Former Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania Arlen Specter, has died at his home in Philadelphia Pennsylvania from complications related to non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Senator Specter had announced back in 2005 that he was diagnosed with this advanced form of lymphoma, and he spent many years battling the complications of the disease.
The 82-year-old Arlen Specter was an outspoken political leader whose switch from Republican to Democrat ended a 30-year career in which he played a pivotal role in several Supreme Court nominations. He was elected to the Senate in 1980. During his early career he was appointed by President Gerald Ford to be an assistant counsel for the Warren Commission. The Warren Commission was the investigation committee that researched the assassination of President John F Kennedy.
It is also often forgotten that in 1995 Arlen Specter announced his candidacy for the President of the United States as a Republican candidate. He planned to run against the incumbent President Bill Clinton, claiming that the existing leadership was too conservative.
Here is a video of Senator Arlen Specter talking about his views on Mitt Romney before he passed.
For more information regarding the life and career of Senator Arlen Specter you can visit his Wikipedia page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlen_Specter
