Gaining Arlen Specter is purely symbolic. Even with Al Franken pushing the Dems to 60, Arlen's still against EFCA which is kind of a big deal.
And that's without getting into dickweeds like Bayh. And Lieberman's going to be kissing some serious ass for awhile, but don't expect him to vote with not-actually-his-party on the war.
60 Dems make for a good symbolic victory, but that's all.
Calculated or not, this is really messing with the Republicans regardless. Specter will not want to part too much with the Democrats lest he alienate both parties.
Of course, given that he's spent the past 8 years vocally criticizing Bush and then weaseling out when it comes down to actually voting, he fits right in with the party leadership.
Well, he's getting a 76% approval rating from Dems as it is. After putting up with his own party attacking him, it's not really surprising he'd defect.
Yeah, he's had pretty bipartisan support over the years. I remember chastising Stef for voting for him.
But hey, they got rid of Santorum, anyway.