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Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama's decision to send another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan met Tuesday with a mixed reaction among the nation's leaders.

Leading Republicans backed the additional deployments, but questioned the creation of a three-year withdrawal timetable.

The sharp disagreement among members of Obama's own party indicates potential political trouble for the president as he tries to rally the country around his decision to expand American involvement in the eight-year conflict.

Obama announced the deployments - along with the three-year withdrawal plan - in a speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, on Tuesday night.

(The mixed reactions of 15 key lawmakers and politicians after the jump)
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Tonight the World Series starts, but the competition is already tense on Capital Hill.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The players have yet to hit the field, but World Series trash-talking is already in full swing - on Capitol Hill.

It started on Monday with a bet on who was going to win the World Series. New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand will send Pennsylvania Sens. Arlen Specter and Robert Casey Junior's Cheesecakes if the Philadelphia Phillies win and if the Yankees win, Schumer and Gillibrand will receive a supply of Philly cheesesteaks.

Gillibrand fired back on Wednesday: "@SenArlenSpecter Respectfully, Senator, sir...you're going down!"

But Specter stuck to his major league guns. "Hey @SenGillibrand, can you recommend a good cheesecake? We will be too busy celebrating the Phillies victory to decide."

Gillibrand explained the exchange for any confused constituents: "Just a friendly wager w/ @SenArlenSpecter over who will win the World Series."

Schumer and Casey do not have active Twitter accounts, but that hasn't kept them on the bench. "I give Senators Specter and Casey credit for sticking with their team but I can already taste those delicious Philly cheesesteaks," Schumer said in a joint statement issued by both states' senators earlier this week.

Casey was having none of it: "If the Phillies keep up their extraordinary efforts at the plate, on the mound and in the field, it is only a matter of time until Senator Specter and I are able to enjoy some delicious cheesecake."

Follow Eric Kuhn on Twitter @KuhnCNN.

Specter raises nearly $2 million in last three month.

(CNN) – Sen. Arlen Specter continues to stockpile cash ahead of what's likely to be a difficult re-election battle.

Specter's campaign announced Wednesday it raised over $1.8 million over the last three months, and ended the latest reporting period with $8.71 million in the bank.

The announcement means that Specter - who switched parties in April to become a Democrat - outraised Republican challenger Pat Toomey, who collected over $1.5 million during the same period. Specter's Democratic primary opponent, Rep. Joe Sestak, has not yet released his third-quarter fundraising totals.

Specter's campaign noted that President Obama's fundraiser for the incumbent in September netted "about a million dollars" for the Democrat.

A new poll of Pennsylvania voters indicates that Sen. Arlen Specter's appoval rating continues to drop.

(CNN) – A new poll of Pennsylvania voters indicates that Sen. Arlen Specter's appoval rating continues to drop.

According to a Quinnipiac University survey released Thursday morning, 44 percent of Pennsylvanians questioned approve of Specter's job as senator, with 48 percent saying they disapprove. That 44 percent approval rating is down 12 points from early May, soon after the longtime Republican switched his party identity from Republican to Democrat.

Specter is up for re-election next year and the poll suggests he continues to be deadlocked with his Republican challenger, Pat Toomey - a former congressman and former head of the Club for Growth, a limited-government, anti-tax organization.

Forty-three percent of people questioned say they'd back Toomey, with 42 percent supporting Specter. That's similar to a survey in July, but in early May Specter held a 20 point lead over his less well known opponent.

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Topping the group's target list in the Senate is current Democrat, and former moderate Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

Joliet, Illinois (CNN) – Organizers of the Tea Party Express bus tour arriving in Washington later this week planned their route to go though Democratic congressional districts they consider vulnerable.

"What we did was take a map of the United States and then we went head and pin pointed the members of congress that merited our attention and then we looked at those that might be politically vulnerable," said Joe Wierzbicki, a strategist with the conservative PAC Our Country Deserves Better, who are organizing the cross country Tea Party Express tour.

Topping the group's target list in the Senate is current Democrat, and former moderate Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. The Tea Party Express makes four stops in Pennsylvania later this week.

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The FEC said Thursday that the Club for Growth can contact Sen. Arlen Specter's donors about their ability to ask for a refund of their political contributions.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Federal Election Commissions said Thursday that the Club for Growth - a group that advocates fiscally conservative policies - may use information in Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's campaign finance reports in order to inform Specter's donors that the longtime senator is no longer a Republican and has switched his party affiliation to Democrat as he seeks to retain his seat in 2010.

When Specter announced his party switch in late April, he also announced that he would refund any contribution given during the current election cycle by donors who wanted their money returned.

The Club for Growth, which was once run by Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey, asked the FEC for permission to access Specter's campaign finance reports in order to identify Specter donors entitled to a refund and to inform them of their ability to seek a refund if they desire to do so.

In a decision rendered Thursday, the FEC granted the group access to Specter's FEC reports under a number of conditions, including that the group not use the Specter donor information to solicit contributions or for any commercial purpose.

Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak recently announced that he will challenge Specter for the Democratic senate nomination. The winner of that primary will face off against Toomey in the general election in 2010.

In its second quarter campaign finance report, the Specter campaign reported returning $225,000 to Republican donors.

Rep. Joe Sestak beat out Sen. Arlen Specter in a straw poll conducted at the 2009 Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Rep. Joe Sestak beat out Sen. Arlen Specter in a straw poll conducted at the 2009 Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh, an annual gathering of liberal online political activists and bloggers.

Sestak received 46 percent of the vote, while Specter got 10 percent, in this unscientific survey of 235 attendees who participated. Sestak is challenging Specter in the 2010 Pennsylvania Democratic primary.

Specter left the Republican Party earlier this year to became a Democrat.

Thirty-three percent of those queried in the straw poll said they did not know who they supported in the upcoming Democratic primary and seven percent said they supported neither Sestak nor Specter.

Related: CNN's Mark Preston discusses 'Netroots Nation' in a CNN Radio podcast

Among the field of likely contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, 36 percent of participants in the straw poll rated former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin as the easiest to beat. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty were each rated easiest to beat by one percent of those surveyed in the straw poll.

The straw poll was conducted Aug. 13-14 at the conference by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and Democracy Corps in conjunction with the Campaign for America’s Future.

Conservative online political activists and bloggers are also gathering in Pittsburgh for the 2009 RightOnline conference over the weekend.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's brought Capitol Hill police to his rowdy town halls on Tuesday.

Lewisburg, Pennsylvania (CNN) – Tough crowds asking pointed questions is not the only concern Sen. Arlen Specter has as he holds town halls all across his home state of Pennsylvania.

He's also concerned about his personal safety, which is why he brought along some United States Capitol Hill Police officers as he traveled to two town halls on Tuesday.

The sometime raucous events in Lebanon and Lewisburg, which Specter called "civil," were largely full of constituents expressing their anger over the health care plan working its way through Congress.

The Democrat earlier this year switched parties and could face a tough re-election fight next year.

After his town hall event at the campus of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Specter defended his decision to have Congress' special police force travel with him back home.

"I would say, that given the temper of the times, the fact that in some areas there have been fights breaking out and people hospitalized - and one member's statue was hanged in effigy - [safety] is a big challenge," said Specter.

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LEBANON, Pennsylvania (CNN) - A hostile crowd shouted questions and made angry statements against overhauling the health-care system at a town hall meeting Tuesday led by Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter.

The meeting drew an overflow crowd of 250 people, with more gathered outside the hall to demonstrate for and against President Barack Obama's push to expand health insurance for 46 million people now without coverage while bringing down costs.

It was the latest in a series of emotional public meetings on the health-care issue that have prompted Obama and Democratic leaders to complain of a campaign by opponents to drown out the debate with unruly disruptions.

At one point, Specter shouted into his microphone that demonstrators disrupting the proceedings would be thrown out.

"We're not going to tolerate any demonstrations or any booing," he said after one audience member shoved another making an unsolicited speech. "So it's up to you."

Many in the crowd identified themselves as conservative Republicans, with one man noting they had voted Specter to Congress before the senator changed parties earlier this year.

Related video: Watch more of Specter's Tuesday town hall

A woman prompted a standing ovation by telling Specter: "I don't believe this is just health care. This is about the systematic dismantling of this country. … I don't want this country turning into Russia, turning into a socialized country. What are you going to do to restore this country back to what our founders created, according to the Constitution?"

Specter responded by noting his support for the Constitution as a past chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on issues such as warrantless wiretaps.

"When you ask me to defend the Constitution, that's what I've been doing," Specter said.

However, Specter also noted that overhauling the health-care system is about America taking care of all its people.

"In our social contract, we have provisions that see to it that you take care of people who need some help," he said.

Several people asked if a health-care bill would mean taxpayer dollars would pay for others to get abortions. Specter responded that any measure passed by Congress would allow people to choose a plan that didn't cover abortions.
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A recent poll had bad news for Sen. Specter's re-election bid.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Democrats are headed for a tough primary fight in Pennsylvania, Sen. Arlen Specter said Sunday, telling CNN he was ready to go “toe to toe” with primary opponent Rep. Joe Sestak.

Specter said Sestak was wrong to question the Republican-turned-Democratic incumbent’s allegiance to his new party, adding that his voting record had always leaned Democratic. “President Obama thinks that my principles and values are right in line with his, which is why he's backing me, and Joe Biden and Ed Rendell,” he told CNN’s John King on “State of the Union.”

Related: Specter's polling edge evaporates

“When Congressman Sestak starts to throw stones, he lives in a big glass house. The guy has the worst voting record in the Congress from the Pennsylvania delegation. He's missed 104 votes this year. He talks about his military record. If he was still in the service, he would be a court martial, and he's been AWOL, absent without leave.

“Now, I don't want to get involved in brickbats, and I'd rather talk about the issues, but if Congressman Sestak wants to go negative, I'm prepared to battle him toe to toe.”

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Rep. Joe Sestak officially declared his candidacy for the the Democratic Senate nomination in Pennsylvania.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Rep. Joe Sestak officially declared his candidacy for the the Democratic Senate nomination in Pennsylvania Tuesday, setting up a primary season showdown with incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter.

Although his campaign team has been sharply critical of Specter since he began considering a run, Sestak focused on policy matters in his announcement - the economy, health care and other challenges.

"These problems, when I am your senator, are not going to just disappear overnight - I can't promise you that," he said. "But I can promise you that you will have working for you the hardest working senator. That you will have the most honest of senators, the most accountable of senators. You will have the most caring of senators, and you will have the senator with the most energy."

As for Specter: "We are where we are today, and if everybody's happy with that, he's your guy."

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Rep. Joe Sestak is expected to officially declare his candidacy for the Democratic Senate nomination.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Rep. Joe Sestak is expected to officially declare his candidacy for the Democratic Senate nomination Tuesday, setting up a primary season showdown with incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter, a source close to Sestak confirmed to CNN Monday.

Sestak's campaign said in a Twitter message Monday morning that the Philadelphia-area congressman will be making a "major announcement" Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. The announcement, which will take place at a VFW hall in his district, will be webcast live on his campaign site.

A Quinnipiac poll late last month indicated that Specter, who's received the public backing of President Obama and party leaders since his defection from the Republican Party this spring, had a 55 percent to 23 percent advantage in a hypothetical Democratic primary matchup – though his 20-point edge over prospective GOP challenger Pat Toomey had vanished.

A new poll out Wednesday has bad news for Sen. Specter's re-election bid.

(CNN) - A new poll of Pennsylvania voters suggests that Sen. Arlen Specter's double-digit lead over Republican challenger Pat Toomey in his bid for re-election next year has disappeared.

Forty-five percent of people questioned in a Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday say they'd back Specter if the 2010 election were held today, with 44 percent supporting Toomey. That's a dramatic change from early May, soon after Specter switched from the Republican to Democratic parties, when a Quinnipiac poll indicated Specter held a 20 point lead over Toomey.

By a 49 to 40 percent margin, the poll indicates that Specter does not deserve to be re-elected to a sixth term next year. And 47 percent approve of how Specter's handling his duties as senator, matching his lowest approval rating ever in Quinnipiac polling. Forty-six percent disapprove, the highest disapproval rating ever.

"Sen. Arlen Specter's 20-point lead over former Congressman Pat Toomey less than three months ago has virtually vanished," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Voters see Sen. Specter much less favorably than they once did and are net negative about giving him a sixth term in the U.S. Senate."
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(CNN) –  Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter, the Republican-turned-Democrat who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced Friday he will support Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court:

Judge Sonia Sotomayor brought to the Judiciary Committee hearings an outstanding record academically, as a prosecutor and as a commercial lawyer plus 17 distinguished years as a federal judge.  At the hearings she displayed intellect, restraint and judicial demeanor.  As the third woman and the first Hispanic, she will add needed diversity to the Supreme Court.

“I intend to vote for her and urge my colleagues to do the same.”

Earlier: Lugar becomes first Republican to back Sotomayor

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Forgive Arlen Specter if he felt a little confused Wednesday.

The former Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee took his turn questioning Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as one of the lowest-ranking Democrats - ahead of only the chamber's newest member, Al Franken of Minnesota.

Specter, who has represented Pennsylvania since 1980, switched parties in April and therefore lost the committee seniority accrued in almost three decades as a Republican.

That didn't stop him from raising favorite judicial issues with Sotomayor, including his long-standing push for televising sessions of the nation's highest court.

Noting that both House and Senate proceedings are televised and the "tremendous interest" in Sotomayor's nominating process, Specter said it is time to also broaden access to Supreme Court proceedings.

"Wouldn't it be more appropriate in a democracy to let the people take a look inside?" he asked.

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Sen. Arlen Specter returned $225K to Republican donors after changing his party affiliation in April.

(CNN) – Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter raised more than $1.7 million for the quarter – putting him just ahead of Republican challenger Pat Toomey's $1.6 million – but actually cleared less than a million dollars, thanks in part to $225,000 in refunds to GOP colleagues and constituents after he switched parties in April.

The Pennsylvania senator returned $75,000 to fellow lawmakers in his former party who had donated to his re-election bid, his campaign confirmed Wednesday. The balance, roughly $150,000, was sent back to individual Republican donors who requested refunds.

Republican leaders had urged Specter's GOP constituents to ask for their money back, but a Specter spokesman says the requests have died down considerably since spring. The incumbent, who has the public backing of President Obama and top Democratic officials, still boasts a campaign war chest of around $7.5 million – more than $3 million more than his potential primary challenger, Rep. Joe Sestak.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's campaign raised $1.73 million in the second quarter of 2009.

(CNN) – Sen. Arlen Specter's campaign said Tuesday it raked in $1.73 million in the second quarter of this year, giving the Republican-turned-Democrat from Pennsylvania around $7.5 million in cash on hand.

"Our impressive fundraising this quarter demonstrates the strong support I have in the Democratic Party and across Pennsylvania," said Specter in a statement released by his campaign Tuesday.

Rep. Joe Sestak's re-election campaign reported Monday that the Pennsylvania Democrat raised more than $1 million in this year's second quarter, with around $4.2 million in the bank.

The two-term congressman from the state's 7th District has said that he plans to challenge Specter for the Democratic Senate nomination next year. Specter has the backing of President Barack Obama and party leaders as he gears up for re-election in 2010. On Tuesday, his campaign pointed to a new string of endorsements by local Democratic officials as evidence he was making headway in his efforts to win over the party's base.

On Monday, Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey said his campaign for the Senate has raised $1.6 million since he jumped into the race on April 15. Toomey's campaign also announced that they have $1.1 million cash on hand.

Arlen Specter offered praise for Sonia Sotomayor Monday during the first day of her confirmation hearing.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pennsylvania, appeared to offer strong praise for the pick of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on Monday, saying that the choice of a Latina judge represents a long-overdue nod to America's growing diversity.

It was wrong for the country to wait until 1967 to put the first African-American, Thurgood Marshall, on the high court, Specter said. It was also wrong to wait until 1981 to put the first woman, Sandra Day O'Connor, on the court.

Specter made his remarks during the first day of Sotomayor's Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings.

Specter, a former chairman of the committee, switched from the Republican to the Democratic party earlier this year. A number of liberal critics have expressed concern that he will not be a reliable Democratic vote.

(CNN) - Rep. Joe Sestak's re-election campaign reports Monday that the Pennsylvania Democrat raised more than $1 million in this year's second quarter, with around $4.2 million in the bank.

The two-term congressman from Pennsylvania's 7th District has said that he will challenge Sen. Arlen Specter for the Democratic Senate nomination next year. Specter, a long time Republican, switched his party registration to Democrat earlier this year and has the backing of President Barack Obama and party leaders, as he gears up for re-election in 2010.

Sestak is in the middle of a tour of Pennsylvania's 67 counties, and could have an official announcement regarding a Senate bid when that tour is over at the end of the month.

"We believe this means we will have more cash on hand than any Senate challenger. As you know, this was achieved without the institutional support of the Democratic establishment," says Sestak spokesman Joe Langdon.

Specter's campaign has not released their second quarter figures yet. At the end of the first quarter, Specter had more than $6.7 million in the bank.

Earlier Monday Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey said his campaign for the Senate has raked in $1.6 million since he jumped into the race on April 15. Toomey's campaign also announced that they have $1.1 million cash on hand.