Arlen Specter, Pro-Abortion Senator Who Torpedoed Bork & Switched to the Democratic Party, Dead at 82

Former Sen. Arlen Specter, a one time Republican moderate who ultimately abandoned the GOP in the face of the growing Tea Party movement, passed away Sunday, according to the Associated Press.

Specter, 82, died after a long battle with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

A former prosecutor, Specter was elected to the Senate in 1980 and quickly made a name for himself on the Judiciary Committee.

Although often viewed as prickly and gruff, Specter had a dry sense of humor and developed close personal relationships with many of his colleagues. And while he also had a reputation in the halls of Congress as a task master, many of his staff remained fiercely loyal him, moving parties with him when he changed allegiances in 2009.

He first came into the national spotlight during the 1987 Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge Robert Bork. Although strongly backed by the Reagan Administration and his fellow Republicans, Specter balked at Bork’s harshly conservative interpretation of constitutional law and opposed his nomination to the high court, ultimately helping torpedo it.

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