Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter said today he is leaving the Republican Party and will run for re-election in 2010 as a Democrat, increasing the odds that Democrats will achieve a filibuster-proof majority.

Longtime House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill once declared, “All politics is local.” So it should come as no surprise that the loudest opponents to the bailout plan for the Big Three automakers were Republican senators whose states are home to factories run by Detroit’s foreign competitors.

The nearly nine-hour detour from a Senate debate on climate-change legislation yesterday - after Republicans insisted the 492-page bill be read aloud -offers a case study in how special interests influence the political process.