October 15, 2012 12:01 am - Financial Times
Former US Senator Arlen Specter dies at 82
By Geoff Dyer in Washington and
agencies
Arlen Specter, the former senator for Pennsylvania whose political career
came to symbolise the shrinking space for moderates in the modern Republican
party, has died at the age of 82.
Specter was elected for five terms to the Senate as a Republican, making him
the longest-serving member from his home state, but during his final year he sat
on the Democratic side of the aisle after switching parties in 2009.
gI now find my
political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans,h he said
at the time.
gArlen Specter was always a fighter,h Barack Obama, the president, said in a
statement on Sunday. gFrom his days stamping out corruption as a prosecutor in
Philadelphia to his three decades of service in the Senate, Arlen was fiercely
independent – never putting party or ideology ahead of the people he was chosen
to serve.h
In 2009, Specter was one of very few Republicans in the Senate who were
prepared to negotiate with the Obama administration over its $787bn economic
stimulus bill, which he later voted for, to the outrage of many in his party.
gI believe that my duty is to follow my conscience and vote what I think is
in the best interest of the country and the political risks will have to abide,h
he said at the time.
Specter switched parties but, the following year, lost a primary to a
Democratic House member who challenged him from the left. The Republicans ended
up holding the seat.
Until then, Specter had been best known for his membership of the Senate
judiciary committee, where he played a central role in several high-profile
court confirmations. In 1992, he helped pave the way for the eventual
confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court with his tough questioning
of Anita Hill, who had accused the nominee of sexual harassment. In 1987, he had
angered the right by helping to block the nomination of conservative jurist
Robert Bork to the court.
When Republicans tried to impeach Bill Clinton, Specter sharply criticised
the proceedings but rather than breaking with his party by voting gnot guiltyh
he cited Scots law and issued a verdict of gnot provenh.
Specter first came to prominence as assistant counsel on the Warren
Commission, which investigated the 1963 assassination of President John Kennedy.
A Democrat in his early years, he was later elected district attorney of
Philadelphia as a Republican.
Mr Specter unsuccessfully sought the 1996 Republican presidential nomination.
He had several health scares, undergoing open-heart surgery and surgery for a
brain tumour, as well as chemotherapy for two bouts of Hodgkinfs lymphoma.
He was born in Kansas in 1930 during the Great Depression. His father was a
Russian Jewish immigrant who owned a junkyard. Mr Specter moved to Philadelphia
at age 17 to attend the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1951, then
served in the Air Force before attending Yale Law School.
He was a Democrat until age 35, when the Republicans offered their nomination
for district attorney of Philadelphia. He served as the cityfs district attorney
from 1966 to 1974.
He died of complications of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, his family said.
Copyright The
Financial Times Limited 2012.