Republicans on the wane

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 | 2:08 a.m.

The Republican Party’s sprint toward extreme right-wing philosophy cost it one of its longest-serving senators Tuesday when Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announced he is joining the Democrats.

With Specter now aboard, Democrats have a 57-40 advantage over the Republicans in the Senate. Additionally, two Senate independents, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, often support Democratic legislation.

This advantage is critical because it takes 60 votes in the Senate to overcome opposition and move legislation to a vote. The Democrats could reach that magic number if the still-undecided Senate race in Minnesota goes to Al Franken, who leads Norm Coleman in both votes and court decisions.

Specter, first elected in 1980, has been a moderate senator with an independent mind, qualities that in recent years alienated him from Republican Party leaders who are moving well past the right of center — all the way to fringe territory.

This extremism is threatening to leave the party with only one stronghold in the country — the South. More and more Republicans in other areas, including Pennsylvania, are either switching parties or voting Democratic.

In the case of Specter, who defied Republican leaders in February and cast a crucial vote for President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill, the leadership’s leap to the extreme right led directly to his decision to switch parties.

With his base — moderate Republicans — being hounded from the party by their leadership (400,000 Pennsylvanians switched from Republican to Democrat in recent years), Specter realized his chances of winning a primary next year in the midterm elections against former three-term House member Pat Toomey were nil.

Toomey barely lost to Specter in 2004, having received vast financial support from the Club for Growth, a national organization that preaches limited government and which later named Toomey its president.

“I am unwilling to have my 29-year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate,” Specter said Tuesday.

Specter’s crossing of the aisle leaves the Senate with only a few moderate Republicans, who are themselves increasingly unpopular in their party.

As the House is already overwhelmingly Democratic, it appears Republican leaders are leading their party straight to insignificance.