TPM Editor’s Blog

What Specter is Facing

From TPM Reader SS

I was never a big fan of Specter, going way back to the Anita Hill hearings. While I don’t think that the confirmation of a Justice to the Supreme Court was or is the proper forum to try a sexual harassment case, I don’t know that I will ever get over the mean-spiritness Specter displayed. And as they say on “Survivor,” you can never really trust a flipper.

Still, I seriously considered voting for Specter. Even when he was a Republican, I agreed with many of the positions he took and the influence he wields on the appropriations and judiciary committees simply cannot be matched by a junior senator. All things being equal, he probably would have been my choice.

But things aren’t equal in one key respect — keeping that seat in the hands of the Democrats. And it has become clearer and clearer in recent days that Specter cannot beat Toomey. Sestak can, and that’s why I’ll be voting for him next week.

Josh Marshall

Josh Marshall is editor and publisher of TalkingPointsMemo.com.

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