Sen. Arlen Specter, who one year ago today switched his affiliation from Republican to Democrat, told the Allentown Morning Call that, just maybe, things would have been better if he never made the switch.
“Well, I probably shouldn’t say this,” he said last month. ”But I have thought from time to time that I might have helped the country more if I’d stayed a Republican.”
He went on to say that he could have helped pass the health care reform bill as bipartisan legislation.
Specter mused that perhaps if he’d remained in the caucus he could have persuaded one or two of his GOP colleagues to support health care reform. Not one Senate Republican voted in favor of it, but he swears he would have regardless of party affiliation.
”Coalition building has gone out of style in this wing of the building,” he said. Breaking from party ranks to vote with the other side is a ”very unpleasant experience.”
(H/T Dave Weigel)
