My initial reaction was “hoooly shiiit!”. Once Frankel gets his seat in Minnesota, its game over til 2010 for the Republicans.
Olympia Snowe wrote an article commenting on the lack of diversity in the Republican party and how dangerous a sign for the party that a 30 year veteran would leave. I think its worth adding that its also dangerous that the party didn’t care and pretty much drove him out and watched him leave with contempt. Its not very surprising that he left after the party essentially supported a person to challenge him for his own seat. This is symbolic of the fact the Republican party is nowhere near the reorganization it will need to undergo to be relevant.
The obvious statement is that The Republican Party left him years ago. He even said as much during his statement. The Republican Party has steadily moved towards the extreme right, abandoning those who weren’t extreme enough for their new standards.
I can readily identify with Specter’s decision, as I myself would have been considered solidly republican by the standards of 30 years ago, but I now find myself classified as liberal. Honestly I’m surprised that this hasn’t happened with a lot more republicans nationwide.
The Republican Party really needs to take a look at what it has been doing in recent years, and reassess themselves. Without some serious internal changes, they’re going to wind up being the “crazy” party and become irrelevant until a new 2nd party comes along and they disappear entirely.
