PHILADELPHIA — Sen. Arlen Specter, a moderate Republican at odds with the rest of the GOP on issues such as abortion, announced a possible presidential bid Monday with a swipe at the religious right.
The senator said he is forming an exploratory committee, often a prelude to a formal campaign.
Specter, 64, who has blamed President George Bush's 1992 loss on a GOP convention dominated by the religious right, urged his supporters Monday to "outwork and outvote the far-right fringe."
"I do not refer to them as the religious right or the Christian right because they do not articulate religious values or Christian values or Judeo-Christian values," said Specter, who is Jewish. "Instead, they advocate intolerance. They reject brotherhood. They insist on either ruling or ruining."
The third-term senator and former Philadelphia district attorney became a target of women's groups during his 1992 Senate reelection bid because of his aggressive questioning of Anita Faye Hill during the hearings on Clarence Thomas' Supreme Court nomination.
