Word: specters
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When Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter announced on April 28 that he was switching to the Democratic Party after nearly four decades as an elected Republican, it marked a messy and shocking end to his tumultuous relationship with the GOP. Though Specter says his moderate views are no longer welcomed by the party, Republicans and pundits alike say the real motive for his move is pretty clear: Specter, who plans to run for a sixth term next year, faces long odds in winning the Pennsylvania's Republican nomination (especially considering the state's 200,000 constituents who decided to register...
...defect couldn't come at a worse time for the Grand Old Party. Should Al Franken win Minnesota's long-contested Senate seat in Minnesota, Democrats could have the 60-vote majority needed to overcome any Republican filibusters meant to stall President Barack Obama's legislative agenda. But while Specter was just one of three Republicans to support Obama's $789 billion economic-recovery legislation, he cautioned his newfound Democratic colleagues: "I will not be an automatic 60th vote." They don't call him a contrarian for nothing. (Read "GOP Senator Specter's Party Switch Gives Obama...
...Following the Warren Commission, Specter joined the Pennsylvania Department of Justice as a special assistant attorney general and, in 1965, he ran against his former boss to become the Philadelphia District Attorney (Though he was a registered Democrat, he ran on the Republican ticket when he failed to secure the Democratic nomination...
...After narrowly losing Philadelphia's mayoral election 1967 to a Pittsburgh millionaire, Specter continued to work as Philadelphia's District Attorney for eight years, overseeing 250,000 cases. In 1969, he hired two rival gang leaders as consultants to address the city's rising violence and the following year charged two white policemen with aggravated assault and battery in the shooting death of a black man - moves that won both derision and praise...
...chairman of a powerful appropriations subcommittee, Specter spearheaded efforts to double funding for the National Institutes of Health and led the way in increasing education spending...