Yet another Specter update - nuance

Powerline speculates that the anti-Specter outcry has achieved the correct result. The thinking appears to be that Frist has sufficiently reined in Specter that Specter will behave. Powerline credits the outcry for this result.

I don't really disagree with Powerline's analysis. Only time will tell if Specter will really behave. I certainly agree that we could not have extracted promises of good behavior from Specter had the blogosphere not made a fuss. But the point that Powerline misses is that if the rest of the blogosphere had engaged in the same thinking as Powerline and Hugh Hewitt, the outcry would never have occured. Had our thinking been as nuanced as theirs, Specter would now be skating smugly to his chairmanship, salivating over the damage he would do to what's left of the Constitution. [He may be thinking that way anyway.]

Even if you want to achieve a nuanced result, the nuanced approach doesn't always work. Nuanced means do not always achieve nuanced ends. As in this case, one needs a strong conservative front to force the opposing side back to the compromise table.