Senator Arlen Specter

It isn’t easy being Arlen Specter.

He is a Kansas-born politician who speaks with a unique, almost Nixon-like twang that in no way resembles a Philadelphia accent and yet rose to fame as the elected District Attorney in Philadelphia, a city that generally likes its candidates home-grown. He is a lawyer – and you know how most people feel about lawyers. He is Jewish and a resident of Philadelphia – and yet got elected US Senator in a state that is less than 10 percent Jewish and mostly resents Philadelphia. He is a long-time Philly sports fan who has to convince his Pittsburgh constituents that he admires the Steelers, Pirates and Penguins too. He is a moderate Republican who is considered a sellout and RINO (Republican In Name Only) by many of his more conservative GOP colleagues. He is a pro-choicer who incurred the wrath of liberal feminists for his tough questioning of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas hearings. He is a politician whose wife, former City Councilwoman Joan Specter, is also a politician. He is a financial success whose elder son, top-notch trial attorney Shanin Specter, is a far greater financial success. He is an energetic go-getter who in recent years has had to use much of that energy to battle life-threatening cancer.

It could be that when your parents name you “Arlen”, you learn how to fight to survive. But thanks to his ambition and intelligence, Arlen Specter has done more than just survive. He served two terms as Philadelphia’s DA in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and was elected to the US Senate in the 1980 Reagan landslide. Despite his critics and detractors, and despite being a Republican in a Democratic-leaning state, Arlen Specter keeps on winning. He has in fact been re-elected no fewer than 4 times and has distinguished himself as one of America’s brightest and most prominent senior Senators.

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