"I am Jack's complete lack of surprise..."

There are fundamental differences in ideology between liberals and conservatives. Note that when I mention differences, I am not speaking on a party level between Republican or Democrat. Arlen Specter used to be a democrat when he was the District Attorney of Philadelphia and switched parties when the political opportunities for Republicans were on the rise. Now that the political pendulum has swung the other way, he is doing the same thing in reverse.

Admittedly, Arlen Specter has been good on some issues from a conservative perspective, such as affirming our 2nd Amendment rights and supporting tough prison sentencing guidelines for violent criminals. However, where he differs with conservatives has been growing more and more over the years. Once you get to a situation where you are voting more with the political opposition and are constantly at odds both both your own own party and base of supporters, there comes a point where you have to ask if you're really in the party that you fit in best. When Senator Specter started getting a huge earful from his constituency about Amnesty for Illegals and huge increases in entitlement and bailout spending, his solution was to have his staff disconnect his own phone system once he had heard enough. He didn't give a shit what the people who voted him in expected - he was going to do whatever he wanted regardless of how much it went against the wishes of the supporters who had voted him in. In reflection, he asked himself "Why not?" After all, once it became obvious from the plethora of inside tracking polls that he wouldn't get re-elected, he knew that in this political environment that he could switch parties.

Specter's defection has prompted other weak Republicans - such as the ever increasingly-irritating Olympia Snowe - to opine with whiny sophistry about how Specter's defection could have been prevented if Republicans would learn how to reach out to moderates instead of driving them away. The very notion that Republican moderates have no place in their party is pure, 100% NONSENSE. Moderates like Specter have been around forever. McCain, Snowe, Chaffee, Jeffords...the list goes on. What has irritated conservatives is that these spineless, limp-wristed watered-down copies of Diet Democrat-Lite routinely would vote with democrats and undermine conservatives on key votes that were crucial to our political goals. Sorry, honey - don't piss down our legs and try to tell us it's raining.

I have read some stories online where liberals are struggling to figure out why Republicans like myself are so happy about this when all it does is further erode our political power. That would make sense to people who only choose to see things from within the context of a political perspective, but that would be missing the mark. The first reason is that when you don't have any real power and influence left as it is, losing more makes no difference. Considering Arlen's voting history on key issues that drove conservatives the most, having him in the party was far more irritating. What the second and truest reason is this: Conservatives have more respect for genuine liberals who act like liberals and believe in whatever liberals believe in than for Republicans like Specter, who - over the course of time - has screwed over his own base in the name of political expediency. If he wants to run with the liberals, I have no beef with it. What I do have a beef with is his unreliability and skulduggery as a representative of my state. Never knowing exactly where he stood reliably on key issues with his base was a pain in the ass.

Understand something: Political moderation has never made for good leadership. Ever. Leaders are decisive. They are confident. They have the ability to gather people up and project their vision into the masses. They inspire those that agree, and yes - royally piss off the people who disagree. What true believers in a true philosophically empowered political goal gain is respect - even begrudgingly so from their adversaries. None of those things are attained from political moderation. When democrats wanted to rebuild their party, they didn't do it by reaching out to Republicans. No - they did it by marginalizing or eliminating what few centrists managed to exist in their party to make it more ideologically left. As such, when more Republicans stopped acting like conservatives and did nothing but pander to the left and left-leaning centrist voters for years - look at what it got them. Liberals simply voted for the real thing and left-leaning centrist libertarians voted against them out of anger at their intellectually dishonest pandering. Case in point - ask John McCain what sucking up to the left for years got him when the rubber actually met the road. They threw his ass to the curb - because nobody likes someone who speaks out of both sides of his mouth.