IF THERE were a political version of the popular game of Twister – the one that rewards the best contortionist – then Specter would be its all-time champ.
In the end, it was “left foot, blue” that caused him to fall.
En route to becoming the longest-serving U.S. senator in Pennsylvania history over three remarkable decades, Specter had to beat Philadelphia’s Democratic machine by becoming a Republican, find new life after Watergate in the Reagan Revolution, infuriate conservatives with one Supreme Court vote and liberals with another, and overcome “The Year of the Woman.”
But for a politician who successfully changed course so many times, the marble-voiced 80-year-old wasn’t able to tack one last time into the stiff political winds of 2010. Specter learned that changing parties isn’t a solution for a centrist in a world where the media and primary voters are highly partisan and ideological.
Specter’s stunning defeat yesterday – at the hands of a hard-charging ex-admiral, Rep. Joe Sestak, and of liberal Democratic primary voters put off by Specter’s long life in the GOP – was clearly another sign that his middle-of-the-road political bent was a relic of an earlier time.
The reason he lasted in Pennsylvania this long was ideology.
Simply put, he didn’t have one.
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