Specter's 'One Tough Hombre'

President Obama hailed party-swapping Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter as “one tough hombre” this morning, welcoming the new Democrat to the fold in a White House news conference.

Specter pledged to maintain his independence, but his abandonment of the Republican Party gives Obama a filibuster-proof 60 votes on most of his top agenda items, including, education, green energy, science policy and health care.

And while Specter said he’d stick with some of his more conservative views, he also said he felt welcome in Obama’s bigger tent government, and promised to help.

“I do think Mr. President that I can be of assistance,” Specter said, with Obama and Vice President Biden on either side. “You have projected an administration that I feel very comfortable with.”

In welcoming Specter, Obama linked Specter’s crusade for enhanced medical research with the 79-year-old’s own triumphs over cancer and other ailments, and proclaimed Specter’s determination was one reason the United States could cope with the swine flu scare.

“Let me tell you, Arlen Specter is one tough hombre,” Obama said, promising to go to the mat for Specter.

“I have told him he will have my full support in a Democratic primary,” Obama said, adding that so has Joe Biden, who helped secure Specter’s switch.

Besides offering his help to Obama, Specter, who grew up in Russell, Kan., joked that his advice to Obama, who also started out life in Kansas, helped get him elected.

“He used to tell me if a Jewish kid from Kansas can carry Pennsylvania, how can a black kid from Kansas carry Pennsylvania?” Specter recalled from his state’s primary last year. “And I gave him some advice, and then he became President of the United States of America.”

Even with the good cheer, all three men forecast there would be rough patches.

“Anyone who thinks Arlen is going to cash in his independence, politically, has another thing coming,” Biden said.

- Michael McAuliff