Incumbent senator, alum campaigns on campus

Republican Sen. Arlen Specter is among many candidates up for re-election or running for office who are Penn alumni, including Pennsylvania 13th Congressional District Democratic contender Joe Torsella.

Friday afternoon in Huntsman Hall, Specter came and spoke to a crowd of about 100 students to garner support for his re-election campaign.

The Penn alumnus an international relations and political science major spoke to an intimate audience at the event, which was sponsored by the College Republicans and Penn Alliance for Israel.

Specter entered by shaking hands with students in the crowd and was introduced by College Republicans Secretary and College sophomore Julie Blinbaum and Pennsylvania Federation of College Republicans Chairman and Wharton junior David Copley.

Once introduced, Specter took his jacket off and spoke to the crowd from inside the group of students rather than from the podium.

Specter primarily addressed issues of terrorism and foreign policy.

One of the senator's particular pet issues in foreign policy is his view of Saudi Arabia as an undermining force to American policy in the Middle East.

He said he felt especially strong about Saudi involvement in the 1998 Khobar Towers bombing and linked that terrorist attack to the ones on Sept. 11.

"I believe if we had gotten to the bottom of Khobar Towers, we could have prevented 9/11," Specter said.

Specter received a lot of support from the mostly pro-Israel crowd when assigning blame to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the discord between Israel and Palestine and for his support of the removal of Saddam Hussein from power.

The second biggest round of applause was drawn when the senator made the statement that Israel's "defense is something up to Israel to decide." Specter supported the United States' efforts in Israel by saying that "Israel has a lot of friends in the federal government."

Specter spoke for 10 minutes on a variety of topics before turning the floor over to questions from the audience.

When Specter was told by a staffer that he only had time for two more questions, he proceeded to continue the dialogue, addressing everyone with his or her hand up.

At one point, a student confronted Specter about his stance on abortion and pointedly accused him of supporting "infanticide."

"I do not support abortion," said Specter, though he added, "I just don't think it is something the government can dictate."

The mostly Republican audience praised the four-term senator's presentation.

"It was a good turnout [with] lots of enthusiasm," Copley said. A "solid majority of the [College Republican] board are for Senator Specter."

Specter will face off against current U.S. House Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) in the primaries on April 27. Toomey is widely considered to be the more conservative candidate in the race.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.