“As I think through the issue of funding the rebuilding of Iraq, I think about the analogy of a bankruptcy proceeding. There is no doubt that Iraq as a country is bankrupt.”

American lawyer, author, and politician

Arlen Specter was an American lawyer, author, and politician, active in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He served as a United States senator from Pennsylvania from 1981 to 2011 and was the longest-serving senator in that state’s history. Specter’s career in public life was marked by party changes as well as long service in the Senate. He was a Democrat from 1951 to 1965, then a Republican until 2009, when he returned to the Democratic Party. He was first elected in 1980 and represented Pennsylvania for 30 years.