Medary.com

Saturn, once touted at GM's future, the nameplate which would lead GM's counterattack against the more efficient, less unionized Japanese carmakers, is being killed off.

As part of the revised Viability Plan and the need to move faster and further, GM in the U.S. will focus its resources on four core brands, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC. The Pontiac brand will be phased out by the end of 2010. GM will offer a total of 34 nameplates in 2010, a reduction of 29 percent from 48 nameplates in 2008, reflecting both the reduction in brands and continued emphasis on fewer and stronger entries. This four-brand strategy will enable GM to better focus its new product development programs and provide more competitive levels of market support.

The revised plan moves up the resolution of Saab, Saturn, and Hummer to the end of 2009, at the latest. Updates on these brands will be provided as these initiatives progress.

Meanwhile, Senator Arlen Specter (RINO-PA) has dropped the R and will be a Democrat henceforth.

Specter faced an extraordinarily difficult re-election challenge in his home state in 2010, having first to confront a challenge from his right in the Republican primary before pivoting to a general election campaign against a Democrat.

"I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate," he said in the statement.

Facing a probable defeat in the 2010 Republican primary election in Pennsylvania, Look-out-for-Number-One Specter finds his true home in the party of unlimited governmental power and centralized authority, the Democrats. As a currently registered (and very, very, VERY disgruntled) Republican, let me just say Arlen, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. The Republicans are better without you.