Specter missed vote on financial regulation, but made sure Dems had it covered

In Pennsylvania's primary election last week, Senator Arlen Specter ("D"-PA) lost his reelection bid to Joe Sestak. And, since then, I've wondered how Specter, always a maverick, will finish out his Senatorial legacy.

So then I looked through his recent voting record and wasn't happy with what I saw: The Senatorial record shows that Specter was a "No Vote" ("NV") on some key legislation in the days following his loss in the primary -- including the financial regulation bill.

I wondered if this was his response to losing the primary. I wondered if this meant that he was going to be a lame duck in more than one sense of the two words.

But I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. So I called his DC office and spoke with one of his people. What I heard on the phone made me feel better.

The staff member explained that Specter had spent most of election week at home in Pennsylvania. But he pointed out that before he did so, Specter ensured that the Dems would have the 60 votes needed to pass the financial reform and had voted for cloture on the bill.

With that in mind, I will forgive those NVs.

But I will be keeping an eye on him for the rest of his term.