Arlen Specter running scared

April 25, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

ALLENTOWN, Pa.

Sen. Arlen Specter has outlasted many threats to his political survival — the negative publicity he earned from aggressively grilling Anita Hill during Justice Clarence Thomas’ 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing, close calls in two previous Senate races and two bouts with cancer.

So despite being Pennsylvania’s longest-serving senator — he was first elected in 1980 — the 80-year-old lawmaker says he knows only two good ways to run for office: scared or unopposed. Specter freely admits that he’s taking the scared approach this year in seeking a sixth six-year term.

“I sure as hell am,” said Specter, who switched to become a Democrat last year after decades as a Republican. “It’s my nature, never take anything for granted. ... It’s a difficult climate for incumbents. ... The voters are madder than hell about the gridlock in Washington. ... There’s a lot of concern about the deficit and the national debt.”

There’s plenty for him to be scared of. His Pennsylvania race is one of the highest profile, most expensive Senate contests in the country. Republicans are angry at him because he bolted their party, and some Democrats, leery of his GOP past, also want to oust him.

“He puts his finger in the air and decides to go where the wind blows,” said Tim Gruber, a retired 51-year-old Democratic-leaning independent voter from Allentown. “If it blows towards [former President] George W. Bush, he goes to George W. Bush. If it blows towards Barack Obama, he goes towards Barack Obama. What does he stand for? What’s he going to do?”

Specter switched par-ties a year ago after determining that he couldn’t win Pennsylvania’s GOP primary.

However, Specter now faces a May 18 Democratic primary against Rep. Joe Sestak, a 58-year-old former three-star Navy admiral whom Democrats were recruiting for the Senate before Specter crossed the aisle.