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Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell pulled no punches last night on The Ed Show in an enthusiastic pitch job for the new "Democrat" Arlen Specter. Rendell said in a primary challenge Congressman Joe Sestak would "get killed" because the party machinery and even the president are now squarely behind Specter, and that Specter is so well-known in the state while Sestak is not.

"I'm a great admirer of Joe Sestak and worked hard to get him elected and re-elected," Rendell said. "And I'm going to work hard to get him re-elected when he runs for Congress next year. Not for the Senate. Joe should not run for the Senate in the Democratic primary. He would get killed."

And if Sestak does run?

"We will lose a terrific Congressman," Rendell said. "Joe Sestak runs against Arlen Specter, he is out of the Congress after just two short terms. We will lose a terrific Congressman and when he loses to Arlen, he fades into political obscurity."

Rendell was the prime instigator in getting Specter to switch to the Democratic Party, and their history goes way back. Rendell's first job was in the DA's office in Philadelphia under Arlen Specter in the late 60's. (Rendell himself would later be elected District Attorney of Philadelphia in 1977.)

And much of what Rendell is saying is true. Specter "the Democrat" is getting broad-based democratic institutional support, even by Obama himself, where he appeared at a Beverley Hills fundraiser, as well as Joe Biden and Harry Reid. That part isn't surprising.

What is unclear though at this point is how much rank-and-file Democrats will be cheering for this career opportunist should a serious primary attempt be made by a real Democrat in Joe Sestak.

I think this is hysterical. I mean, progressive Pennsylvania Democrats were pretty pissed off when the Beltway pols made the deal that put the anti-choice, radical centrist Bob Casey in the Senate, and over Ed Rendell promising Specter he wouldn't face a Democratic primary challenge. These backroom deals are how a state with a large liberal voting bloc keeps ending up with conservative representation:

Senior Senate Democrats are objecting to the deal Majority Leader Harry Reid made with Sen. Arlen Specter, saying they will vote against letting the former Republican shoot to the top of powerful committees after he switches parties.

Several Democrats are furious with Sen. Reid (D-Nev.) for agreeing to let Specter (Pa.) keep his seniority, accrued over more than 28 years as a GOP senator. That agreement would allow Specter to leap past senior Democrats on powerful panels — including the Appropriations and Judiciary committees.

“I won’t be happy if I don’t get to chair something because of Arlen Specter,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who sits on the Appropriations Committee with Specter and is fifth in seniority among Democrats, behind Chairman Daniel Inouye (Hawaii) and Sens. Robert Byrd (W.Va.), Patrick Leahy (Vt.) and Tom Harkin (Iowa). “I’m happy with the Democratic order, but I don’t want to be displaced because of Arlen Specter,” she said.

Specter’s first full day in Washington after turning the Capitol upside down with his decision to switch parties suggested a lonely future awaits in the upper chamber.

While he received a formal welcome Wednesday to the Democratic Party at the White House from President Obama and Vice President Biden, senior Senate Democrats exchanged phone calls to voice their objections to Reid’s gambit and one lawmaker said Specter should be happy with a committee seat at the “end of the dais.” Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and two other members of the Senate Republican leadership asked Specter to refund campaign donations.

One senior Democratic lawmaker told The Hill that the Democratic Conference will vote against giving the longtime Pennsylvania Republican seniority over lawmakers like Harkin, Mikulski and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) when they hold their organizational meeting after the 2010 election.

Under his deal with Reid, Specter would jump ahead of all but a few Democrats when it comes time to dole out committee chairmanships and assignments.

“That’s his deal and not the caucus’s,” the senior lawmaker said of Reid’s agreement with Specter.

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Yesterday on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell -- a longtime advocate of gun-control laws -- offered a straightforward assessment of the prospects for passing any new restrictions or reforms anytime soon.

The upshot:

-- No one is going to be tackling this issue for the foreseeable future -- not until we fix the economy, the health-care system, and our energy problems.

-- Eventually there will be a conversation about this, somewhere down the road.

-- It would be nice to have a rational conversation about this.

Well, fat chance of that. But there's no doubt Rendell's proposals make a lot of common sense -- especially when, as Rendell notes, our police are outgunned by drug-running thugs using AK-47s. They're limited in scope (no confiscations, for example) and targeted to sensible approaches to real problems.

But try telling that to the Richard Poplawskis of the world.

E.J. Dionne has some further thoughts.