Tom Harkin Tells Arlen Specter "Over My Dead Body"

Specter's Switch Not Completely Welcome Within Democratic Caucus

When Arlen Specter first made the announcement that he decided to run in the Democratic primary in order to achieve his goal of winning re-election and thus serving a sixth term as a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, not many people had weighed the entire ramifications of his decision within the political world or within the greatest deliberative body in the world as many have proclaimed it, that being the United States Senate. I certainly did not think it would have that great of an impact on the state of Iowa and the standing of our two United States Senators, once again I admit error in my way of thinking.

First of all let me say this to start, Tom Harkin and Arlen Specter have a great working relationship. Harkin the junior U.S. Senator from the state of Iowa even took the time to mention Specter at one of his annual steak fries on Harkin's home turf there in the Warren County area, it is mostly a pretty partisan crowd at one of Harkin's steak fries so to mention how much you admire a Republican at the time, no matter how logic the person may or may not be is not going to get you a big applause in front of that crowd. Harkin however took the time to mention how wonderful it was to work with Specter on the issue of embryonic stem cell research, a type of medical research that both U.S. Senators agree with.

Harkin and Specter have also fought together to have larger sums of money restored or added on to depending upon the year to the budget of the National Institute of Health. Of course Harkin and Specter both would prefer to be the Chairman of the Health, Labor and Workforce Appropriations Committee and this would be their point of contention. Now with Specter as a Democrat he has four years of seniority that out ranks Harkin and thus would qualify Specter to be Chairman of that vital Appropriations Committee. When Harry Reid and others told Harkin about Specter becoming Chairman of the committee Harkin reportedly said "over my dead body." as noted by the Wall Street Journal.