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Specter: Sorry for 'act like a lady' remark

Sen. Arlen Specter called Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) yesterday to apologize for his comments during a radio interview last week, the senator's office said, and she called back and "accepted the apology."

Sen. Arlen Specter called Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) yesterday to apologize for his comments during a radio interview last week, the senator's office said, and she called back and "accepted the apology."

Specter's office gave no further details, saying the conversation between the two had been private.

On a Philadelphia talk show Wednesday, Specter admonished Bachmann to "act like a lady" during an exchange over the health-care overhaul legislation, a remark that Republicans, Specter's Democratic primary opponent, and some pundits deemed patronizing at best and demeaning to women at worst. Bachmann told Fox News commentator Sean Hannity on Thursday that she had been "stunned by the arrogance" of Specter's remarks.

By apologizing to Bachmann, Specter clearly hoped to put the controversy behind him before it could remind women of their anger over his treatment of Anita Hill during Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas 19 years ago. Such a comparison would be a political liability as he faces a tough primary challenge from Rep. Joe Sestak (D., Pa.) in seeking a fifth term.

The tiff came on Dom Giordano's show on WPHT-AM (1210), in a special broadcast from Washington to mark President Obama's first year in office. Specter, the 79-year-old Republican-turned-Democrat, and Bachmann, 53, a favorite of the conservative "tea party" movement, were Giordano's first guests.

Bachmann interrupted Specter several times as he tried to respond to her arguments about the health-care bill, and the senator grew exasperated as she kept talking over him. At one point, as Specter challenged Bachmann to say what she was for, she said she had voted for prosperity.

"Well, prosperity wasn't a bill," Specter began to explain.

"Well, why don't we make it a bill?" said Bachmann, talking over him.

"Now, wait a minute," Specter said. "Don't interrupt me. I didn't interrupt you. Act like a lady."

"Well, I think I am a lady," Bachmann said.

"I think you are, too," Specter said. "That's why I'm treating you like one. But just don't interrupt me."

Jan Larimer, cochair of the Republican National Committee, said Saturday that Specter's remarks had been "disrespectful" and "demeaning to all women." She called for an apology. In addition, New York Times columnist Gail Collins wrote Friday that Specter had "lost it," and a spokesman for Sestak called the phrase "patronizing."

Other than the Collins column, it appeared initially that criticism of Specter was limited to right-leaning pundits. None of the feminist groups traditionally allied with Democrats jumped on the controversy, and several female leaders in the party rose to his defense.

"I was angry with him over the Thomas-Hill hearings," said former State Sen. Connie Williams of Montgomery County. "But I forgave him, because of all he has done for women on every other front. In supporting the Violence Against Women Act, choice, NIH funding, equal pay, and other concerns, Arlen Specter has been there for the women of Pennsylvania."