The XX Factor: What women really think.

More Fond Memories of Arlen . . .

Emily you’re wondering why you're loathe to throw a ticker tape parade for Arlen Specter? E.J. is right. One does want to credit him for the good stuff as well as the bad, and he’s been willing to push back over the years. But I keep getting stuck by that lofty speech he gave in 2006—opposing the Military Commissions Act—which included a provision that stripped courts of their power to review the constitutionality of enemy detentions.

Remember when he stood up and announced, "I'm not going to support a bill that's blatantly unconstitutional...that suspends a right that goes back to [the Magna Carta in] 1215." And added, "I'd be willing, in the interest of party loyalty, to turn the clock back 500 years, but 800 years goes too far."

And then he voted for it?

Good times.