Obama, Democrats Lured Specter with Promises of Pork, Campaign Cash

Now that Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) has made official what many Republicans have suspected – that he has actually been a Democrat for some time – reports are surfacing about the price Specter was able to exact from Democrats for his ultimate act of betrayal toward the party that elected him to the Senate five consecutive times. Specter did not come cheaply. Specter was enticed to join the Democratic Party with promises of two very valuable things. One is rumored to be the hugely powerful chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The other was a promise from President Barack Obama himself to campaign for and raise money for Specter in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, should there be one.

Any president could of course be expected to campaign for a Senator of his own party. But the promise of campaign help from President Obama should not be dismissed so easily. Obama proved himself to be a prodigious fund raiser during the presidential campaign, raising more money in total than any other presidential candidate in history by far. His presence on the campaign trail will also help to rally the Democratic Party's left-wing base to Specter's side. The base may be understandably underwhelmed at voting for a Senator who, ostensibly at least, spent the last thirty years fighting against Democratic priorities. The chairmanship, on the other hand, would be hugely beneficial to Specter's campaign, providing him with a perch from which he could steer hundreds of millions of dollars worth of federally funded projects to his state.

Perhaps more surprising about the president's personal involvement in flipping Specter is the "old politics" nature of the affair. Enticing Senators to switch parties is the height of smoke-filled back room dealing. On the campaign trail, President Obama said that the time had come for the "tired old politics" of Washington to be cast aside. He pledged to work with members of either party in the interest of making the country better. Yet barely 100 days in office, and in direct conflict with his campaign rhetoric, President Obama has proved himself adept at the bare-knuckles art of partisan political combat.