Specter says bucking party trend
will curry favor in 1996 primary


Erin Caddell
Keene Sentinel (August 15)


If Congress wants to send a message that things have changed in 
Washington, Republican presidential hopeful Arlen Specter says, it 
may want to start with one of its own.


Specter, a three-term senator from Pennsylvania, said Monday that 
the Senate should hold public hearings into sexual harassment charges 
against Sen. Robert Packwood, an Oregon Republican.


The Senate Ethics Committee voted earlier this month to hear 
testimony behind closed doors before making a recommendation on what, 
if any, disciplinary action to take against Packwood. The Senate 
narrowly approved, 52-48, a vote Specter termed ``inexplicable.''


``The only way to try to find the facts is to have a hearing,'' 
Specter said.


Some senators have said public hearings would embarrass the Senate 
and overturn decades of tradition. The Ethics Committee has 
investigated the allegations for more than two years, compiling a 
list of 18 complaints of harassment between 1969 and 1990 - the 
newest of which involves a former intern who worked in Packwood's 
Senate office. 


But Specter said Packwood himself should ask for the vote to be 
overturned when Congress reconvenes in September, both for his own 
reputation and that of the Senate. He added that senators on the 
Ethics Committee should interview the women who have raised the 
allegations, rather than staffers.


``We lined up along party lines. Fifty-one of 54 Republicans voted 
no, and 45 of 46 Democrats voted yes. That's exactly what's not 
supposed to happen,'' Specter said. ``I'm a good friend of Senator 
Packwood. We play squash together. I've seen a lot of him. But after 
the vote, I went over to Senator Packwood's office and I told him, 
`You've made a big mistake.' He really ought to have public hearings, 
because his reputation is in tatters.''


Support and censure


Specter, a former prosecutor, has been a big proponent over the 
years of Congressional hearings, and has won both support and censure 
for his role in them.


He was a visible player in the 1991 Anita Hill hearings, when the 
law professor brought sexual harassment charges against Supreme Court 
nominee Clarence Thomas. Specter was criticized for what some felt 
was overly harsh and skeptical questioning of Hill; despite that, 
he won re-election in 1992.


In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, Specter led hearings about 
American militia groups. And next month, he will convene hearings 
into the 1992 federal siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in which federal 
agents shot and killed the wife and son of white separatist Randy 
Weaver. 


Public hearings into such matters are Congress's duty, Specter said. 
``It's the American way,'' he said.


Specter says his views show he's willing to run against the 
Republican Party grain. Specter is the only major candidate who has 
challenged the party's anti-abortion plank. And he has repeatedly 
warned party leaders of drifting too far to the right, turning off 
mainstream voters.


Specter, 65, grew up in Russell, Kansas, graduated from the 
University of Pennsylvania in 1951, and served state-side in the Air 
Force for two years during the Korean War. He graduated from Yale Law 
School, and began his career in public life as an Assistant District 
Prosecutor in Philadelphia, where he still lives. 


In polls, Specter is far behind front-runner and Senate Majority 
Leader Bob Dole and other more conservative candidates. But the race 
is still early, Specter noted, and he says campaign trips through the 
state and region will pay off in the February primary.


``I think I've got the ideas that will prevail,'' he said.
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