Never let it be said you can't be a principled opportunist...

The GOP has become a more radicalized, regionalized party. It goes without saying, one of my chatter friends was going to vote Republican. But the final push of the last month of the election kind of soured him on the Republican process.

Now I have to wonder what his opinion on the Specter defection to the Democrats is. Politically? He's going to likely be in the Lieberman-Bayh portion of the Democratic Party. And you know what? That's fine for him. It will keep him in power. Ridiculously old senators who sound like once respected newsmen is as American as Apple Pie.

Sure, his last move as a Republican was to come out against the Employee Free Choice Act. But that's an easy fix, so long as he allows the vote, odds are he can vote no.

And personally? He just clinched a return to the Senate for another six years. Putative Republican nominee Pat Toomey will likely get launched. He couldn't backdoor another term Lieberman style. He probably had to find a way to get out, and the swine flu is how he gets it.

For the GOP? They're in the weeds. Not to say they can't get out. Going to 2006 from 2002 was a revolutionary change in party affiliation. But Michael Steele's looking good for saying that he would challenge the L:incoln Chaffee wing of the Republican party to get all fresh to death as Arch-Conservatives.

This also means that they lose a different part of leverage, because a smart Democratic party would tie the redrawing of committee seats to the seating of the elected Senator from Minnesota in Al Franken.

And the Club for Growth is another albatross for the GOP.

For the Dems? It can be win-win. Letting those of bifurcated opinions have a real voice in the party will allow them to keep the party going longer. I know I've railed against Lieberman, but I personally don't like him. Specter sounds like former newsman Edwin Newman and tells bad jokes. That's awesome.

And tell Joe Biden he's earned a mistimed statement or three. If you want to call a random black man Donovan McNabb? Mazel Tov.

So until Auto-tune the news goes up and gives you the definitve take. It's back to sports for me.

In Which My Undying Idealism Gets Stabbed Again...

[Warning: I get very bloggy, and I get political. Leave now if you don't want to be annoyed]

I should have fucking seen being disappointed coming. Barack Obama has just cemented the fact that we will torture again. We will find people that the ruling party disagrees with, and we will torture again. A lack of punishment in government for governmental political crimes cements something worse.

Watergate begat Bush. World War I begat World War II. And this is going to lead to something worse down the road. We cannot look forward until we exorcize the demons. It is not retribution. It is necessary and it is proper. If you are ordered to do something wrong you should face the consequences.

We have vultures from the Bush administration circling around. And the Republican party, despite it’s reactionary kant, will find its way out of the weeds. Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz saw what happened with Watergate. Imagine what someone will do with the opportunity the Obama administration is trying to make.

They say that torture is dead as an American policy. And even if you give them the benefit of the doubt on that one. That leaves a simple and obvious question.

What’s to stop the next administration from giving torture the rebirth?