By TSC Staff

Sen. Arlen Specter visits the White House today to shake hands with his new best friends President Obama and Vice President Biden.  Specter, a longtime Republican Senator from Pennsylvania, shocked the political world on Tuesday, announcing that he will run for reelection in 2010 as a Democrat.

Specter is a consummate member of The Survivors Club many times over.  For the last three decades, he has battled all kinds of serious health challenges.  In 1979 at age 48, he was told he had ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease but found out several months later it was a misdiagnosis.  He survived brain tumors in 1993 and 1996 and coronary bypass surgery in 1998.  In 2005, he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma, Stage IVB, the most advanced kind.  After extensive treatment, the disease went into remission and then recurred in 2008.  In 2008, he published his memoir, “Never Give In: Battling Cancer in the Senate."

In terms of his Survivor Type, Specter is a classic "Fighter."  Indeed, he borrowed the title of his memoir from Winston Churchill, who said famously: "Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." 

Specter's bold party-switch was instantly framed in survival terms.  David Brooks of The New York Times blogged: "I do have to salute Specter’s deft ability to survive. I thought he was cooked. He would have lost the G.O.P. primary. I’ve been told he no longer has the physical stamina to run two tough campaigns — primary and general. I figured he couldn’t get the Democratic nomination, because Democrats do after all prefer to vote for Democrats. And it’s tough to run as an Independent.  And yet the odds are that now he’ll keep his job. He did it by winning over the Obama administration, and, I presume getting Gov. Ed Rendell to clear the field for him. What a savvy dude!"

Nancy Benac of the Associated Press reviewed "Snarlin' Arlen's" reputation as a highly combative survivor, writing "for decades, Arlen Specter was the kind of Republican who would rather fight than switch."

Benac explained that "the move was vintage Specter."

GOP consultant Roger Stone, a longtime friend and unpaid adviser to the senator, said the switch wasn't an easy decision for Specter, adding that the senator "liked being a Republican."

"He's always wanted to stay and fight," Stone said. "I'm sure he anguished about this, but it's survival."