Free Republic

Doug Kmiec went to mass, as usual, at Our Lady of Malibu on Tuesday morning. Then he drove up the hill to his office to talk to me by phone about how a Republican Catholic opposed to abortion could endorse Barack Obama. You may recognize Kmiec's name. He teaches at Pepperdine University in California now, but he's a Chicago guy.

<p>PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Moderate Republican Sen. Arlen Specter beat back a tough primary threat Tuesday, barely defeating a conservative congressman who lacked support from party leaders but gained momentum by casting the four-term incumbent as too liberal.</p> <p>Specter, 74, eked out a win against Rep. Pat Toomey, 42, despite a low turnout among Pennsylvania's 3.1 million registered Republicans that had been expected to aid the challenger.</p>

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Moderate Republican Sen. Arlen Specter scored a narrow primary win over a conservative congressman on Tuesday in a race that could influence the November battles for control of the Senate and White House. Specter, a four-term Senate veteran and one of the chamber's last moderate Republicans, outlasted Rep. Pat Toomey, 51-49 percent, winning by about 15,000 votes out of more than one million ballots cast. "It's been a very, very difficult campaign," Specter told supporters in a downtown Philadelphia ballroom before the final results were tallied, lamenting the criticism he has faced for his support for abortion...