LIVE from Pittsburgh: Senator Arlen Specter tackles tough questions from the netroots

We're back in Hall B for the Pennsylvania Leadership Forum, the second of today's keynotes. The two candidates, Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak, are appearing separately in the forum to talk with Pennsylvania blogger Susie Madrak and The Nation's Ari Melber about their campaigns for U.S. Senate.

Our first guest is Senator Specter, who left the Republican Party join the Democratic Party after voting yes on the stimulus in February. He was thrown a fairly open-ended question to begin with: "Who are you and why are you here?"

Senator Specter responded in a canned and monotone voice "I am a fellow who has a good job he'd like to keep, running for reelection to the United States Senate." Now there's a persuasive stump speech.

Specter went on to note that he is working diligently to put together healthcare reform legislation built around a robust public option.

Specter continued rambling on at some length before being interrupted by Ari, who reminded Specter that Netroots Nation is not the United States Senate, where filibusters are permitted. Specter was subsequently asked why the people of Pennsylvania should trust him. He officiously replied, "Trust me because I have a record for being candid, and honest, and trustworthy. Trust me because Joe Biden knows me very well, and trusts me."

When asked whether he supported the Waxman/Markey bill to tackle the climate crisis, Specter provided one of the best sound bites of the convention by declaring, "I support climate change". (This brought guffaws and chuckles from the audience.)

Asked whether he would vote in favor of ending debate in the Senate on the Employee Free Choice act, healthcare reform, and cap and trade, Specter affirmed that he would. "Yes, there is no doubt about those three issues."

Specter discounted critical analysis of his voting record, saying he didn't care much for generalizations. He also explained that switching away from the Republican Party makes it easier for him to take progressive votes. "I say that you have to take a look at the individual votes... As a Democrat, I don't have to look over my right shoulder, and that is very comfortable."

Asked what he could do to combat the lies coming from former conservative allies about healthcare reform, Specter suggested, "I can be helpful with Senator Grassley, Seantor Collins, and a whole bunch of other Republican Senators."

(Grassley, of course, recently embraced the Palin "death panel" lies. Specter assailed his position as "not correct" and pledged to call Grassley from backstage to talk about Grassley's position).

What about the hate speech coming from the Republican right, Madrak asked. Voices like Glenn Beck, who are poisoning our discourse? What can be done about them?

An indignant Specter replied, "Well, Glenn Beck is not close to me. I don't know Glenn Beck and I don't care about Glenn Beck."

Madrak and Melber next wanted to know if Specter would support reconciliation for getting healthcare reform through the Senate. Specter said that he would as a last resort, but that achieving cloture was more desirable.

"You can't get the entire bill in reconciliation. That can only be done by cloture. We will be able to get cloture on healthcare. There are sixty votes on health, sixty if I include [Maine Republican Olympia] Snowe in there."

Specter closed by delivering an "elevator pitch" for his candidacy which lasted a lot longer than a typical elevator ride. "Support me because I have a lot of experience... and when tough issues come up and Obama needs a spokesman to go out and face tough crowds, I can do it effectively," Specter declared.