• by David Goetzl , January 11, 2012

Arlen Specter, the 81-year-old former Pennsylvania senator, will begin hosting a TV show this week. This is downright shocking.

Until a few weeks ago, it seemed hard to find a more unlikely politician – person even -- to carry a program. During his decades in Washington, his gravelly, monotone voice might have worked better than Ambien. He had the charisma of a computer-science professor. His cracking a smile seemed as unlikely as Barack Obama winning red Texas.

Either he’s been hiding an alluring aspect of his personality or he’s suddenly been transformed. If cast right, he's got the makings of an entertainment star. Betty White’s thriving at 90, so fortunately Specter still has a decade to wow us.

Unburdened by late nights worrying how Pennsylvanians will react to his vote on the Farm Bill or payroll tax cuts, Specter seems reenergized. Retirement should treat everyone so well. He seems relaxed, confident and fulfilled. Not to mention looks great, hale and hearty.

And, outside Washington’s mount of seriousness – he lost a re-election bid in 2010 – humor no longer seems foreign to him. Actually, laughter looks to be right in his wheelhouse.

While he may do well in his new wonky, public-broadcasting role, it would be sad if he doesn’t get a platform to widely display his comedic chops.

The public-affairs forum, “Arlen Specter’s The Whole Truth,” debuts Friday on Maryland Public Television (MPT). Episode one will zero in on campaign finance reform and the Supreme Court’s Citizens United vs. FEC case. Joining Specter to discuss the scintillating topic will be former U.S. Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Fred Thompson of Tennessee.

Bayh is drier than Specter circa 2009. Thompson starred on “Law & Order,” but can fall short in the energy department.

What a fantastic way to start the weekend!

If Specter is going to talk public policy, give him some credit for attempting to lean towards the contemplative and even-handed. Bayh is a Democrat, Thompson a Republican. Specter – comically -- is both, having switched late in his Senate career to the Democrats.

"This is a show about letting the best arguments be heard on the different sides of issues ... it's not people shouting at each other ... and it's not short sound bites and bumper stickers," executive producer Craig Snyder told the AP.

The AP says the goal is for the show to go national this summer, though an MPT representative didn’t seem so sure. Additional episodes are contingent on raising the $100,000 per-show production costs, she said.

If that doesn’t materialize and leaves Specter more time to razz pols rather than analyze policy, that’s a plus. Specter’s performance late last month during an open-mic session at a Philly comedy club showed he’d be a strong candidate to host “Saturday Night Live.” Al Gore and John McCain have had turns, and do viewers need Alec Baldwin for the 900^th time?

At the very least, Specter deserves an appearance on "SNL's" “Weekend Update” segment as heavy political spoofing settles in. It’s surprising no producers at Comedy Central’s late-night shows haven’t been impressed enough by the clip online of Specter’s eight-minute stand-up to have him on.

(If the mainstream media shuns him, he could sell out some shows on the road. The tour could steal from PBS and be called “Arlen Specter’s The Whole Truth.”)

Specter could dial up some zingers about Mitt Romney’s hair gel or Ron Paul’s willingness to allow people to fill Lafayette Park with marijuana smoke.

Better yet, his drollery might do better looking backward. The best comedy comes from personal experience, right? And as he noted in Philly, he’s got plenty of Washington time to draw from.

“I’ve been in comedy now for 30 years,” he said. “The only difference is, it’s not stand-up; we all have comfortable chairs. It costs about $27 million to win a seat."

Apparently, Specter has few worries about being politically correct. That's confirmed by Philly.com, where the replay of his open-mic set is accompanied by: “Disclaimer: This video contains language that some may find inappropriate."

Actually, the language is pretty clean, but his shots at politicians' sex lives is a bit dirty.

On Bill Clinton:

“I called Clinton up on his 65th birthday and I said, ‘Bill, congratulations on being 65. How do you feel?’ He said, ‘Arlen, I feel like a teenager. The problem is, I can’t find one.’"

He had already said Clinton’s “a friend of mine, because I was a friend of his. I voted not to impeach him. And that’s a hell of a thing to do, considering the evidence."

On Herman Cain, Specter said:

“9-9-9 and more women came out of the woodwork than there was wood. And what people don’t know is that Cain had had a long-standing problem since he was an adolescent. No matter how hard his teachers tried, they couldn’t persuade Herman Cain that ‘harass’ was one word."

Funny stuff from an ex-funny man.