But He's OUR Pathetic Figure of a Man!

Noted lunatic imbecile Dan Riehl says something stupid -- no surprise there -- though only after actually getting something right, hard as that may be to believe.

Funny that Arlen Specter would come out for a robust public health care insurance option on the very same site that once headlined his opposition to that very thing as recently as May.

Specter Won't Back Public Health Care Or Employee Free Choice Act (VIDEO)

Fast forward to today at the Huffington Post: Arlen Specter: Supporting a Robust Public Option

Arlen Specter, T (for traitor) was previously highlighted by the Lefty blogs as the highest paid shill for corporate America in his strong opposition to a public option for health care reform. Perhaps he was, once. I guess he needs union money, now....

So much for principle and judgment. What a desperate, pathetic figure Specter cuts today. He's just a shell of a man who doesn't want to let go of his cherished Senate office no matter what, even after all these years.

All true! Arlen Specter is a hack and a half, an opportunist whose most attractive quality is that his shamelessness tends to overshadow his pomposity. Never liked Arlen Specter, never will. We're with ya, Dan! Until this bit:

One doesn't need any more reason than this to back Pat Toomey, regardless of his political views. Character matters.

The hell it does, for Senators. If we're going to have a Senate at all -- and I don't think we should, but that's beside the point -- it will necessarily be filled with pompous, shameless, opportunistic hacks-and-a-half. The best that can ever be hoped for out of Senators is that they can be properly browbeaten into producing tangible political results for constituents. This rarely happens, so when it does, as appears to be the case with Specter, hooray! He's a weasel, sure, and nobody's about to turn their back on him, but if a legit primary challenge and his need for union GOTV (which he probably needs a lot more than "union money") make him actually vote for a strong public option, that's politics for you. If the result is better, cheaper healthcare for America, that more than makes up for his comical hackery. Indeed, then his hackishness becomes a positive good.

I mean, damn, who would have ever thought that anyone would ever be able to detect a use for Arlen Specter? Crazy old world.

And, please: if you're a Democrat, you're not ever voting for Pat Toomey for "character" reasons "regardless of his politics," as the most significant element of Toomey's "character" is that he is a hardcore right-wing ideologue, and thus, destructive and harebrained. A hack and a half is twice as admirable as a zealot.

A Democrat who doesn't like Specter, however, may just vote for, you know, Joe Sestak in the Democratic primary. Amazing how that works.