Arlen Specter's switch from the Republican to the Democratic Party this past week wasn't the first time a public figure has pledged allegiance to the other team (see Coleman, Norm, circa 1996). Here are five others with a loose definition of loyalty:
DON KING
If the boxing promoter didn't think anyone would notice when he stepped over his own fallen fighter, Michael Dokes, in 1983 so he could raise the arm of new champion Gerrie Coetzee, he must have temporarily forgotten that he always sticks out like a sore thumb. Make that sore loser. Abandoning a guy whom he had referred to as his son proved that King was willing to dump anyone -- even a 215-pound bruiser -- to be on the winning side.
NINA MYERS
Jack Bauer's most elusive enemy was the one he slept with. In the inaugural season of "24," Myers (Sarah Clarke) was second in command of L.A.'s Counter Terrorist Unit and Bauer's (Kiefer Sutherland) staunch ally -- or so he thought. Turns out his former mistress was a mole bent on destroying the president. When that didn't fly, she killed Bauer's beloved wife, Teri. No wonder Bauer is still TV's mopiest character.
BENEDICT ARNOLD
Now we know him as a man whose very name, like Judas' before him and Quisling's after him, has become a substitute for "traitor." Before he switched sides during the Revolutionary War, Arnold was regarded as perhaps the colonies' best general. He became a turncoat for the Redcoats after being passed over for promotion and charged with corruption. After the war, he settled in merrie olde England, where he died in 1801 after suffering from gout and dropsy.
ANNE HECHE
The young actress dated Lindsey Buckingham and Steve Martin before hooking up with Ellen DeGeneres in 1997. Heche dumped DeGeneres in 2000 for another ... whoops, she returned to the heterosexual fold and wed a cameraman. That didn't last (surprise, surprise), and earlier this spring Heche bore a child with fellow "Men in Trees" actor James Tupper. So she has switched "teams" twice and partners ... well, we've lost count. Next up: Dame Edna.
BRETT FAVRE
"I'm not a traitor," said the quarterback at his first news conference with the New York Jets last summer. Try telling that to the millions of Cheeseheads who revered for you for a decade and a half, Brett. Yes, it would have been even more egregious if you had ended up wearing purple ... which, of course, still could happen.
