As that wise sage Yogi Berra once said, "It's deja vu all over again." In 2004, the last time then Republican Senator Arlen Specter was facing a tough Pennsylvania primary challenge, he received eleventh hour endorsements from top GOP players that saved him from a humiliating primary defeat. He went on to win reelection and then promptly betrayed both the voters and his party by becoming a Democrat. Now, in another tough primary challenge, his new party's establishment is rushing to his aid.

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Senator Specter who once held a commanding lead of his primary challenger, US Representative Joe Sestak (D-Pennsylvania) is fading fast. A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed the senator just 8 points ahead and today's Muhlenberg College/Allentown Morning Call daily tracking poll has that lead down to just 4 points. This has prompted Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman T.J. Rooney to warn members of his party that a Specter defeat could have “cataclysmic” consequences for the Senate campaign this fall. (source)

The 'Save Specter to Save Your Party' message will sound eerily family to Pennsylvania Republicans who remember a similar message from then President George W. Bush and then Senator Rick Santorum, GOP heavyweights whose last minute endorsements over his then primary challenger Pat Toomey pushed Senator Specter to victory by a slim margin. Last month former Senator Santorum confessed that he endorsed Mr. Specter because, "we were going to have two Supreme Court nominees coming up. I got a commitment from Arlen Specter that no matter who George W. Bush would nominate, he would support that nominee." (source)

As Representative Sestak said following that admission, "Rick Santorum's stunning confirmation that Arlen Specter sold his influence as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee for a political endorsement should be extremely troubling to Pennsylvanians,''

Evidently neither that sale nor the blatant betrayal of his former party is troubling to the Democratic establishment. Chairman Rooney is pushing hard for a Specter victory saying, "If we want to keep this seat in Democratic hands, the only person capable of delivering that victory is Arlen Specter." (source)

That former Republican challenger Pat Toomey is now the presumptive Republican opponent either Specter or Sestak will face in November and he has strong leads over both Democrats in recent polls. (source) But if Senator Specter somehow manages to win both his primary and the general election in November, there's little doubt the Democratic establishment will learn their lesson the hard way: Arlen Specter's one and only concern is Arlen Specter; not his alleged principles, not his current party and certainly not the people of Pennsylvania.