UPDATE: Specter now says he "misspoke" in the interview.
Sen. Arlen Specter’s (D-Pa.) party switch left the U.S. Senate with no Jewish Republicans for the first time in decades. But the new Democrat says he’s like to see another Jewish Republican return to Capitol Hill — Norm Coleman.
Byron York of the Washington Examiner got an advance copy of an interview with Specter in this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, and he reprints this remarkable exchange:
Question: With your departure from the Republican Party, there are no more Jewish Republicans in the Senate. Do you care about that?
Specter: I sure do. There’s still time for the Minnesota courts to do justice and declare Norm Coleman the winner.
Well, Matt Brooks did say last week that he had been speaking to Specter just days before the switch about attending the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual meeting this summer….
Politico quotes a Republican Party spokesman enjoying Specter’s willingness to buck his new party already:
“Between his vote against President Obama’s budget, his continued opposition to card check and his support for Norm Coleman, we’ve never agreed so many times with Arlen Specter,” crowed National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Brian Walsh.
