From the Archives: An Oral History of Arlen Specter
Looking for insight into U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter’s decision today to switch his party allegiance to the Democrats? Our November 2006 oral history of the senator’s 50-year public career contains what might be a startling fact: His first active involvement in politics in the late 1950s was as … a Democrat. And there’s plenty more where that came from, culled from interviews with Gov. Ed Rendell, talk-show host Michael Smerconish, political consultant Neil Oxman, and more. From the intro:
Raised in Russell, Kansas — the prairie outpost that also gave the world Bob Dole — and schooled at Penn and Yale, Arlen Specter first made his name as a young attorney taking on the Teamsters and working on the Warren Commission. In the years since — as district attorney, defense attorney, perpetual candidate, senator — Specter took his place in the city’s political pantheon, alongside such icons as Rizzo, Tate and Dilworth.
For the past quarter-century, he’s also been a Zelig-like national figure. From his role in sinking Robert Bork’s Supreme Court nomination to his cross-examination of Anita Hill, from stem-cell research to the impeachment of Bill Clinton, Specter’s greatest talent may be his unique ability to put himself — somehow, some way — in the center of the nation’s most important debates.
Read “The Full Specter” in our archives.
Illustration by Rob Day from the November 2006 issue of Philadelphia Magazine.
Looking for insight into U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter’s decision today to switch his party allegiance to the Democrats? Our November 2006 oral history of the senator’s 50-year public career contains what might be a startling fact: His first active involvement in politics in the late 1950s was as … a Democrat. And there’s plenty more where that came from, culled from interviews with Gov. Ed Rendell, talk-show host Michael Smerconish, political consultant Neil Oxman, and more. From the intro:
Raised in Russell, Kansas — the prairie outpost that also gave the world Bob Dole — and schooled at Penn and Yale, Arlen Specter first made his name as a young attorney taking on the Teamsters and working on the Warren Commission. In the years since — as district attorney, defense attorney, perpetual candidate, senator — Specter took his place in the city’s political pantheon, alongside such icons as Rizzo, Tate and Dilworth.
For the past quarter-century, he’s also been a Zelig-like national figure. From his role in sinking Robert Bork’s Supreme Court nomination to his cross-examination of Anita Hill, from stem-cell research to the impeachment of Bill Clinton, Specter’s greatest talent may be his unique ability to put himself — somehow, some way — in the center of the nation’s most important debates.
Read “The Full Specter” in our archives.
Illustration by Rob Day from the November 2006 issue of Philadelphia Magazine.
