Don't Crap Where You Eat, Arlen

If Arlen Specter's going to act like a Republican, root for Republicans, and vote like a Republican in the Senate, then his new Democratic Party buddies are going to treat him like a Republican.

The Senate dealt a blow tonight to Sen. Arlen Specter's hold on seniority in several key committees, a week after the Pennsylvanian's party switch placed Democrats on the precipice of a 60-seat majority.

In a unanimous voice vote, the Senate approved a resolution that added Specter to the Democratic side of the dais on the five committees on which he serves, an expected move that gives Democrats larger margins on key panels such as Judiciary and Appropriations.

But Democrats placed Specter in one of the two most junior slots on each of the five committees for the remainder of this Congress, which goes through December 2010. Democrats have suggested that they will consider revisiting Specter's seniority claim at the committee level only after the midterm elections next year.

"This is all going to be negotiated next Congress," Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), said tonight.

Specter's office declined to comment.

Nor would I expect them to have anything to say other than "Well damn, we certainly screwed up, didn't we?" Specter managed to piss off the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in the space of a week. Not even Joe F'ckin Lieberman managed to gather up that much hate.