Sen. Specter was making a JOKE, fer cryin' out loud!

Remember the context of the question Sen. Specter was responding to: that his defection to the Dems left no more *Jewish* senators on the Repub side.

Sen. Specter was making a joking comment that that dire state of affairs could be easily rectified by the MN Supreme Court "doing the right thing" and boost the number of Jews in the Senate.

Sen. Specter was rooting for a fellow Jew! A *generic* Jew, regardless of party affiliation.

Cripes! The only "capital crime" was committed by the Capitol press corps that didn't get the joke. Or worse, they didn't *want* to get the joke because then it wouldn't be a news story.

On another note, is BrauBlog going to investigate the internal stuff going on at the Daily today/yesterday? Or the suspension of the E-I-C? I think a lot of us would like to see it.

Whatever Specter meant about the Franken/Coleman contest, I have a hunch we'll see him get in line with Obama'priorities in the senate...or he'll find his days there numbered. Specter is only competitive in Pennsylvania now with the full support of the president, the vice president, and the senate leadership. So he can SAY he's not an automatic vote for the Obama agenda. But in the end he will be when it counts. If there's one thing we know about Arlen, it's that keeping his seat is Priority One.

David-

You took the words right out of my head. Was going to write the exact same thing (but got caught up in a doula-midwife debate in the MN LEG)

@Tim Walker:

It was not a joke. Specter said it wasn't a joke and admitted he "misspoke".

Quote from Sen. Specter:

“I’m ordinarily pretty correct in what I say. I’ve made a career of being precise. I conclusively misspoke.”

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003110567&parm1=5

David -- Psssst. Hey. Chill. Easy on the "wet dream scenario" stuff. In the interest of evenhandedness (and no, I'm not going to go there -- sheesh, David), given his rant earlier, Olson will start in on you. Blois will be Blois, after all.

Word to the wise.

I would have to agree with William Souder Grant. It is getting difficult to understand what Specter is doing here. First came a gift from the primary campaign commercial gods when Specter claimed that he was in fact NOT a loyal Democrat. Then this assinine statement regarding Coleman. Oh, and also voting against Obama's budget, voicing opposition to EFCA and coming out against a public health insurance option. It appears that Harry Reid has also had enough as today he and his fellow Senate Dems stripped Specter of his seniority on all of his committees. Sounds like a pretty clear signal to me that Specter needs to sort out his priorities.

I wasn't there when Sen. Specter made his comment, so I didn't see his body language or hear the tone of his voice.

The NYT reporter *was* there, and does have that information, and presumably used it to interpret the senator's intent. She interpreted it one way, and I still contend that that may or may not have been the correct way. Communication can be tricky that way, you know?

Brauer's link (thanks, I'd not seen that before I commented), in which the reporter notes that she thought Sen. Specter meant what he said still leaves me unsatisfied.

Why? Because she was pretty unclear in her answer: "I trust he meant what he said." And "If he had been joking, surely he could have come up with a wittier line."

So, maybe Sen. Specter is bad at telling jokes, or can't tell a witty joke. But that doesn't mean that he didn't *intend* for it to be a joke.

And I think Sen. Specter's next-day clarification ("I misspoke") positively reeks of the kind of butt-kissing he's been known for in his entire political career.

And that's the kicker for me. What is Sen. Specter's motivation now? It's to play nicely with his new playmates. And so call me cynical, but that's why I think that on the day after he decided to say he misspoke ... because that's a stronger kiss-up to his new bosses.

In other words, I *did* know about Sen. Specter's clarification before I commented here today, but it didn't disuade me from interpreting his words the way I did.

Arlen Specter's as much a Democrat as Phil Spector is a gun control advocate. His ideological gyroscope seems to be set on the same course as the man who he so fervently wishes would be rejoining him in the Senate, former DEMOCRAT, Norm Coleman. These two guys could star together in their own movie, "Say Anything."