I still can't tell for sure if this is happening because of some grand design or is just a series of events that add up to something bigger, but it looks to me as if the Republicans have bet the farm...and their future...on being the extremist, take-no-prisoners, we-never-compromise-no-matter-what-the-result political party in the United States.

Consider the following, all of which happened just in the past week:

Senator Arlen Specter's decision to switch parties yesterday was a stunning turn of events.  Last Friday, a Rasmussen poll showed his primary opponent, former Congressman and staunch conservative, Pat Toomey, with a 51-30% lead.  Specter expressed regret that "so many in the Party I have worked for for more than four decades do not want me to be their candidate."   He cited 200,000 Pennsylvanians switching to the Democratic Party and his desire to adhere to principle, but the real reason he switched was political survival.  President Obama immediately embraced him as a Democrat, and that will assure Mr. Specter's reelection as a Democrat in 2010.