By Mr. Curmudgeon

“Beneath the surface of their formally polite, if aloof, reserve bubbled resentment that their one-time foe was now a general. To them, he was a double traitor who had rebelled against the mother country before turning on his fellow Americans,” writes historian Dave Richard Palmer of Benedict Arnold. “No one trusts – or for that matter, likes – a traitor.” Sen. Arlen Specter knows the feeling. “Senator Arlen Specter left the Republican Party last year and became a Democrat to save his political career,” reports the New York Times. “Now at 79, he suddenly finds that the party he switched into may not provide a safe haven.”

Backed by President Obama and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, Specter is expected to win against his Democratic challenger Joe Sestak, who described Specter as a “flight risk.” According to state Democratic chairman T. J. Rooney, Specter is “more true to the base.” That’s hardly news. Specter has always derived strength from the support of the lunatic fringe of the Democratic Party.

Former Republican Representative Patrick Toomey, who narrowly lost to Specter in Pennsylvania’s 2004 primary election, is the likely standard bearer for the Republicans in this year’s midterm elections. He is positioned perfectly to garner support from the well-organized forces of the Tea Party, and is greatly encouraged by the recent Massachusetts election of Scott Brown. “And Pennsylvania is a lot more conservative than Massachusetts,” assures Toomey. As Dante said in his Divine Comedy, “And now, I said, you traitor bent on evil, I do not need your talk, for I shall carry true news of you, and that will bring you shame.”