The Violent, Bitter GOP Fringe, Free Republic, and Arlen Specter

[Stingo]

It is not uncommon for Free Republic whack jobs to call for Obama’s head, but it is odd that the founder of the web site warns those extremists to be cautious lest they attract the Secret Service. Isolated whack jobs on one hand, surely, but in PA the whack jobs are gunning for one of the last GOP moderates, Arlen Specter.

http://allspinzone.com/wp/2009/03/09/home-of-the-violent-bitter-gop-fringe-free-republic/

[SteelPenguin]

1. I wish them luck going after Specter

If they defeat him in the primaries with an extremist they'll lose the general election. Specter is able to maintain his position in PA primarily because many people don't see him as a radical conservative but a very moderate old school one. Put in a bible thumping madman though and he'll learn why this state isn't a swing state anymore.

[Stingo]

2. Polman is right

Many of the moderate Repubs in this state switched registrations this year. It was mostly his base that did so. He's going to have to veer right if he wants to win his primary, and I'm not thinking he can stomach that much right leaning, though he's surprised all before.

[Tex-Slim]

6. What's this?

Where did this umbrella come from?

[Stingo]

7. Umbrella?

That calls for a Neitszche qoute.

"I think I have lost my umbrella." Well, either you have lost it, or you hsven't, but why write it down that you think so?

[randr]

3. Arlan Specter will switch parties if he wants to win

another primary election in PA.
A article posted here over the weekend noted that he only won his primary last time by less then 20,000 votes. In the recent presidential election more than 200,000 republican centrists moved to the democratic side and he will need these votes to be reelected.
My guess is that the dems would run no one against him if he makes the move.

[Stingo]

4. randr

The article is linked in that post on my blog. That's Dick Polman who wrote it.

[Tex-Slim]

5. Interesting take

Arlen Specter a "GOP MODERATE".

That's funny...

From the linked article:

"I’m thinking he’s warning these folks that they might be caught."

That's not the way it reads to me. It's more the guy warning them that if they say anything stupid in a moment of misguided passion (think of all the things we still say about GW Bush, and he's not even in office any more!) he will have no choice but to turn over their info to those who want to make life uncomfortable for them even though, in 99 out of 100 times, they really didn't mean any harm because it's necessary to find that 1 in 100 that DOES mean some harm.

But everyone is entitled to their own opinion...

I mean, here's a true story. I was riding on a bus once. Bus driver said some really nasty things about how he & his kin (from Georgia or Alabama or thereabouts, I don't recall) would take care of Bill Clinton, given 1/2 a chance. Now, clearly, he was joking. But what he didn't know was that a uniformed person, who had a duty to turn him in for his comments no matter how unlikely he really was to ever do anything like that, was right there and, sure enough, the bus driver apparently got raked over the coals. Turns out he was just a snot-nosed punk who didn't like Clinton that much but would never, ever have the brains or the guts or anything else, mind you, to actually do anything about it.

But, as we all know, the Secret Service doesn't care about that... they cannot afford to! Their policy, for good reason, is zero tolerance.

[Stingo]

8. Well, there are two parts to this

One is whether the whack jobs should be protected when they fling threats. The other is whether the whack jobs are forcing out the moderates in their party. The last part is most interesting to me.