Arlen Specter - A Unique Political Figure

Throughout his decades-long career in politics, Democrat, then Republican, then Democrat Arlen Specter managed to alienate virtually every citizen at one time or another. It is interesting to note that the headline in the major local newspaper, noting his death, characterizes the senator as “crafty”, the dictionary definition of which is, “skilled in deception; shrewd; cunning”.

Senator Specter spoke and wrote of how the Senate had degenerated into a place in which the members “eat their own” and are unwilling to cooperate.  He accepted no responsibility for the body’s lack of comity despite the widespread reputation of being someone that was difficult to get along with, if not mean.

Specter sought to attribute his often difficult to understand and shifting positions to principle, but that assertion must be questioned.  Although he was liberal on most social issues, he was conservative on guns, having adopted an expansive view of the Second Amendment, once explaining that his pro-gun proliferation stance emanates not from a deeply-held moral view, but from the fact that there are two million gun owners in Pennsylvania. 

Specter had one great idea in his ridiculous and ill-fated campaign for president in 1996, that we beleaguered taxpayers be able to file our annual income tax returns on a postcard, i. e., that most, if not all deductions would be eliminated.  The initiative never accelerated and would not have come to fruition even had a miracle occurred and Specter been elected president as there are too many industries and individuals that profit mightily from a Tax Code which senselessly ties the American people into knots.

I give Arlen Specter credit for being a survivor.  He battled numerous life-threatening illnesses with resolution and courage, even stating at the beginning of his latest bout with lymphoma that he anxiously awaits a return to the squash court.  The next squash match for the Senator will have to be played somewhere in the afterlife if it exists.