From the Whispers column in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN? Specter's new Democrat colleagues certainly are being generous to his re-election campaign.

House Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Patrick Leahy of Vermont each have donated $10,000 to Specter, as has Democrat-turned-independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

Pitching in $5,000 each were Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Daniel Inouye of Hawaii and Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan wrote a $4,000 check and Sens. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico each ponied up $2,000.

The Hill, a Washington, D.C.-based newspaper, speculated that the generous donations might be an attempt to make up for the considerable sum Specter lost by defecting from the GOP.

He has refunded more than $100,000 to irate contributors who assumed they were giving their money to a Republican -- right up until the moment Specter turned turncoat.

Given Specter's atrocious polling numbers, we're thinking a less reckless way for his fellow senators to have spent their money would have been to toss it from the top of the Washington Monument.

Read the rest of the column at the newspaper's Web site.