Franken gets seated and all the Democrats-- including Evan Bayh's anti-Obama bloc-- all continue to back the bill (even WalMart's cowardly Democrats, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor), then Employee Free Choice passes if Specter sticks to his guns.

With today's craven and cowardly announcement by Specter, more worried about his primary challenger from the fringes of the Republican right than about his own dignity or, more important, Pennsylvania working families, the Democrats will either have to put off the vote until after the 2010 election or persuade either Olympia Snowe (R-ME) or retiring George Voinovich (R-OH), neither of whom is a union-hater, to switch their votes.

Big Business is quite happy with his choice, but in reality it makes no sense. The right already hates him and he's in a state where jobs are needed. He's taking the path of going far right to try and appease the wingnut base, but he knows they will never be appeased np matter what he does. He will still face a primary challenge. (See Jason Rosenbaum for more on this point.)

Continue reading »

Jason Miller wrote a wonderful history of Sam's fanatical beliefs:

...As one examines various facets of Sam Brownback, one formulates a profile of an individual who is dangerously radical. As I write this article, he is pandering to the Religious Right, his extremist base. Brownback is threatening to filibuster the Senate bill that would relax restrictions on federal funding of stem cell research. This legislation would enable the US to begin catching up with nations like South Korea. Yes, you read that correctly...read on

Think Progress has more: The “Obstructionist” Brownback: Now one of their own, the staunchly anti-choice Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), “has put a hold on the White House’s nomination of a prominent abortion-rights supporter to a diplomatic post.” It would seem that the crime of Julie Finley - nominated as ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe - is her extensive fundraising work for pro-choice candidates.

Who can forget his sickening debate against Arlen Specter. Video here

Update-AmericaBlog- GOP: No pro-choice women need apply to our party

MyDD- Brownback denies Bush nominee Up or Down Vote

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The Republican Party is now on suicide watch:

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and announced today that he will run in 2010 as a Democrat, according to a statement he released this morning.

Specter's decision would give Democrats a 60 seat filibuster proof majority in the Senate assuming Democrat Al Franken is eventually sworn in as the next Senator from Minnesota. (Former Sen. Norm Coleman is appealing Franken's victory in the state Supreme Court.)

"I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary," said Specter in a statement. "I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election."

He added: "Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans."

MSNBC's David Shuster, in the video above, relayed the information that Specter reached the decision because he realized that his vote for the stimulus package had irrevocably breached his relationship with the increasingly wingnutty Republican base, and that he was no longer willing to submit himself to the judgment of that base in the GOP primary. Smart move.

Of course, now that he's a Democrat, don't expect any miracles. Reportedly, he still intends to vote against cloture on the Employee Free Choice Act ...

UPDATE: Here's Specter's statement:

When I supported the stimulus package, I knew that it would not be popular with the Republican Party. But, I saw the stimulus as necessary to lessen the risk of a far more serious recession than we are now experiencing.

Since then, I have traveled the State, talked to Republican leaders and office-holders and my supporters and I have carefully examined public opinion. It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable. On this state of the record, I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate. I have not represented the Republican Party. I have represented the people of Pennsylvania.

I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary.

Rearranging The Deck Chairs