By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA Staff Writer
roarty@politicspa.com

Arlen Specter’s campaign continued Monday to deny the incumbent senator had struck any deal for Rick Santorum’s endorsement in 2004 and blasted Santorum for changing his story about his support for Specter that year.

The former Pennsylvania U.S. senator dropped something of a bombshell Saturday when, speaking at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, he said he endorsed Specter in his neck-and-neck primary against Pat Toomey only after the longtime officeholder promised to unconditionally support President Bush’s second term Supreme Court nominees. At the time, Specter was chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

The statement brought a swift attack from Joe Sestak, who argued it showed Specter would do anything for his political survival, and a denial from the incumbent.

In a Monday afternoon press release, the Specter campaign criticized Santorum for apologizing for the endorsement at CPAC in February – when he said he regretted it — and then trying to defend it over the weekend. It also pointed out the former Senator, who’s flirting with a presidential run in 2012, has had many opportunities since 2004 to set the record straight.

“Former Sen. Santorum has had many opportunities to make this charge over the last six years, in his regular column in the Philadelphia Inquirer for example where he’s repetitively written about Senator Specter and the Senate race, but has not said anything until now, with the Democratic primary for Senate just five weeks away,” said Christopher Nicholas, Specter’s campaign manager, in a statement.

Specter voted to confirm Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito during Bush’s second term, but the senator said his support had nothing to do with an alleged deal.

“Sen. Santorum’s statement is false,” Specter said in the statement. “I never made any promise to him about voting on future Supreme Court nominations. I would never make a promise on a vote like that under any circumstances.”