Steele is turning out to be irrepressible, which is the worst thing you could possibly want in a party spokesman. You really do better with a guy who can repress at the drop of a hat.

The chief G.O.P. talking point was that Specter had only switched parties because he wanted to get re-elected. “To me, this was not a question of, ‘oh, gee, all of a sudden I found principles as a Democrat.’ This is about political survival,” said Steele.

It was a superdepressing message to Steele’s fellow party members north of the Mason-Dixon line: Good for you in saddling yourself with a toxic political affiliation out of principle.

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And besides, nobody ever suggested that Specter was acting out of anything but self-interest, including Specter himself.

In his coming-out press conference, the newest Democrat — who had been giving interviews for months stressing his determination to stay a Republican and protect the two-party system — said that the precipitation for the jump came on Friday when he got poll results showing how bleak his prospects were for winning the Republican primary in his re-election fight next year.

Then, he managed to drop the fact that he has more seniority than the current chairman of the Labor-Health Appropriations Subcommittee.

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Sorry about that, Tom Harkin .

Nobody has ever tried to paint Arlen Specter as a profile in courage. As the Judiciary Committee chairman, he demonstrated his moderateness by consistently expressing sympathy for the Democrats’ objections to proposals like depriving prisoners of the right of habeas corpus or appointing Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court . Then, of course, he went right ahead and voted with the Bush administration. But he wanted it on the record that his heart was in the right place.

Nevertheless, the Democrats were very, very happy to welcome him into the fold. “I have known Senator Specter for more than a quarter-century. He has always been a man of honor and integrity, and a fine public servant,” said the majority leader, Harry Reid , who wrote in his 2008 autobiography that Specter “is always with us when we don’t need him.”

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The fabled 60th vote! Finally, the Democrats can override filibuster threats and pass the Obama agenda! Except that even as Specter was arriving, his new fellow party members were reminding their leaders that they reserved the right to gum up the works at a moment’s notice. “They might have a 60-member majority. That doesn’t mean they have 60 votes,” warned Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska , who is busy trying to block the Obama student loan reform bill.

The real import of this story isn’t the 60 votes. It’s that Arlen Specter, with his unparalleled instinct for self-preservation, became a Democrat because the people of Pennsylvania like the Democratic agenda better. And the Republicans were too fanatical or deluded to allow him to straddle the line.

“Well, if spending the hard-earned dollars of the American people and redistributing their wealth and moving towards a collectivist socialist approach to government, if that helps you realize you’re a Democrat, then, you know, good riddance,” Steele said.