Ah, Dear Sweet Schadenfreude!

I'm glad that Arlen Spector is now their problem and not ours.

Let's be frank senator, you've painted yourself into a pretty tight corner. Never the most popular fellow in the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body, you have at least always had everyone’s grudging respect as a tough, smart guy. We may not like Snarlin' Arlen, they['d say, but we’d much rather have him as an ally than a foe.

But in the space of a single week, you have squandered that respect. First, you alienated the Republicans by defecting to the Democrats and then you managed to annoy the Democrats enough to have them vote to strip you of your seniority -- the preservation of which was the very reason you switched parties in the first place.

Now you are the 79 year-old rookie senator on every committee the Democrats will consent to let you sit in on. Without that seniority, it is hard to see what you have to offer the voters of Pennsylvania to stay in office. It's not like anybody in the Senate is rushing to do you favors right now.