Arlen Specter
My tenure in the Senate was really as an independent and whichever, regardless of party label.
When I'm asked about legacy, I say it's too early to talk about legacy.
My definition of winning at squash is playing and surviving, and I've never lost a match.
Stability means respecting precedents.
I beat a brain tumor.
I do not represent the Republican Party.
My mother, Lillie Specter, was an angel and totally uninterested in politics.
I have been a Republican since 1966.
When I supported the stimulus package, I knew that it would not be popular with the Republican Party.
The American people do not care which Party solves the problems confronting our nation.
Pennsylvania is a very tough state; people don't last long in Pennsylvania politics.
I really do not make deals.
I think it's scandalous that we haven't done more to cure cancer.
I'm ordinarily pretty correct in what I say.
I've made a career of being precise.
'Never give in' was my mindset.
I've been playing squash almost daily for 38 years.
The solicitor general is sometimes referred to as the 10th Supreme Court justice - a pretty important position.
Lawyers advocate more so than state their own positions.
Cannibals are devouring senators.
I ran for president in 1996.
If Romney wants to make me responsible for ObamaCare, I've said I would be proud to be responsible for it.
I knew people were going to see me see deteriorate before their eyes.
I do come from a strong family.
My father was an immigrant who literally walked across Europe to get out of Russia. He fought in World War I. He was wounded in action. My father was a great success even though he never had money. He was a very determined man, a great role model.
I'm a loyal Democrat.
It's a rarity when someone takes a political risk in Washington today in the public interest.
Big money is ruining the political system.
The extremists took over the primary process.
If enough people would come out the right wing, the extremists couldn't dominate.
It costs about $27 million to win a seat in the United States Senate, so when you win one, you like to sit down.
Beating the tea party gang is more important than who does the beating.
Look, the president can discharge all 93 U.S. attorneys for no reason at all, but not for a bad reason.
I think a public official ought to follow his conscience as to what is in the public interest, not what will protect his job.Collection: Thinking
I served as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Let me tell you, it's tough to find out what the CIA is doing. They led us astray on the weapons of mass destruction that they said Saddam Hussein found. We sent out Collin Powell, Secretary of State, former National Security Counselor, chief of staff, four star general, couldn't find it out. I'd be reluctant to cut into term limits. I think if the voters would become informed and aroused, they could impose the proper limits on the guys who ought to be out.Collection: Cutting
The Republican Party has moved so far to the right, you can't recognize Mitt Romney. What Mitt Romney will appear in October? Mitt Romney has changed positions more often than a pornographic movie queen.Collection: Queens
We have people there who do have substantial wisdom and substantial experience. And if they were confident enough to express their own views, that they wouldn't be bushwhacked by the party for casting a single vote like Bob Bennett was or like I was, they'd be willing to speak up and they'd be willing to speak their consciences and put their ideas on the line. But right now, there is timidity, there is fear that if they do that a single votes gonna cost them their job and they're not willing to make that kind of a sacrifice and they're not enough with the people.Collection: Party
The passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93, recognizing the potential danger that the aircraft they were aboard posed to large numbers of innocent Americans, American institutions, and the symbols of American democracy, took heroic and noble action to ensure that the aircraft they were aboard could not be used as a weapon.Collection: Numbers
If we had pursued the war on cancer which President Nixon declared in 1970, Jack Kemp might be alive today.Collection: War
Today the Internal Revenue Code constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. A flat tax would be an enormous step forward.Collection: Punishment
What I would ask the leaders to do is to better understand the American people. I would insist that the leaders have town meetings and meet the people and listen to them and find out what is on their minds.Collection: People
When the president acts in absence of a congressional grant of authority, he can rely only upon his own independent powers. When the president takes measures incompatible with the express or implied will of Congress, his power is at its lowest ebb.Collection: Independent
It has been my experience that the hearings are really, in effect, a subtle minuet, with the nominee answering as many questions as he thinks necessary in order to be confirmed.Collection: Thinking
No senator's vote, except for the declaration of war or the authorization for the use of force, is more important than the confirmation of a nominee for the Supreme Court for a lifetime appointment.Collection: War
I'd make - before I'd elect somebody - I'd make him do town meetings and face the people and then I would insist that the person not run on a platform of no compromising. The meaningful thing that the leaders could do would be to be dedicated to a discussion across the isle, to vote their consciences and not to follow the strict party line. I think that would lead to sensible decisions.Collection: Meaningful
How many members of Congress go face the people in a town meeting and are prepared to answer questions from the floor. That to me is the real litmus test.Collection: Real
Neither this nation nor this party can afford a candidate so captive to the demands of the intolerant right that we end up re-electing a president of the incompetent left.Collection: Party
Was the Vietnam conflict a war which should have, as a matter of constitutional law, required a declaration of war by Congress?Collection: War
If you can get people to laugh, you can get people to listen.Collection: People