Political leaders paused Sunday to mourn the loss of Arlen Specter, the long-serving former Pennsylvania senator whose friends and foes across the political spectrum praised the passionate, if combative, lawmaker who crossed political lines in a way that seems unimaginable in today's partisan era.

"Arlen Specter was always a fighter," President Obama said in a statement. "From his days stamping out corruption as a prosecutor in Philadelphia to his three decades of service in the Senate, Arlen was fiercely independent – never putting party or ideology ahead of the people he was chosen to serve." (MORE)