I admit Specter did some good along the way - but I do know many of us who appreciated his defense of Thomas had already turned on him by the time RS was supporting him against Toomey.
I am also not convinced that keeping Specter was necessary for Alito and Roberts. We’ll never know now of course.
My take on the Clarence Thomas hearings is that Specter thought he would get points from the left for supporting a black man onto the Supreme Court. But as the hearings continued, he started to realize that he had miscalculated, because conservative blacks don’t count as anything more than Uncle Toms, and in the meantime he was offending the women’s rights people because of what’s her name and the Coke can.
Fortunately, he followed through to the end and confirmed Thomas, probably figuring that he’d gain no points if he changed course in midstream and Thomas went down to defeat. But then he went off on a woman’s rights rampage, trying to make sure that he didn’t lose the NOW votes through his miscalculation. Still, he did the job.