Despite everything, Specter’s sojourn in the Democratic doghouse did not last very long. By the end of the week, the party leadership was rearranging things to give him a face-saving Senate subcommittee to chair. This is pretty much par for the course. After all, Joe Lieberman ran for re-election last year as an independent and then campaigned tirelessly for John McCain. Really, he did everything short of picketing the inauguration, and there was nary a wrist-slap.

This seems wrong. Bucking your party ought to mean accepting the risk of punishment. After all, you did sign up with the team, which is supposed to work together and get things done. Unfortunately, sometimes the team will go places where a man or woman of good conscience cannot follow. And then you will stand alone, a Profile in Courage. And we will cheer.

But the bravery part is all about facing up to the consequences. Lieberman was outraged when the Democratic voters in Connecticut responded to his principled stand in favor of the war in Iraq with their principled decision to find a new candidate for his seat. Specter was beside himself when the Republican voters seemed ready to toss him out of office for his vote in favor of the Obama stimulus plan, so he switched parties. Then he made it clear that he expected to reserve his right to be totally unreliable as a Democrat and be rewarded for it with a powerful subcommittee chairmanship currently in the possession of another Democratic senator.

President Obama, he reported to his new colleagues, told him that “he would seek my advice, especially when I disagree with him.” We are not sure this actually happened, since Specter’s memory of what assurances he got during the party-switching period seem to be at odds with those of the rest of the world. His hearing is not what it once was. Perhaps the president said, “I will have you over to watch Harvard play Yale,” and Specter heard, “I will invite you over after every betrayal.”

But it does fit in with Specter’s theory, which is that his propensity to do whatever he wants should not only be tolerated, but constantly rewarded. That’s not character. It’s self-indulgence.