Exiting Sen. Specter to decry Senate rancor in farewell floor address

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) will take aim at what he sees as an increasingly partisan Senate when he delivers his farewell address on the Senate floor Tuesday morning. 

The Republican-turned-Democrat, who switched parties to avoid a GOP primary but then lost to a Democratic challenger, will say that senators should not campaign against one another, arguing that it hurts lawmakers' ability to work together.

"Collegiality can obviously not be maintained when negotiating with someone out to defeat you, especially in your own party," Specter will say on the Senate floor at 10:30 a.m. "In some quarters, compromising has become a dirty word ... Politics is no longer the art of the possible when senators are intransigent in their positions."

Specter is one of several centrists who ended up being defeated in this year's elections. 

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) aided conservative Tea Party-backed candidates who challenged, and in some cases defeated, establishment primary candidates or incumbents.

Specter thought that by leaving the GOP, he would ensure an easier path to reelection. 

But the Pennsylvania senator's primary defeat at the hands of Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) reflected internal tensions in the Democratic Party that caused problems for several incumbents. 

Sestak painted himself as a true Democrat, as opposed to the party-switching Specter, on the campaign trail, which lifted him in the primary. In the general election, it wasn't enough to defeat former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who unsuccessfully primaried Specter in 2004.