More than 1,000 people bid farewell on Tuesday to former U.S. Senator Arlen Specter at a service featuring tributes by family and dignitaries and concluding with Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” Specter died at his Philadelphia home on Sunday after battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was 82. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and former Pennsylvania Governor Ed…
During his 30 years in the clubby confines of the U.S. Senate, Arlen Specter never lost his acerbic prosecutorial zeal, friends and associates say. The insistent questions, the commitment to independence that made the longtime Pennsylvania senator a critical player in recent U.S. history, ultimately did in his career. In his 2010 bid for a…
It was impossible to be a journalist in Philadelphia and not encounter Arlen Specter. It was just about impossible to be engaged in the Philadelphia Jewish community and not encounter Arlen Specter. As a member of the working press in Philadelphia for decades, and as a parent active in my children’s Jewish day schools, I…
Arlen Specter, the longtime moderate Jewish Republican senator from Pennsylvania whose surprise party switch helped pass President Obama’s health-care reforms, has died. Specter, 82, died Sunday at his Philadelphia home following a long struggle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, his family told The Associated Press. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania in 1980,…
Arlen Specter, a gruff, independent-minded moderate who spent three decades in the U.S. Senate but was spurned by Pennsylvania voters after switching in 2009 from Republican to Democrat, died on Sunday of cancer, his family said. He was 82. Specter had announced in August a recurrence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, cancer of the lymphatic system. His…
Former longtime Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania confirmed that he is fighting a new battle with cancer — and vowed to beat the deadly disease. “I am battling cancer, and it’s another battle I intend to win,” Specter said in a statement issued by his office Tuesday. “I am grateful for the well wishes I…
Big Bucks: Florida’s Republican senatorial candidate Marco Rubio has held a lead in polls against rivals independent Charlie Crist and Democrat Kendrick Meek — and yesterday posted that he raised $5 million in the last quarter. As Politico’s Alexander Burns puts it: “that’s a ridiculous fundraising performance, and if one of Rubio’s two opponents can…
In one of those unintentionally hilarious flukes on Capitol Hill, Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions is the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee and hence the designated quarterback of the GOP response to President Obama’s upcoming Supreme Court nomination. Sessions warned this morning on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that a Republican filibuster is possible if…
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