A special man and his special stuff deserve a special place. Specter will have his library thanks to a $2 million Christmas-in-July gift from our governor through the redevelopment budget.
Philadelphia University is a stone's throw from the senator's home in East Falls, or, as I like to call it, Upper Rendellia. The library will be housed in the 1779 Roxboro House.
There's no need to build a gym for Specter's favorite sport of whacking balls, not at Supreme Court nominees, but against walls. The location is blocks from the Kline & Specter Squash Center at Penn Charter, built by Specter's son Shanin and his personal-injury law partner, Tom Kline.
Critics ask why the state needs to seed an Arlenaeum, an Athenaeum with all things Specter. Good question! The pol can raise money in his sleep, $54 million in campaign funds since 1989. (And when Specter can't sleep, he counts all 67 of Pennsylvania's counties - in descending order of votes received.)
Gov. Rendell knows how to gift with public funds, kicking half of $298 million in state development bonds to the region. Complain, but a year from now a man from Pittsburgh will run Harrisburg. Monies may head westward ho. Then who will help realize the Edwardian vision of our city?
Philadelphia University is better known for interior and textile design than politics, but we have some recommendations for this Spect'rum.
Right off, the library needs a set of M.C. Escher stairs that twist and turn in dizzying directions, mirroring the political peregrinations of its subject.
Specter is the only senator in modern memory to cite Scottish law, during Clinton's impeachment no less. His building should definitely include a Scottish law wing, torts volumes dressed in tartans, bagpipes (blown gently, if possible), and Not Proven etched over the door.
