I grew up outside of Philadelphia for the first 21 years of my life. If I still lived there, I would have voted for Joe Sestak. But, since Arlen Specter is out after 30 years, I wanted to put up a diary highlighting why I appreciated his service to Pennsylvania.
Let me begin by saying that I once met Sen. Specter when he spoke to a small group of students at my high school. I asked him if he regretted his vote to confirm Justice Thomas. He didn't say he regretted it, but that Justice Thomas didn't turn out the way he expected. For all of Senator Specter's reputation as abrasive, I thought his answer was fair, if a bit disingenuous. Maybe he just appreciated a young kid asking him some tough questions.
He's also the only Republican for whom I voted, back in 1998 when the Democrats tried to run to his right on social issues.
The best case for electing Specter I read came from local Philly conservative/libertarian commentator Michael Smerconish, who years ago went to that same high school. Smerconish is not the endorsement you want in a Democratic primary, but I think he's right that Specter did bring a sense of pragmatism to the Senate. Even though he was a moderate-to-conservative person, he consistently voted for the minimum wage. He voted against the confirmation of Robert Bork. Within the Republican party, he fought against the religious right. And he voted for the stimulus, which saved countless jobs but set in course a chain of events that cost him his own.
Anyway, here are some of Specter's accomplishments that I think were a credit to his career:
*the aforementioned votes against Bork, for the minimum wage, and the stimulus. (Indeed, I remember reading in the New Yorker reported that he wanted more money for it than Ben Nelson was willing to go along with.)
*counsel to the Warren Commission.
*prosecuted municipal corruption as Philadelphia's D.A., including police officers and magistrates who blackmailed gays.
*numerous pro-choice votes.
*co-sponsored hate crimes legislation and voted to prohibit job discrimination on the basis on sexual orientation at the federal level.
*co-sponsored repeal of DADT and DOMA.
*sponsored comprehensive immigration reform.
*support for the public option.
*aggressively fought for cancer research funding.
*supported establishing diplomatic relations with North Korea.
*supported bilateral negotiations with Iran and Syria, while still a Republican.
*was a proponent of arms reduction in the early 1980s.
*first serious Jewish candidate for President (assuming Barry Goldwater doesn't count, since he didn't practice).
On the "debit" side, there is his support for the Iraq war, the Bush tax cuts, the death penalty, opposition to gun control, and flip-flops on card check. And then there is the "WTF" section, such as voting "not proven" on impeachment (though I think I prefer Scottish law to English law on this question, allowing separate votes for "not proven" and "not guilty"). Lastly, he had a tendency to talk bigger than he acted, such as on telecommunications immunity and warrantless wiretapping.
On the other hand, he also demonstrated a lot of personal courage and perseverance in continuing to work in the Senate notwithstanding two cancer diagnoses. The Democratic party, I feel, chose the better candidate in PA. But, the fact that he was driven out of the Republican party based on nothing more than a vote to save jobs was bad for that party and for the country. Certainly, the state as a whole should have had the chance to vote on Specter v. Sestak, not just the state's Democrats. Would Joe Sestak have won?
So, even before switching parties, Senator Specter has done a lot for which the state and the Kos community can be proud.