Whither the reptilian Arlen Specter?

More and more it's looking like he will do just that; enter the primary, at least. After early public denials and then a string of philosophical battles with himself and loads of wrenching maybes, Sestak, as of yesterday, was all the way up to being "inclined" to go mano a mano with the shifty incumbent.

Actually it was Fox News, or more precisely, Judge Andrew Napolitano of Fox News, who first observed in an interview with Sestak that he sounded "more inclined to run now," and sure enough the two-term congressman shot back: "I am." All of which in the circuitous doublespeak of politicsese translates to: I will.

Sestak likely had been encouraged and fortified by a growing number of news reports -- news speculations, rather -- that "Suddenly Specter’s path to reelection as a Democrat is looking far from certain, as progressives recoil at some aspects of Specter’s voting record and two prominent candidates refuse to bow out."

First things first. I suspect that many if not most meat-and-potatoes progressives wouldn't give two partisan hoots about any ship-jumping senator's past voting record, as long as he or she promises to be a better and wiser boy or girl in the future -- as long as, that is, the fleeing expatriate at least goes through the motions of corrective humility. Anything for a bigger majority, even if only in name.

But when these same progressives witnessed Mr. Specter's impertinent countenance on "Meet the Press" last weekend and then encountered his audible impertinence of, "I did not say I would be a loyal Democrat," well, the artificial warmth drained, the forced theatricality had failed to hold, the whole phony jig was up.

Arlen had gone one cranky independent step too far -- and most critically, way too soon. Poor form. Very poor form.

It also came across as a kind of ruthless scamming of Harry Reid & Co., whose spine, as it were, is already too weakly inept to withstand another straw. Human nature -- not to mention the superior political instinct of self-preservation -- suggests that Specter was probably less insultingly blunt in his earlier backroom dealings with Majority Leader Reid about how he would publicly frame his going rogue. But once safe and secure, or what he thought was safe and secure, Specter plunged the knife. Live. On-air. Ouch.

The latter of which was also, I imagine, what President Obama and Gov. Ed Rendell yelped as they suffered through that "MTP" moment of ungrateful poignancy: For Christ's sake, Arlen, everyone already knew you were an opportunistic snake who slithers hither and yon only to save your own scaly skin, but you didn't need to friggin' advertise that fact right out of the gate. Have you no sense of decent insincerity, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decent insincerity?

For his part, Joe Sestak indicated that he's perhaps better suited for the dainty diplomatic corps than the occasional rough and tumble of the U.S. Senate: "I’m kind of disappointed in the Democratic establishment in Washington, D.C.," he kind of told CNN on the same day of Specter's rude re-emergence from coming out.

Of keener interest, though, is where the money and ground organizations lie, such as labor. And here, again, things aren't looking so good for Arlen. Andy Stern of SEIU has twittered how "impressive" Joe is, while the AFL-CIO's secretary-treasurer "said Monday that labor might not back Specter if he votes against them on" card check.

Specter has pledged to vote agin' it, but my guess is that, being Specter, he'll figure a way to molt once again and find himself one sunny morning lazing on a warming rock with labor's grand poobahs. Problem is, with labor the practical power is invested in the locals. And whether they forgive him and his creative manipulations is an altogether different issue.

The real comic-drama, however, is shaping up on the Republican side -- inserting stage aside here: I just inadvertently typed lowercase "republican," which is the historical direction Republicans should be going in their befuddled search for a raison d'etre, but they remain too ideologically fatheaded to realize it.

At any rate, "Almost as soon as the reality sunk in that [fatheaded Pat Toomey] could be the GOP nominee in Democratic-trending Pennsylvania, some Republicans began casting about for an alternative." Said, for instance, Sen. Orrin Hatch: "I don’t think there is anybody in the world who believes he can get elected senator there" -- an astonishingly sticky statement from such an oleaginous little man.

"[T]he National Republican Senatorial Committee was in contact with moderate Pennsylvania Rep. Jim Gerlach.... [N]ational and state Republicans were urging another moderate, former GOP Gov. Tom Ridge, to join the race.... [And] NRSC Chairman John Cornyn of Texas hesitated when given the opportunity to endorse Toomey on Friday."

What a delightful discombobulation, all the way around.