Swine Flee

Chris Cilizza gets the big scoop that Arlen Specter, well, (R D-PA). Specter's statement is here. The initial response from progressive corners seems to be a frustrated optimism: Speculation about the Democratic primary contender strong enough to take down Specter is already afoot, while others bemoan that even a Specter switch is a net loss for progressives, as he has said that he won't change his position on the Employee Free Choice Act. (Even though he's already switched sides once.)

I would go further than Scott Lemieux and say that not only should we expect a lot of wrangling to make the filibuster-proof Senate majority operate like a filibuster-proof Senate majority, it will be more difficult to arrive at 60 votes now that the Democrats ostensibly have them. The threat to take a vote away from an agenda is more palpable than the threat to refuse to support a piece of legislation. At 60 votes, the agenda is at hand. That means that Ben Nelson (D-CO) and Evan Bayh (D-IN) become less reliable votes, insofar as they can wrest more from the leadership for their compliance. And in the Democratic Senate, discipline seems to work bottom up, not top down.

But some votes are different than others. We have 60, let's pack some courts.

UPDATE: The Corner is mandatory reading today. Ramesh Ponnuru: "My initial reaction on hearing the news was that after generating a bunch of Democratic House seats, the Club for Growth has now produced its first Democratic senator." Mark Hemingway: "I read that he was switching parties, but I was disappointed to learn he's still a Democrat."