Arlen Specter loses it

Yesterday, Senator Arlen Specter tried to prove his bone fides as a Democrat by announcing the late Jack Kemp might be alive today but for the Republicans. Even for Specter, this is a real howler. For many years Specter was lauded as one of the sharpest of all senators. Apparently he has lost his ability to reason. To say the least, it is nonsense to blame Kemp's death from cancer on the health policies of the GOP. This is particularly true if one looks at Specter's own proposals for changing the health care system. There are exactly none of these proposals that would affect cancer research in any way. Arlen surely knows this, and yet, he feels compelled to join in the loony group that blames everything on the political parties. My guess is that he is trying to appeal to the Democrat base in Pennsylvania. I doubt if there is anything he can do to win them over. For forty years, Specter has been the face of the GOP in Pa (at least in part), and it is too late to erase those memories now.