Well, well, well. All you who believe that politicians are sometimes honest and sincere, please find the nearest seat and park your butt in it, because you’re about to be schooled. Law School Ninja is proud to present reason #7583 why you should never believe the words of a politician (hat tip: @TheFix).

Now, in case your attention span won’t allow you to watch this video in its entirety, let me sum it up for you. You remember Senator Arlen Specter, right? He’s the one who just switched parties to become a Democrat after being elected as a Republican. Oh yeah, now you remember. Well, do you remember back in 2001 when Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont did the same thing and switched parties? Remember all the outrage and sadneses it caused? Turns out that our good friend Arlen Specter was so terribly disappointed and disgusted with this move that he gave a speech about it on the Senate floor, in which he announced his intention to propose a rule change that would prohibit senators from changing parties in mid session. Wait… what? Yep, you read that right. In 2001, Senator Arlen Specter, the king of party switching, was so repulsed by this idea in 2001 that he wanted to outlaw it. Please pay close attention to the part around 5 minutes in where he espouses his belief that the organizational vote “belongs to the party which supported my election.” Also, around 7:15 or so, he starts talking about party switching for personal benefit. You’ll remember that Arlen Specter’s stated reason for switching parties a couple of weeks ago was given by him explicitly as being one of personal expedience so that he might keep his cushy job in the Senate.

So, to sum up, Senator Specter was against party switching before he was for it. Got it?

*The title of this post is the answer to the question: How do you tell if a politician is lying?