Specter

(UPDATED) WASHINGTON — The bombshell announcement by Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter this morning that he will switch affiliation from Republican to Democrat could give Democrats the firepower to make major shifts in health-care, the environment and other weighty issues in the months ahead.

If Minnesota Democrat Al Franken survives appeals by Norm Coleman and gets seated, Democrats with Specter would have a 60-seat filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

Encouraged by Democrats at the highest levels to bolt from his party and pressed in the primary by well-funded Pennsylvanian Pat Toomey, Specter declared this morning that he would bolt from the GOP and seek re-election as a Democrat.

“I deeply regret that I will be disappointing many friends and supporters,” Specter said. “I am also disappointed that so many in the party I have worked for for more than four decades do not want me to be their candidate. It is very painful on both sides.”

Specter said that when he joined two other Republicans who bolted from their party to support the stimulus package that he knew it would be an unpopular vote.

“It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable,” he said, perhaps considering polls showing that he trails Toomey by as much as 20 percent.

Specter’s pro-choice position on abortion has often put him at odds with other Republicans though he has rankled Democrats, too, with some of his positions.

In 1991, Specter, along with then-Missouri Sen. John Danforth, secured support for the the controversial nomination of conservative jurist Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

President Barack Obama thanked Specter this morning and said he would have Democratic support in what could be an uphill fight to retain his Senate seat.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said that he has been among Democrats urging Specter to switch.

 ”His key vote in favor of President Obama’s Recovery Act showed a lot of political courage, and made him a target of much criticism from many in the Republican Party,” Durbin said in a statement. 

Durbin went to say that Specter “couldn’t have chosen a more important time to join us. President Obama is working with our caucus and all of the Congress to try to pass critically important and historic legislation …” 

Missouri Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond sounded a moderate tone at the defection of his fellow Republican.

“He chose what he clearly thinks is the easiest path to re-election this time,” Bond said.

But National Republican Chairman Michael Steele wasted no time blasting the defector.

“Let’s be honest,” Steele said in a statement, “Sen. Specter didn’t leave the GOP based on principles of any kind. He left to further his personal political interests because he knew that he was going to lose a Republican primary due to his left-wing voting record.

“Republicans look forward to beating Sen. Specter in 2010, assuming the Democrats don’t do it first,” Steele said.