I met Arlen Specter several times. When I was clerking in a Philadelphia law office the summer before my last year of law school, I worked with his son, Shanin, who was a young lawyer at the time. Arlen took a group of us out to lunch that summer, and he was a fascinating guy, who knew a lot about sports, history and music.

Specter was an effective and principled legislator as well as a nice guy. He'll be missed.