Over the course of his long career, Arlen Spector took stances I endorsed and also, a lot of stances I opposed. His fierce and relentless dogging of Anita Hill was a low point for me, for instance.
But he did oppose the nomination of loony Robert Bork for the SC, which won him no friends in his party. He was consistently pro-choice. He also voted against the impeachment of Bill Clinton, actually citing Scottish law and attempting to register his vote as "not proven."
Finally, he had the political courage to go against his party and vote for the stimulus bill, one of only three Republicans to do so. The right wing never forgave him for this, went gunning for him, and this vote of his basically ended his political career.
He stood up for what he thought was best for his country anyway. That took real guts,
He is the only person ever to be elected five straight times to the Senate from Pennsylvania. I split my ticket (as I often have done) to vote for him for the Senate in both 1998 and 2004.
Arlen Spector was one of that vanishing breed of Republicans, a man who could and did forsake petty partisanship when he thought it was the wrong thing to do.
He started public life as a prosecutor, as a reformist DA in Philadelphia. He had a razor sharp mind, and he knew the law inside and out. You would not have wanted to be in the docket and having to face him.
Yes, there were often times when, politically, I wanted to wring his neck. That's life, eh?
The Senior Senator from the Great State of Pennsylvania had a good long life, and he made his mark on the national stage. Would that any one of us, for better or worse, accomplish as much.
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