More From the Dems: Leahy Says Specter will be Happier
Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is one of Specter's closest pals on the Hill. The two men have known each other for decades, and Specter is now the Ranking Member on Leahy's committee. He'll now serve as the number 2 Democrat. Here's what Leahy had to say today:
“Senator Specter called me this morning. He and I have been friends for 40 years. We first met when we were both young prosecutors. We have a particular friendship, and he wanted me to know before it became in the press. In talking with him, I had the impression that he went through much the same that Jim Jeffords of Vermont did. I had the impression that Senator Specter had a feeling that the Republican Party, a great party in this country, had left him – not the other way around. I know how hard he has agonized. I believe he's going to be happier.”
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Katie Connolly joined NEWSWEEK in June 2007, working for NEWSWEEK's international editions. In September 2007, she was assigned to cover Republican presidential candidates for Newsweek's special election issue and book. For this project, Katie was detached from the weekly magazine and her reporting was embargoed until after election day. As a result, she gained exclusive, behind-the-scenes access to the McCain campaign.
Now based in DC, Katie was named Political Correspondent in November 2008 and covers the White House and Capitol Hill.
Katie received her Master of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where she was the 2005 Menzies Scholar. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland and completed her honors thesis on media representations of the East Timor conflict at the University of Melbourne. She was born and raised in Brisbane, Australia.
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