Head Strong: Arlen Specter: A portrait in sheer will

On Nov. 7, several hundred people gathered at the National Constitution Center for the unveiling of the official portrait of Pennsylvania's longest-serving U.S. senator, Arlen Specter. The portrait captures a reflective Specter, dressed in coat and tie with his signature white pocket square, his head slightly tilted, eyes gazing downward, arms folded, and glasses in hand.

Speakers included former Sen. Robert Dole, actor Michael J. Fox, and Gov. Rendell. The event was moderated by Specter's longtime friend lawyer Stephen Harmelin. Each was funny and insightful into what makes the senator so unique.

For his part, Specter quipped that it wasn't quite time to be thinking about his legacy - "I think I'm a little young to have a portrait." Dole reminded the crowd that both he and Specter had come from Russell, Kan., a remarkable feat given its population of about 5,000. Fox praised Specter's support of stem cell research.

Rendell shared a story from the final days of Specter's tenure as Philadelphia district attorney. Riding down an elevator in the southwest corner of City Hall, Rendell, then a young assistant district attorney, told his boss he was headed to private practice with the intention of running for elective office. Specter offered to provide an introduction to GOP boss Billy Meehan. "Thanks, but no thanks," Rendell, a Democrat, told Specter.

Despite seven years working together in the D.A.'s office, Specter did not know Rendell's political affiliation. Nor did it matter when it came to the work of the office - or the collaborations the two have embarked upon over four decades in Pennsylvania politics.

But it was Specter's son, Shanin, who offered the most insightful observation about the portrait commissioned by Yale Law School and painted by Michael Shane Neal.

Shanin Specter told the audience that when he first saw a photograph of the finished portrait, he was struck by how well the artist captured "those qualities of grit, determination, and intensity that we know so well. If I may summarize those qualities in my father, it would be, in one word, will.' "

He provided examples of his father's will for the roomful of friends and associates: running for elective office in Philadelphia on the Republican ticket in 1965, the year after Democratic President Lyndon Johnson had won this city by a margin of 441,000 votes; remaining in the political arena despite three consecutive electoral defeats in the 1970s; and fighting Hodgkin's disease twice in recent years without interruption of his Senate duties.

Shanin Specter then directed the audience's attention to the portrait.

"You will note that the portrait shows a cuff link. That cuff link was purchased for about five pounds in Cambridge, England, and contains the crest of Cambridge University. I am wearing the same cuff links today."

Shanin Specter explained that father and son had purchased their cuff links together almost 25 years to the day of the unveiling, when the senior Specter had gone to Cambridge, where his son was studying, to debate a member of parliament.

The Cambridge Union was the sponsor of the debate, and the resolution was as follows: "The United States is a greater threat to world peace than the Soviet Union."

At that time, Shanin Specter recalled, "our cruise missiles were winding through the streets of Cambridge on their way to Greenham Common. Our Pershing missiles were being installed in West Germany. We had just invaded the British Commonwealth country of Grenada. We weren't held in very high regard in that college town."

Sen. Specter was then in his first term. When he arrived in Cambridge, his son took him to meet with some fellow students to strategize for the debate. Arlen Specter thought this was unnecessary until informed that the debate was going to be scored - and there would be a winner and a loser.

"With a seriousness of purpose I have seen on quite a few other occasions, he prepared and then expressed himself with great care, with brilliance, with deftness, and with independence."

"His argument prevailed, as it has on many other occasions in the past quarter century," proudly recalled his son.

What Shanin Specter did not share at the portrait unveiling was his father's post-debate role.

The Cambridge Union hall is roughly the shape and dimension of the Parliament. Tradition holds that when a debate ends, the audience files out of the hall into the foyer through one of two centrally located doors, one marked "aye" and the other "nay," while spotters count the votes.

Arlen Specter hovered over the "nay" door with eyes on each exit. The man who learned a thing or two about the electoral process on the streets of Philadelphia was the last person out of the hall. There was no way he was leaving until the all the votes had been counted.

Will, indeed.