Growing Up With Arlen Specter
May 20, 2010 Uncategorized
Since I was a little kid I’ve known who Arlen Specter was. Everybody in Philly knew the man. In the 1960’s he was Philly’s tough talking district attorney. Specter had a presence. He could have been the inspiration for the DA on Law and Order. In comparison, a lot of people here don’t even know who our current district attorney is. It’s a guy named Seth Williams.
Specter didn’t grow up around here. He’s from Kansas. He talks a little bit like Jimmy Stewart – Which makes him stand out.
Politically, Specter has always been a chameleon. He was originally a Democrat who ran as a Republican for Philadelphia DA. When Arlen Specter was elected Senator in 1980 he was a liberal Republican. Now an extinct species. That was ok with most Philadelphians, because Philly is a very liberal, union dominated city. It’s like a socialist republic compared to the western part of the state.
Specter won so many elections here simply because the opposition couldn’t pin him down. Sometimes he was liberal sometimes conservative. He was a survivor, unlike his younger contemporary, Senator Rick Santorum. Santorum stuck his neck out . His right wing religious conservatism was out of step with most people in Pennsylvania. He arrogantly endorsed a bill that would have given people the freedom of investing their social security in the stock market. Then 9/11 and the internet bubble brought a bear market. And the idea was dead. – Specter must have been laughing all the way to the polls.
Everybody around here knew that Specter was a political chameleon. Nobody took his politics too seriously. They voted for him because he brought home the bacon and because he was really smart.
As the years went by Senator Specter grew arrogant. Sometimes he was ungracious. His wife Joan was a long serving Philadelphia Councilwoman. When she finally lost an election Sen. Specter blamed it on his enemies. The truth was his wife lost because she couldn’t bother with the normal constituent services like getting pot holes fixed. – She had a prominent pie baking business she operated on the side. So nobody felt sorry for her.
Most people around here have an opinion on Arlen Specter. Last week my buddy told me he was still pissed at him for coming up with the single bullet theory concerning the assassination of John Kennedy, when Specter was a young attorney, for the Warren Commission. Talk about harboring a grudge for 45 years. I told him I though the mob killed Kennedy, partly to make him feel good.
It will be interesting to see how Pennsylvania makes out with a new senator, as Arlen Specter recedes into retirement.