By Douglas V. Gibbs
Senator Specter, the former republican that bounced over to the party more along the lines of his liberal ways in 2009, died yesterday at the age of 82. He died in his Philadelphia home from complications of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
“Arlen Specter loved our country and served it with integrity for three decades in the United States Senate,” said Bush, former Republican president. “Laura and I appreciate his contributions to America and are grateful for his many years of public service. We send our condolences to his wife, Joan, and the Specter family.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said “America is better today” because of Arlen Specter.
“He will dearly be missed,” Reid, D-Nevada, said in a tweet. “I followed Sen. Specter through his previous illness, during which he displayed great physical strength & strength of character. Sen. Specter was a man of moderation; he was always passionate, but always easy to work with.”
Specter was Pennsylvania's longest-serving senator when Democrats picked then-Rep. Joe Sestak over him in the 2010 primary, despite Specter's endorsements by President Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders. A political moderate, Specter was swept into the Senate in the Reagan landslide of 1980. He left the Senate in January of 2011, becoming a teacher at the University of Pennsylvania Law School afterward.
Arlen Specter was always a fighter,” Obama said. “From 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. … Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers.”
Specter was diagnosed in February 2005 with stage IV Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system.
He is survived by his wife, Joan, and two sons, Shanin and Steve, and four granddaughters.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
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