Arlen Specter, in a move that stunned no one Democrats and Republicans alike, switched sides of the aisle.  Olympia Snowe, Republican Senator from Maine, penned an Op-Ed for the New York Times :

It is disheartening and disconcerting, at the very least, that here we are today — almost exactly eight years after Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party — witnessing the departure of my good friend and fellow moderate Republican, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, for the Democratic Party. And the announcement of his switch was all the more painful because I believe it didn’t have to be this way.

Did it have to be this way?  Only if Specter wanted a sixth term.  To this Snowe writes:

Senator Specter indicated that his decision was based on the political situation in Pennsylvania, where he faced a tough primary battle. In my view, the political environment that has made it inhospitable for a moderate Republican in Pennsylvania is a microcosm of a deeper, more pervasive problem that places our party in jeopardy nationwide.

Now I’m quite a maven on the subject of mid to north Atlantic geography, and thus know with great certainty that Pennsylvania is just a stones throw away from Connecticut, where a fellow named Ned Lamont won the senatorial Democratic primary against this meely-mouthed milquetoast named Lieberman.  Like Specter, Lieberman framed himself as a “moderate”, which in political parlance means he gets to vote with the other team whenever he wants. 

Lieberman was not happy about getting his milky white butt kicked, and so fashioned himself an Independent in the general election, where he beat back the forces of the party system by winning election.  To then prove his virtue, he engaged in a torrid love affair with Republic presidential candidate John McCain, fully expecting to be embraced by Democrats and Republicans alike for his fierce independence.  Fierce is not a word often used in connection to Lieberman.

The Senate has long been described as a gentlemen’s club, sans stripper pole.  The Senators employ the utmost courtesy in their exchanges, and are expected to remain above the fray of the House, where the riff-raff squabble amongst themselves.  The Senate is the elite chamber, and the Senators, a mere 2 per state, are the legislative stars. 

But the unseemly election of Lieberman, combined with the unseemly switcheroo of Specter, diminishes the luster of the Senate.  It’s all just crass politics, and the names and affiliations fall in the face of a stiff challenge.  Olympia Snowe’s point, that the Republican Party has failed to capture the hearts and minds of the public during the last election cycle, and is poised for yet another disaster ahead.  But her comprehension of the problem is misguided:

There is no plausible scenario under which Republicans can grow into a majority while shrinking our ideological confines and continuing to retract into a regional party. Ideological purity is not the ticket back to the promised land of governing majorities — indeed, it was when we began to emphasize social issues to the detriment of some of our basic tenets as a party that we encountered an electoral backlash.

The solution isn’t finding a new spin that will suck in the ignorant and foolish, but figuring out who you are and then finding out whether anyone actually agrees with you.  It is all about ideological purity, but at the risk of learning that your ideology is not the ideology that enough other people want to elect you to office.  In other words, be real and, if the electorate likes the real you, they will elect the real you. 

As much as some say that a two party system provides an inadequate check and balance, a one party system is far worse.  An opposition with teeth is needed to keep the majority in check, no matter how much one agrees with the majority.  Indeed, too much non-critical agreement will result in the worst possible decision-making, with no one challenging assumptions and hidden agendas. 

As for Senators Specter and Lieberman, who live close enough to one another to have a pleasant lunch once a week even when the Senate is not in session, they are the posterboys for political cynicism, ideological bankruptcy and back-stabbing.  If the voters of Pennsylvania reward Specter for his duplicity by re-electing him, they get what they deserve, Joe Lieberman.  And as for Lieberman, the apple hasn’t rolled far from the tree.

Perhaps the gentlemen of the Senate can create a caucus of two, if the Democrats and Republicans can show the fortitude to slam shut the doors to their own caucuses rather than let these snakes slither in.  If only there was someone like Al Franken in Washington to straighten these guys out.  Together with his partner, Tom Davis.