In his 1993 book about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht derided Arlen Specter's "single-bullet theory" as an "asinine pseudoscientific sham."

If Specter ever took the insult personally, he no longer can. Wecht saw to that yesterday, crossing party lines to endorse re-election of the Republican senator.

"You don't have to be a good forensic scientist to be a strong U.S. senator," Wecht said yesterday, after announcing his endorsement of Specter to reporters in his Downtown law office.

Wecht said he had no regrets about undercutting the campaign of fellow Democrat Joe Hoeffel, a three-term congressman from Montgomery County and Specter's challenger in the Nov. 2 election.

A Senate candidate himself in 1982 who lost in a landslide to the late Sen. John Heinz, Wecht noted that several other prominent Democrats have endorsed Specter. They include County Councilman John DeFazio and former U.S. Reps. Ron Klink and Frank Mascara, along with such Democratic-friendly labor organizations as the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers and the state AFL-CIO.

"It's not like I'm out there wafting in the wind, all by myself," said Wecht, a former chairman of the county Democratic Party.

Tom Flaherty, the current party chairman, spoke with Wecht on Saturday, but did not dissuade him from endorsing Specter.

"Cyril is Cyril. What are you going to do? You're not going to change him. So why fight over it?" Flaherty said.

Wecht had never before endorsed a Republican, but Flaherty played down yesterday's announcement.

"I don't think it means much," Flaherty said. "If people are aware that Cyril and Arlen are old friends, they realize it's a personal thing."

At times, Wecht and Specter have seemed more like old adversaries.

As a junior counsel to the Warren Commission, Specter authored the single-bullet theory, supporting the conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Wecht has made a name for himself nationally as a critic of the theory. In his 1993 book "Cause of Death," the coroner derided the Warren report as "absolute nonsense."

Ironically, the first indication that Wecht might endorse Specter came on the 40th anniversary of the assassination, last Nov. 22. On that day, the coroner warmly greeted the senator at a symposium on the assassination at Duquesne University.

Specter yesterday called the Wecht endorsement "very meaningful."

The Hoeffel campaign responded with a quickly arranged news conference at its Downtown office, introducing a few Democratic voters who billed themselves as former Specter supporters.

In an appeal to Jewish voters, the Hoeffel campaign also trotted out state Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, at the news conference.

Specter and Wecht are Jewish.

Wecht -- in response to a question from the editor of The Jewish Chronicle, Pittsburgh's Jewish newspaper -- commended Specter's strong support of Israel, but gave other reasons for the endorsement, emphasizing the senator's success in obtaining federal funding for the region.

"He has demonstrated an affinity for Western Pennsylvania, which perhaps has produced some envy over in the Philadelphia area," Wecht said.

The coroner went on to describe Specter's familiarity with foreign-policy issues as an asset in the war on terrorism.

"This is a critical juncture in the history of the United States and the world," Wecht said. "It is not the time to engage in [partisan] politics of a meaningless nature."

After receiving the coroner's endorsement, Specter went to the Duquesne Club, where fellow Sens. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., appeared at a $1,000-a-person fund-raiser for the four-term incumbent.

Craig, who is anti-abortion, reminded the audience that a re-elected Specter would become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, just in time for the nominations of as many as three new Supreme Court justices.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful ... if the man who chairs that committee ... were Arlen Specter? That's why I'm here," said Craig, also a Judiciary Committee member.

Specter, though, is pro-choice.

"A party really thrives on diversity," Specter said. "A party really thrives on a big-tent approach."

Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette
Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, a Democrat, announces his endorsement yesterday of Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, rear, in Specter's bid for re-election.
Click photo for larger image.

First Published: September 14, 2004, 4:00 a.m.