Good riddance!

Arlen Specter has finally made an honest liberal of himself by switching to the Democrat Party.

After whoring his vote for many years, pretending to be a principled conservative at times but finally "compromising" on the most critical of issues, he is at home.

Enjoy it, Arlen. Come 2010 retirement looms.

It's like a twist on the old joke: Mr. Specter changes his political affiliation and raises the IQ of both parties.

Would that every closet "progressive" see fit to find their home with the Democrats! This is the only way in which the two-party system can function for the benefit of the United States -- if there truly is a difference between the parties. Sadly, this isn't going to happen.

So the best alternative is for people of good will, who love freedom, limited government and constitutional restraints on government "efficiency," to register as independents. Make candidates of both parties prove themselves to us every election time by going on the record as to which of the fundamentals of freedom they support and which they do not.

Arlen Specter switched parties because he could read the polls and knew that his political future as a Republican was likely doomed. There was even talk that the national organization would no longer finance his campaigns. He knows that his 60th vote in the U.S. Senate is valuable to the Democrats' hopes to enact all sorts of wonderful redistributionist, bigger government programs that will alter life and increase costs for the average American, and maybe they'll be grateful enough to provide campaign cash for him.

Arlen Specter is a man whose principles are for sale.

The gavel has banged! Sold, to the Democratic Party.

UPDATE -- Jim Geraghty of The Campaign Spot had this pithy observation:

As of April 9, Specter was telling Newsweek, "I'm a Republican and I'm going to run in the Republican primary and on the Republican ticket." Good to know his word is his bond.

Maybe the GOP should issue a warning label with Mr. Specter so that the Dems won't be too surprised when he bites them in the ass like he has everyone else.