Vin Suprynowicz

Arlen Specter, who as an ambitious young counsel to the Warren Commission intimidated witness Jean Hill in an attempt to make her repudiate her statement that she heard four to six shots at Dealey Plaza on Nov. 23, 1963, was also the chief architect of the “magic bullet theory,” in which a single bullet from the clunky Italian-surplus bolt-action rifle of Lee Harvey Oswald was presumed to have changed direction several times in order to wound both President Kennedy and Gov. John Connally.

This “single bullet theory” — accepted by the slimmest possible 4-3 majority of a commission headed by the man who signed the order to intern the Japanese-Americans in 1942 — had to be embraced to justify the single-assassin theory of the Warren Commission, a conclusion rejected by 81 percent of Americans, according to a 2001 Gallup poll. (President Kennedy’s head flew backward, as his brain matter sprayed in a cone to the rear. That was caused by a bullet from the rear? It’s possible. But John Connally, who was there, testified to the Warren Commission that “There were either two or three people involved, or more, in this — or someone was shooting with an automatic rifle.” (Warren Commission Hearings, vol. IV, p. 133.)

(Oddly enough, the Carcano fires a 6.5 mm round — hard for forensic analysts as apparently undistinguished as those available in Dallas in 1963 to distinguish, spent, from the 6.5 mm round of the extremely accurate Swedish Mauser, which since 1942 has also come in a readily available semi-automatic variant, the Ljungman.)

A man who learned early how to sacrifice truth — and any other inconvenient principle — in search of personal advantage, Arlen Specter wrangled his loyal service to the forces of “Let’s Put a Lid on This” into a 30-year career in the U.S. Senate. But this year, Sen. Specter’s refusal to be tied to any “inflexible” GOP principles — limited government, balanced budgets, things like that — finally placed him between a rock and a hard place.

Sen. Specter was faced with the prospect of a strong challenge from conservative Pat Toomey in the GOP primary, in a state of Pennsylvania now trending heavily Democratic, thanks to a 40-year federal policy of increasing the welfare population of Greater Philadelphia by subsiding serial illegitimate births.

What to do?

Not a hard question, if you’re as politically “flexible” as Arlen “Magic Bullet” Specter.

Tuesday, April 28, after 30 years, Arlen Specter came out of the closet. All this time, he now reveals, he’s been, yes … a Democrat.

There just to serve and represent the people, were we, Arlen?

The switch puts Democrats — who currently hold 56 seats — within one vote of a filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate. The Senate’s lone Independent and its single admitted Socialist also typically vote with the Democrats, who find little over which to disagree with them. Republicans have 41 seats.

With Magic Bullet Specter switching sides, Democrats will reach the magical number of 60 if professional comedian Al Franken, who has been entangled in a protracted recount battle with incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (“Recount: a procedure in which votes are recounted until the Democrat takes the lead, at which point the recounting ends”), is seated for Minnesota.

Sen. Specter, one of just three congressional Republicans to vote for President Obama’s wasteful, inflationary, and properly unpopular $787 billion stimulus package, is now likely to face a general election challenge from Mr. Toomey, former head of the conservative Club for Growth, who almost defeated Specter in a 2004 GOP primary. Mr. Toomey was already beating Sen. Specter in public opinion polls of GOP primary voters.

“Let’s be honest — Sen. Specter didn’t leave the GOP based on principles of any kind,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. “He left to further his personal political interests because he knew that he was going to lose a Republican primary due to his left-wing voting record.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told FOX News Specter’s decision now puts pressure on a lot of red-state Democrats, who campaigned on their conservative credentials, to step up.

“They may be the only thing that can stop this radical liberal agenda,” he said.

Political experts in Pennsylvania told Fox News that Sen. Specter has alienated the Republican base over the years with his support for abortion rights and gay rights, and other more hard-core conservative issues. His approval rating among Republicans hovers in the 30s.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., praised Specter’s decision and the man himself, noting, predictably, that he has “always been willing to work in a bipartisan manner.”

(If a Democrat voted against rationed medicine, or against victim disarmament, or against the proposed Democratic tax on each American for every mile we drive, or against union “card check,” or against any other part of the current radical Democratic agenda, do you suppose Sen. Reid would praise the move as “bipartisan”?)

In the short run, the risk of Barack Obama gaining the ability to bankrupt the nation by pushing through his radical agenda — complete with “carbon taxes” high enough to vastly degrade the standard of living of the entire middle class — is a legitimate cause for concern (unless you’re ready to declare “Let them try it and fail, and the sooner the better,” which I’m not sure I am.)

In the medium and long run, however, shedding cynical fake conservatives like Arlen Specter — while moving toward freedom and the Ron Paul libertarians — is precisely what the Republican Party needs to do.

In 2008, the party nominated a candidate who ended up shouting “Me Too!” to bailouts, federal meddling with the Bill of Rights, and “green” economic nonsense little different from that of the Democrats.

Faced with a choice between “Real Democrat” and “Democrat Lite,” many voters predictably chose the less watery brew.

If the Republican Party is to return, it must do so by rediscovering its 20th century roots and principles as the party of less government, lower taxes, and more freedom.

Arlen Specter rarely stood for any of those things. If the GOP congressional delegation is now one fewer, it also stands, contradictorily, that much closer to victory.

“Wish not one man more,” as Henry the Fifth advised, “Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, That he which hath no stomach to this fight, Let him depart … We would not die in that man’s company, … we few, we happy few, we band of brothers. …

“And gentlemen in England now-a-bed, Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”

Henry was outnumbered five-to-one. All he had was a unified command, a strategy, and a bunch of peasants with longbows. He did OK.