On the day you're the guy who switches parties and potentially gives Democrats a super-majority in the U.S. Senate, there are certain perks. Like making people read your boring New York Review of Books piece.

Before Arlen Specter was a Republican defector, he was just another old sad white guy in the Senate who no one paid any attention to (amirite Herb Kohl?). No one had read his 5,400-word article in the NYROB called "The Need to Roll Back Presidential Power Grabs." But today! Now that he's potentially the vote that will allow unfettered Democratic rule, well, everyone is telling him how they thought his point about the law of standing having enough flexibility to allow plaintiffs to challenge the Terrorist Surveillance Program is totally right on and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit can suck it.

Here, he lords over the gathered press, offering anyone who's actually read his piece the chance to ask him a question.