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I am so confused about the intentions of Arlen Specter as I look back upon this week. How badly does he want to remain a Senator? We all know he would be practically handed a victory if he were to switch to the Democratic Party like the short lived rumor that was floating earlier this year. But after abandoning one of the Democratic party’s biggest constituencies with going against the Employee Free Choice Act which he once co-sponsored, that is now all but completely quelled.

As we have stated like a broken record on this blog, now with a shrinking Republican party in the increasingly left leaning state of Pennsylvania, Specter is endangered by Pat Toomey who will very likely be running against him in the primary from the right. Polls overwhelmingly show that he would be in great political danger with this possibility. That being said, one would think Specter would be spending his recess re-connecting with Pennsylvania Republicans.

Instead, we see behavior of someone who one would think is a safe incumbent.  Currently, Senator Specter is on vacation in Cancun instead of shaking hands in his home state like another endangered Senate colleague Chris Dodd. Another strange act of polarization was Arlen Specter appearing on the Howard Stern Show earlier this week, where Howard Stern emphatically stated he would supporting Senator Specter. Pat Toomey ought to be sending a postcard to Cancun thanking Senator Specter for the free potential soundbites linking Specter to Stern. I can honestly imagine them in my head right now.

Now back to the original subject line, Specter is now 79 years old, a survivor of cancer and quite an accomplished statesman. Could he, somewhere in the cobwebs of his mind, be considering a retirement? After all, if he wanted to maintain his Senate seat with every bone in his body, would not he be out at the town halls and VFW’s shaking some hands this week like almost every other Senator? Would not he avoid appearing on shock jock radio shows that would greatly offend the deeply socially conservative Pennsylvania Republican base that he needs to win over very quickly? I tend to believe that Specter wants to fight another day as most of his other political actions before this week have seemed to show. But, this past week has been like the strange twist in a novel that mostly reverses back to what you originally expected by the end of the book. But maybe, this twist isn’t so farfetched. Maybe, he’s ready to hang it up…