Inside the Beltway

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By John McCaslin

SOME WELCOME

At 4:07 p.m. Tuesday, the front page of the Democratic National Committee Web site flashed the headline: "Welcoming Sen. Specter to the Democratic Party."

"Earlier today, Senator Arlen Specter left the Republican Party and he is now a Democrat," the DNC announced. "Help us welcome Sen. Specter. Post a comment."

Twenty-four hours later, not one visitor to the widely-viewed DNC site saw fit to comment.

SO THAT'S IT

"The president approached me when he was Senator Obama, before the Democratic primary. And he said, 'Tell me, Arlen, if a Jewish kid from Kansas can carry Pennsylvania, how can a black kid from Kansas carry Pennsylvania?' And I gave him some advice, and he became, he became president of the United States of America."

- Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter speaking Wednesday at the White House (the senator is now hoping he can win re-election as a Democrat, given he was trailing his Republican challenger Pat Toomey, a former Pennsylvania congressman, by a sizable margin in the polls).

SPARE A DIME?

The May 2009 Harper's Index, not surprisingly, reflects heavily on the economic downturn in this country, including this pair of revealing eye-openers:

Percentage of all U.S. men over 20 who are now unemployed or not seeking work: 31