At today’s White House briefing earlier this afternoon, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs indicated that President Obama will continue to support Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) — even if he’s not supporting the Democratic agenda:
Jake Tapper (ABC): A follow-up on a couple of issues, one regarding the Pennsylvania primary. President Obama has said he will commit to Senator Arlen Specter. Today, Congressman Sestak of Pennsylvania said he is inclined to challenge Specter in the primary. Given the fact that Specter’s very first vote as a Democrat was against the President’s budget, is there anything that Specter could do that would — in terms of voting against the President — that would change the President campaigning for him against a Democrat who is more in line with the President’s priorities?
Gibbs: I think the President was pretty clear on this. Senator Specter has his full support, and he’ll do what’s necessary to see him reelected. I think Senator Specter said it the day he made his announcement that he’s going to make decisions on individual bills. But I think that him switching to the Democratic Party was a belief that that’s the party that could best serve his constituents. We don’t get a hundred — we don’t generally get a hundred percent of any party voting for us, but we’ll continue to try.
In Gibbs’ defense, this was before reports came out that Specter said he supported Norm Coleman in the disputed Minnesota race.
