Welcome to the Big Tent

Exciting political news today.

Senator Arlen Spector of Pennsylvania announced that he would be joining the Democratic party. Welcome to the real "big tent," Senator. Now you have to earn our trust.

There are two things Sen. Spector can do right now to earn the trust of Democrats:

1. Drop his opposition to Ms. Dawn Johnson, Pres. Obama's pick for the White House Office of Legal Counsel.
2. Immediately come out in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

This later action would not really be much of a flip-flop for Mr. Spector since he supported the legislation last year and only turned against under pressure from the wing-nuts in his own party. So by supporting the EFCA he would be returning to his former position.

Once Al Franken is finally seated this will give the Democrats a theoretical filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. However the Dems are going to need to watch Sen. Spector very closely because he has been quite clear this this is political move on his part in order to avoid a Republican challenge in the primaries in 2010.

So with a lot of encouragement Sen. Spector can probably be convinced to become an actual Democrat instead of a DINO as he is now.