I Told You to Be Nice to Susan Collins!

Hello, and welcome to another edition of "Future News in Review."

As if it isn't already weird enough that I sort of agree with Rush Limbaugh about Arlen Specter, consider this, on the eve of Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party:

The bottom line is, stripping the funding and holding up Sebelius' confirmation were bad ideas before the swine flu, and they still are, but as Gibbs pointed out, they are not related to it. Since Collins is "one of the good ones," a moderate who was one of only 3 Republicans to vote for the stimulus, maybe we shouldn't be so quick to demonize her.

With Specter's defection, it is more important than ever that the left maintain a good relationship with moderate GOP senators like Collins and Olympia Snowe. Or, in other words, all of the moderate GOP senators.

Sure, the Democrats, with the impending seating of Al Franken, will enjoy a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate,but then again, you never know when some blue dog is going to decide he's not getting on TV enough, and flip Republican. Hell, there could even be, like, 15 of them.

Keith Olbermann wondered aloud, tonight, whether Collins and Snowe would be next in line to defect, which made me rethink the first thing that popped into my head when I heard of Specter's switch.

My first thought was, "Better to have a bad Democrat than a good Republican." But then, it occurred to me that there are lots of unemployed, moderate Republicans out there. What if bunches of them start running and winning in Democratic primaries?

Sure, we'll end up with a party that's better than the Republicans, but that isn't saying much these days. If the Democratic Party becomes the home for wayward Republicans, it might end up with senators who are good guys, like Lincoln Chafee, but who don't support one or more core Democratic principles. The Democrats could end up being the Gang of 60.

Tommy on: Daily Dose:

• Rushing to Conclusions
• Robert Gibbs' Magical Powers and Other Observations
• Seniors Handcuff Selves to White House - No, Really


Tommy on: Twitter