Arlen Specter Meltdown: Radio Host Describes Former Senator's Odd Interview

At 11:30 pm last night, a story popped up about a meltdown of sorts by former Sen. Arlen Specter (R&D-PA) during a Friday radio interview. And now, the host of that show is telling what happened.

First, here's the audio, which features an angry Specter tearing into the host, syndicated radio personality Jason Lewis, for keeping him waiting during commercial breaks and asking question not related to Specter's new book:

Read the transcript in case you missed any of the audio:

“Jason, I have one final comment,” Specter said.

“I gave you 10 minutes. You’ve been over every subject except for my book. I’ve listened to two rounds of your commercials. I think it’s insulting. I’ve been in a lot of interviews in the course of the past 30 years and you are absolutely insulting!”

Specter’s on-air tirade didn’t stop there. “This is no way to run an interview!” he said.

“Listen, I’m talking about somebody who’s civilized!” Specter added.

“I told you the last time around I wasn’t looking to sit around and listen to your commercials, and I didn’t want to hang up on you. But I want to tell you this is no way for anybody to run an interview. I’m as experienced as you are, if not more so. And that’s all I have to tell you, so goodbye!”

"I think the love has gone out of our relationship," Lewis said. He then described that he did spend several minutes talking about the Trayvon Martin shooting and hate crimes legislation given Specter's extensive law background.

"Every other topic I brought up was referenced in the book," Lewis explained, later adding, "He didn't want to talk about issues, he wanted to call his opponents extremists, and I wasn't going to let it happen."

Lewis then went on to call out Specter's odd behavior for getting upset about commercials, saying that Specter is "out of touch" for coming on a commercial radio show and not expecting there to be, well, commercials.

"He's almost a poster child for why the Tea Party rose," Lewis concluded.

The meltdown isn't out of character given Specter's recent media tour. Last week, he misconstrued past comments by Rick Santorum, saying Santorum compared homosexuality to "man on dog":

He even brought up a Ronald Reagan condom joke:

Those comments and more led Glenn Beck and his radio crew to unleash an epic, and hilarious, takedown of the book last Friday:

We've reached out to Specter's publicist for comment but have not heard back.

This story has been updated with additional information.