Changing Your Stripes

My friend Joey the Portuguese water dog's human wants to know what I think about the Senate race in Pennsylvania. (He is a Republican Portuguese water dog, breaking the Kennedy/Obama tradition). Well, what I think is that everyone hates Specter. Dyed-in-the-wool liberal Democrats like Martin's parents (who belong to my friend Avram the white kitty) can't stand him but have nowhere else to go. But Pennsylvania is quite a conservative state outside Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and Specter may well lose in November given the kind of anti-incumbent mood that's developing. You can't change your stripes twice--twice!--the way Specter has, and expect to retain loyal supporters.

But I told Joey that if I were a Republican like him, I wouldn't get too complacent. Opposing everything Obama does is not a policy, and they need one to win in November, even if it is a ripe piece of guff like Gingrich's "Contract With America."