100 days - and shock defection - boosts Obama’s grip on power

President Obama can celebrate his 100th day in office today knowing that he is one step closer to securing unfettered power in Washington – and domination across ever bigger swaths of America.

The dramatic defection of veteran Senator Arlen Specter from Republican ranks has put Democrats on course to gain a congressional “super-majority” for the first time in a generation.

This makes it easier, if not certain, that Mr Obama will be able to make rapid progress with key items on his bulging legislative agenda such as healthcare reform as well as speeding through nominations that have stalled in the Senate.

Mr Specter, who has served Pennsylvania in the Senate for 29 years, described his switch of affiliation as “painful”, but declared that Republicans had “moved far to the right” in recent years and “I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats”.
Mr Obama, who was handed a note informing him of Mr Specter’s decision during a morning meeting, spoke to the Senator just before the announcement yesterday and told him that Democrats would be “thrilled to have you”.
The defection means that the party is likely to get the 60 votes needed to overcome Senate delaying tactics known as filibusters when Minneso-ta’s supreme court rules later this summer on whether Democrat Al Franken’s razor-thin election victory there should stand.
Although Mr Specter, 79, said he had reached the decision gradually, secret negotiations on Capitol Hill and repeated overtures from Vice-President Joe Biden in recent weeks are believed to have tipped the balance. It is understood that the Democratic leadership has promised to give Mr Specter strong backing – and to discourage others from standing against him – in next year’s Pennsylvania primary.
He had faced a tough contest for the Republican nomination in his home state where he was being challenged by former Congressman Pat Toomey, a staunch conservative. Polls showed that his approval ratings are 35 per cent higher among Democrats than Republicans in Pennsylvania.
As one of just three Republicans in Congress to have backed Mr Obama’s $787 billion (£537 billion) stimulus Bill earlier this year, Mr Specter said he was aware his vote had caused “a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable”. He added: “I am unwilling to have my 29-year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate. I have not represented the Republican Party. I have represented the people of Pennsylvania.”
Although the addition of Mr Specter and Mr Franken would give the Democrats a filibuster-proof majority for the first time since 1979 when Jimmy Carter was President, it does not guarantee that Mr Obama will be able to get all his legislation through Congress.
Pointing out that he remained opposed to the Employee Free Choice Bill – which would abolish the requirement to hold secret ballots for union organising – Mr Specter said: “My change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans.”
Healthcare and energy reform are looming. Democrats have promised to employ a technique called “reconciliation” to push through health legislation with as few as 51 votes, but recognise a 60-seat majority will be needed to approve bitterly contested measures to limit carbon emissions. Mr Specter, as a Senator from a coal-mining state, may now join others – both Democratic and Republican – in seeking to secure concessions on this Bill from the Administration.
His presence in the Democratic caucus may also help to speed through some of the nominations that have languished in the Senate. The greater significance of the defection, however, is likely to be its consequences for a Republican Party that now looks marginalised in many regions as it retreats into a Southern redoubt.
Among 435 members of the House of Representatives, there is not a single Republican from New England. In the Senate, they have just two, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. “Ultimately, we’re heading to having the smallest political tent in history the way things are unfolding,” said Ms Snowe yesterday. A Washington Post poll on Sunday showed that only 21 per cent of voters now regard themselves as Republicans.
Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing talk radio host, who, with Dick Cheney, has increasingly become the voice of the party since the election, welcomed Mr Specter’s departure. “It’s ultimately good,” he said. “You’re weeding out people who aren’t really Republicans.”
How filibusters are used
— The filibuster rule in the US Senate allows the minority party to block legislation with 40 of the 100 votes. The filibuster is the act of holding the floor, preventing a vote
— Senators have been required to stand and speak nonstop for hours, reading from recipe books, the Bible or popular literature in an act of defiance
— Filibustering has been used to block everything from judicial nominations to civil rights legislation. Strom Thurmond, a Southern Democrat, holds the record for a filibuster, when he spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957

— The practice was nearly eliminated in 2005 when Republicans threatened to use a “nuclear option” – overriding a Democrat filibuster of President Bush’s judicial nomination