"Though the winners generally write the history of events, Specters account of the campaign loss that ended his 30-year Senate career is proof that a few parting words can serve as a pointed political epitaph. In this engaging, but heavy-handed look at the disappearance of the center in Republican party politics, Specter (Never Give In: Battling Cancer in the Senate) lays bare his resentments, and offers his knowledgeable, withering critique of brutal partisanship in national politics. After five terms as a liberal Republican, Specter famously and critics said, desperately switched parties and ran for re-election as a Democrat in 2010, prompting one disgruntled voter to call him a political transvestite as he headed to an electoral defeat. Describing the GOPs decades-long rightward drift, Specter engages in much score-settling and self-justification, from noting that Richard Nixon urged civility in his 1969 inaugural address to dismissing Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) as a scorched earth partisan, and suggesting that his successor, Sen. Pat Toomey has a reputation, as being, foremost, out for himself. Specters basic message, though, is one of concern. The vitriol and hatred on all sides is overwhelming, he writes, and from a man overwhelmed by heightened partisanship, the warning carries the weight of experience." (Publishers Weekly) Check Our Catalog
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