As soon as I saw the headline “Specter switching parties” I thought he was becoming a Republican. Apparently he was a Republican all along. Who’da thunk it.

“I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary,” said Specter in a statement. “I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election.”

He added: “Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.”

Uh huh. And yet last month he was just fine remaining a Republican, swearing up and down that he’d run in his party’s primary?

I am staying a Republican because I think I have an important role, a more important role, to play there. The United States very desperately needs a two-party system. That’s the basis of politics in America. I’m afraid we are becoming a one-party system, with Republicans becoming just a regional party with so little representation of the northeast or in the middle atlantic. I think as a governmental matter, it is very important to have a check and balance. That’s a very important principle in the operation of our government. In the constitution on Separation of powers.

Methinks someone saw his poll numbers against Pat Toomey and realized he didn’t have a snowball’s chance in the deepest depths of hell. Pennsylvania election law says you can’t lose your party’s primary and then run as an independent (ala Lieberman against Lamont), so Specter’s making a run in the empty Democratic primary in the hopes of winning that and carrying the state’s lefty and center voters.

I’m hearing from lefties about how this gives them a filibuster-proof majority. Really? I’m pretty sure Democrats had that already on most issues from Specter, even without using the so-called “reconciliation” move that the left decried years ago but now wants to use itself. The party affiliation change is nothing more than a formality to allow him to run as a Democrat. He’s still the same Arlen Specter…unfortunately.

As Michelle Malkin says, “Specter makes it official”.