Bloodless Coup

Eh this filibuster-proof reporting is silly since Franken isn't seated yet (why?) and since several Democratic votes (I'm looking at you Mark Pryor, Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu - and keeping my eye on a few others) are far from dependable.

But it does appear to free-up a lot of Democratic money (I assume Specter can win without needing the same kind of campaign a Torsella or Shapiro would've needed).

There might be some negatives for Democrats out of this though. Who replaces him on Judiciary? Is it Hatch? That'd be one thing. But if it's Minority Whip Kyl judicial nominations just became a lot bloodier. And who replaces him on the Labor HHS Appropriations subcommittee? Masses and masses of money goes through that - including many matters tied to various health care programs on which Specter was a better than usual Republican.

Well, isn't early reporting suggesting that Specter can now run his primary effectively unopposed? That's a big boon to him if it works out that way -- and really, can you imagine Specter having done this without assurances that the Dems would protect him in PA?

While guys like those you named, Lieberman, etc., might not be certainties for cloture, I think Obama has shown the ability to choose his battles carefully. This isn't a done deal on anything, but I think the path to health care reform and solid left intellectual nominees to the Supreme Court (probably two before the next Congress is seated) just got a lot smoother.

And as the right descends into brutal and facially absurd recriminations about Specter, it just jumps the shark by that much more. And proves the truth of the non-electoral component to Specter's decision.

The part of this that no one outside PA cares about is that the steadily growing pool of maybe-Governor-maybe-Senator candidates that's been collecting just got all kinds of muddy. Lots of folks are going back to the drawing board today to rethink things, and there will be a lot of movement.

Care to get more specific regarding the GOV race? On the Republican side there is Tom Corbett and Jim Gerlach. On the Dem side there is ... Onorato? Wagner? Care to muck about in that mud and enlighten us as to what we should keep our eye on?

Well, Onorato and maybe Wagner, yes, and you have the GOP right, but if any one of them should decide they're interested in the senate race, that creates a whole cascade down. Alternatively, if any of the would-have-been senate candidates decide to abandon that race (one has; Torsella is saying he won't, but that might just be because no one's yet made him an offer he can't refuse), they may decide Governor looks interesting.

So then at the moment I'm guessing people are thinking it'll be an Onorato/Corbett race? How unusual - a statewide race where both candidates appear competent, experienced, sane, and scandal-free.

Onorato isn't that clean or that appealing, frankly, and if Corbett doesn't indict some Republicans pretty soon (after indicting nothing but Dems for the past 18 months, despite investigating both parties extensively) his stock is likely to go down as well.

Re Senate, Democrat Michael Lamb, former Allegheny County Prothonotary, mayoral candidate, and now Comptroller, has been a steady on the rumor mill to jump into the senate race, and, while I didn't see the comments, People Who Know said that he still sounded very much like a candidate in delivering some comments last night.

Thanks for those updates. Obviously you get to see much more of PA politics than we do down here.