US Republican Senator Arlen Specter is to switch sides and become a Democrat.
The move would give the Democrats 59 votes in the senate, just one short of the 60 needed to overturn Republican attempts to block legislation.
The Democrats are expected to pick up their 60th vote when the result of the still-disputed Minnesota senate race is decided by the courts.
Mr Specter, a moderate, said that since he joined the Republicans in 1980 the party had "moved far to the right".
"I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans," he said in a statement announcing the switch.
He added: "My change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans."
Mr Specter was facing a tough challenge from conservative Pat Toomey, in a primary election to decide who would run as the Republican candidate for Mr Specter's senate seat in 2010.
There will now be 57 Democrats in the Senate. Two independents also vote with the party.
I never actually thought the Republicans would drive Arlen Specter out of the party, but I will be goddamned if they haven't done so. Obviously, I doubt Specter will be voting Democrat any more often than he is now, but it's still a telling sign.
Last edited by General Havoc on Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
Gaze upon my works, ye mighty, and despair...
Havoc: "So basically if you side against him, he summons Cthulu."
Hotfoot: "Yes, which is reasonable."
Spector's last primary battle was bruising and that was with endorsements from Bush, since then moderate Republicans have been quitting the party in droves in Pennsylvania, and he'll likely be up against the same right wing hadliner in the next primary.
It's not that I'm unforgiving, it's that most of the people who wrong me are unrepentant assholes.
