First, a disclaimer. I am related to Senator Arlen Specter. He and I are first cousins. His mother and my father were brother and sister. Both are long deceased. I don’t know Arlen well and have had little contact with him. When we have spent time together—at family functions, for example–I’ve found him to be intelligent, clever and gracious. In terms of his political views, I’ve not always agreed with his positions when he was a Republican and less so during his year as a Democrat. As you well know by now, Arlen lost the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania on Tuesday and so his 30-year tenure in the U.S. Senate will conclude in early 2011. It’s an unfortunate end for a senate career that began in 1980 when he was part of the Republican “new guard” helping to usher in the “Reagan Revolution” What an irony that the longest-serving senator in Pennsylvania history will leave office not of his own volition, but, instead, at voters’ behest.
Specter of defeat.
20
May