While Specter did not want to talk about his primary opponent Joe Sestak, he had plenty to say about his old adversary, Anita Hill. “While Ginny Thomas should not have called Anita Hill’s office at 7 30 in the morning, it was even stupider of Anita Hill to alert the press of the call,” he commented.

Specter is not ready to retire yet. He said, “I am going back for the lame duck Congress to soak the rich and raise tax rates. Don’t ask don’t tell is also a priority.”

Specter had no regrets about leaving the Republican Party and becoming a Democrat. “I was born a Democrat, he stated. “When I decided to run for office, I was forced to run on the Republican ticket because the city Democrat machine was so corrupt they would not consider me. I was still registered as a Democrat at the time.”

The Senator is coy about his future plans. “George Mitchell advised me to take my time in making a decision,” he mentioned. Like many a politician, he is considering becoming a pundit. His outlet of choice was a surprising one. It is the liberal bastion of NPR.

Specter will be joining Senators Bob Casey and Chuck Schumer and a reception for Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak Monday in the Philadelphia. It will mark one of the only times since their bitter primary that Specter has stumped for Sestak—Specter brought him to a lunch of Senate Democrats shortly after the primary, but hasn’t done any public events.

He voiced his support for Sestak as he conceded on primary night.

The downtown event, first reported by The Philadelphia Jewish Voice, is expected to showcase Specter and his colleagues vouching for Sestak’s bona fides on Israel policy. Republican candidate Pat Toomey is hoping to make significant inroads among suburban Jewish voters, a constituency that long supported Specter.

Specter lashed out at Attorney General Tom Corbett Wednesday, responding to a new TV ad from the GOP gubernatorial candidate which spotlights the coming Arlen Specter library as an example of what Corbett calls wasteful spending. While the ad doesn’t say so explicitly, it implies that the price tag is being entirely footed by taxpayers.

Gov. Ed Rendell signed a budget that included $20 million in bond proceeds to be used for projects carrying Specter’s name and that of the late Congressman John Murtha. Since then, the price tag for the Specter project has been cut to $4 million—costs that will be split almost evenly between the state and Philadelphia University, which will house the library.

“Mr. Corbett ought to check the facts,” Specter said in a statement. “The facts are that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is putting up $1.927 million to match $2 million put up by Philadelphia University for the Senator Arlen Specter Center for Political Science and International Relations.”

Corbett campaign spokesman Kevin Harley defended the ad, which has not yet been fully fact-checked by pa2010.com. Harley told Capitol Ideas “it’s indisputable that the Rendell administration signed into law a capital budget borrowing and setting aside $10 million for the Arlen Specter Library. Our ad is designed to call attention to these wasteful spending priorities in Harrisburg.”

The Republican-turned-independent who’s running for Senate is under fire in a new Chamber of Commerce ad, which looks to paint him as just one of a series of flip-floppers. In addition to John Kerry’s famous I-Was-For-It-Bef0re-I-Was-Against-It line, Specter makes an appearance. His quote was part of Joe Sestak’s devastatingly successful primary TV campaigns against him.

But the senator can take heart—the Chamber says Crist, not he, “may be the worst of them all.”

See the ad below. A hat-tip to our friends at Politico‘s Morning Score for noticing this one.

Senator Arlen Specter this week weighed in on the contest between Democrat Joe Sestak and Republican Pat Toomey, in some of his first public comments about the race since his loss to Sestak in the May primary.

“It’s going to be a dogfight,” Specter told The Tribune-Review. “I wouldn’t call it a horse race, I’d call it a dogfight.”

Sestak and Toomey were set to continue that fight Thursday. Toomey was scheduled to campaign in State College with former Gov. Tom Ridge, while Sestak will be joined in Philadelphia by retiring Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND).

But the Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Democrat had an interesting interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News this week.

Things got heated at times during the 21-minute interview. So we thought we’d flag it for you.

See the video below.

During the run-up to the primary, we here at pa2010.com did as much as anyone to advance this storyline, pointing out that he doesn’t technically have a campaign manager and airing skepticism that this could work against one Arlen Specter. But, brother and sister at his side, Sestak won, and proved us all wrong.

Now, with a tough race looming against Republican Pat Toomey and Sestak hardly on cuddly terms with party leaders, that meme is back in vogue. First, Talking Points Memo reported that the party’s Senate campaign arm is “helping coach” and “helping him choose a new campaign team since his brother has been one of his closest advisers.” Now, Politico reports on wider concerns among party leaders about Sestak’s campaign structure.

“It would seem to me that he would need to have all hands on deck moving forward if he’s going to win in Pennsylvania with so many diverse parts of the state,” Congressman Jason Altmire (D-4) told the Web site. “There are a lot of areas in which you need people who have expertise in local issues.”

We’ve heard all this before. And our reporters are hearing it again in the informal conversations we have with Democratic insiders. The problem, however, is that in most cases, these sentiments are coming from the same people who voiced them six months ago. A statewide primary, they said then, is different from a congressional race. A statewide general election, they say now, is different than a primary.

Fair enough. And maybe this time they’ll be proven right. Sestak’s campaign has signaled that, naturally, it will be staffing up. But consider us surprised if there’s any kind of major leadership shakeup. Sestak won, and he’s always struck us as the “if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it” type.

Perhaps the most accurate sentiment came from Democratic strategist Mark Nevins, in his interview with Politico‘s Shira Toeplitz (who is, in our humble opinion, the national media’s most insightful reporter on Pennsylvania politics).

As Nevins said: “I share the skepticism, but it’s hard to argue with the results.”

Sestak, in an interview on PBS, said it was “wrong” for President Obama and others to back Specter.

“There’s no more kings, there’s no more king makers in America,” Sestak said the “Travis Smiley” show. “And if the Democratic Party should stand for anything when they are trying to get me out of the race, they should be for enticing people into the race. This President said it so well and I believe [that] he believes it: believe in principle and politics will follow. No. The party establishment was wrong in what it did.”

See video of the interview below.

Specter made a lot of Democratic turns in the last year, promising to be a leader on a whole set of issues still on the president’s agenda for 2010. Many people are wondering if Specter will still deliver. For my part, I don’t think Specter can afford any more ugly reversals at this stage of his career. Backing away from his positions, at this point, would be a final ugly stain on his legacy—so I expect him to keep his word. Specter still has a chance to leave a lasting mark in the Senate by vigorously championing legislation that will strengthen Pennsylvania and this country. Here is how.

Climate change and energy

As oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico two weeks ago, Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman were out plugging their climate change bill, the America Power Act. While many prognosticators think the chances of a climate bill this year are dead, I believe the crisis in the Gulf demonstrates again more than ever why it is so essential for our country to pass legislation that incentivizes the development of renewable, sustainable energy sources that do not cause global warming. This bill is a step in the right direction.

Specter has made many statements supporting these efforts. He understand the threat of climate change.  Just six months ago, in a letter from nine senators he sent to President Obama before the Copenhagen summit, Specter wrote:

“Climate change is a serious and growing threat to the United States and the world. The consequences of climate change are already being felt at home and will intensify in the years ahead in ways that place the U.S. economy and future generations at risk. Internationally, the adverse impacts of climate change will threaten vital U.S. national security, economic, energy security and humanitarian interests. Smart climate change policies would guard against these risks while also spurring clean energy investments that promote economic growth and create good domestic jobs.”

I could not have said it better myself. “Smart climate change policies” are sorely needed to wean us off of our dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuels that are dirty and dangerous to our environment, our economy, and our national security. This bill is needed, as Specter put it, to “provid[e] energy for our country to take care of us and our economy in the future, to deal with climate change and to protect the planet from global warming, and to free ourselves from dependence on OPEC and Venezuelan oil.”

In a tricky international financial market, investing in clean tech solutions to our countries energy problems is a winning idea. As Ben Freed, the Pennsylvania spokesman for Al Gore’s Repower America group, explained to me this week, federal clean energy legislation that is signed into law this year will spur the creation of 1.9 million new jobs across the country over the next several years, including more than 78,000 in Pennsylvania. The American Power Act isn’t perfect, but it’s a strong way to begin the transition to the clean energy that the U.S. needs to revitalize its economy with new industries and jobs, restore its environment by reducing dangerous carbon pollution and strengthen national security by becoming energy independent.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Another major reform on the President’s agenda is the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy. Each year, this policy forces thousands of patriotic gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans to leave the military, and makes countless others silently continue serving our nation with the sword of an unexpected outing constantly hanging over their heads, threatening to cut their careers short at any time. Just this week, newspapers from Seattle to Boston published editorials called for its repeal. This policy is abhorrent to American values of civil rights and equality, but to eliminate it, Congress must act.

Arlen Specter has become a great supporter of repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, in line with his long history of friendship with the American gay community. Back in October, I reported on Specter’s public stance supporting repeal. Specter stated “the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is outdated, and should be rescinded entirely. A person’s sexual orientation has no bearing on their ability to serve their country in the armed services. Countless studies and the experiences of gays who have served in the military have borne out these findings.”

The time to repeal “Don’t Ask” has come. As The Washington Post reported, the American people are behind repeal.  Their inherent sense of fairness and equality is shining through in poll after poll. “A Post/ABC News poll showed that 75 percent of Americans support ending “don’t ask don’t tell.” One from The New York Times put support for gay men and lesbians serving openly at 70 percent. And 57 percent surveyed by Quinnipiac University favored repealing the 16-year-old law. Gallup shows that 70 percent of the American people are in line with that sentiment in a poll released on Monday.” Once the bill leaves the Senate Armed Services Committee, Specter should make the right decision, keep his promises, and take a great step forward for civil rights.

Specter Can Make a Difference

Arlen Specter is Pennsylvania’s longest-serving senator. By helping to pass the American Power Act and repealing “Don’t Ask” this year, he can leave on a high note. As he shapes his legacy in the last seven months of his remarkable career, we should all be counting on him to make a big difference for Pennsylvania and the United States by supporting these important pieces of legislation.