Sorry, but you lose worse with Democrats. Haven't we learned anything from the last 50 years? The Democrats absolutely cannot be allowed to make gains in Congress. We can't afford to go backwards.
The time to replace "RINOs" with "conservatives" is in the primary. Most RINOs are preferable to Democrats, because most RINOs can be bullied into voting on conservative issues, even a little bit of the time (whereas Democrats will do it none of the time). I previously posted to Freerepublic some of the things that the Republican Senate has accomplished. They will accomplish more when there are more conservatives, but you're not going to get that with Joe Hoeffel.
However, I understand that Arlen Specter is not your typical RINO, he's worse. He's a traitor, a man of no principles. And he will certainly cause damage as head of the Judiciary Committee. But you have to weigh the possible damage he will cause in 6 years, with the decades of damage Democrats will cause if they make gains in the Senate.
DameAutour wrote: " The time to replace "RINOs" with "conservatives" is in the primary."
BINGO! As much as I despise RINOs, I agree with your assessment. A RINO will vote Republican once in awhile, while Democrats usually vote in lockstep with their party.
I think that we are close to agreeing. This is a unique situation with important ramifications. The key is Kyl. If he wasn't next in line, I'd vote 3rd party as a protest. But protest votes still leave him in office. I've looked at this closely and everything about "R"len tells me that he has to go.
He has no respect for Republican values, let alone conservative ones. His votes 'with' us are most likely to fall into place during the final year of his term. If Clarence Thomas had been nominated a year AFTER the election, we'd all be saying Clarence WHO? Specter knew that he was under the microscope and needed conservative votes to win. He's spent a lot of time apologizing for it since.