Topic: Arlen Specter
Quotes
This is a man who's fought for workplace safety and mine safety, who stood up for the American steelworker and American manufacturer; who has voted to extend unemployment benefits time and time again
Obama: Specter a man of the people Sep 15, 2009
This is a man who has voted to raise the minimum wage 20 times because he understands if you work in this society, you shouldn't be in poverty
Obama: Specter a man of the people Sep 15, 2009
That's not true. There's no bill in the Senate. There's no bill on the House floor. A couple of house committees have considered it
Reconciliation vote possible on healthcare Aug 23, 2009
I think the vastly preferable way is to go the 60 route
Reconciliation vote possible on healthcare Aug 23, 2009
I believe before the year is out ... that there will be passage of an Employees Free Choice Act, which will be totally satisfactory to labor
Obama voices support for card-check bill Sep 15, 2009
Arlen Specter (born February 12, 1930) is a former United States Senator from Pennsylvania. Specter is a Democrat, but was a Republican from 1965 until switching to the Democratic Party in 2009. Elected to the Senate in 1980, Specter staked out a spot in the political center.
Specter was born in Wichita, Kansas to a Russian immigrant father and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He later served with the United States Air Force during the Korean War, graduated from Yale Law School, and opened a law firm with Marvin Katz, who would later become a federal judge. Additionally, Specter served as assistant counsel for the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy and helped devise the "single bullet theory." In 1965, Specter was elected District Attorney of Pennsylvania, a position that he would hold until he lost his re-election bid in 1973. In 1980, Specter was elected for the first time to the U.S. Senate for Pennsylvania.
On April 28, 2009, Specter announced that, after 44 years as an elected Republican, he was switching membership to the Democratic Party, however saying later that "he did not leave the Republican party, the party left ." On May 18, 2010, Specter was defeated in the Democratic primary by Joe Sestak. He was replaced by current Senator Pat Toomey on January 3, 2011.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Arlen Specter."