Specter's switch

Pennsylvania's Senator Arlen Specter is switching parties to run in 2010 as a Democrat. Facing strong opposition from a conservative in the Republican primary, he obviously thinks he will do better running as a Democrat -- and he's probably right.

Long one of the more moderate Republicans in the Senate, Specter was one of three who voted for the stimulus bill. He's also more moderate on stem cell research and a number of other issues.

Although he cautions not to assume he's an automatic vote with the Democrats on every issue, the fact is that it does add one caucus vote, and once Al Franken is finally seated that makes the magic number of 60.

And, although I'm sure Specter will continue to vote his own principles and that he will differ with the Democratic position on some things, there will likely be others where his being a member of the Democratic caucus, instead of the Republican caucus, may sway him a bit.

And most important of all, cloture votes -- which are mostly political because they come up when someone is trying to delay a bill they probably can't win otherwise -- have just moved one vote closer to becoming irrelevance.

It's good news.

Ralph