We're talking about years of getting party funds and Republican leaders coming in to Pennsylvania to campaign on his behalf.

Not only does he shaft the party that supported him, but he does it when the power balance in the Senate hangs on a thread, and a shift of one -- Specter -- makes the Democratic majority filibuster proof. And, he does this at a time when the most left wing administration in our history is pushing through a mega-ambitious agenda to nationalize everything in sight and undermine every traditional value we hold dear.

Truth is that Specter is neither a Republican nor a Democrat. He is a self serving egotist that stands for nothing other than the pursuit of personal political power and having the federal government as his sandbox to play in.

Consider that the first American politician to term limit himself was George Washington. As Washington's second term came to a conclusion, many around him felt his leadership was indispensable to the fledgling nation.

Yet Washington, who led the nation in war, and then as its first president, took himself out of the running. He knew that America fought to throw off the yoke of kings and the capricious use of power.

Considering that the greatest of Americans limited his political career out of principle casts further irony that the most unprincipled of Americans, Arlen Specter, feels he's so indispensable that he'll betray anyone or anything to hold on to power.

We should also recall Washington's guidance in his farewell address that "Of all the dispensations and habits which led to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports."

It's a message as relevant to today as when Washington wrote it in 1796, and relevant to every American of every background.

Republican Party problems started from straying from principles, not from sticking to them.

The party's future lies in principles, not in pandering. We need George Washingtons. Not Arlen Specters.