Tom Fitzgerald offers a long, deep and generally sympathetic portrait of U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in today's (Jan. 10) Inquirer. It goes to show how hard it is to capture Specter using the traditional political vocabulary. Is he liberal? Conservative? Republican? Democrat? A hero who stands by his principals? A knave who will do anything to get re-elected? Ambitious? Driven? Brilliant? Indestructible? The answer appears to be "All of the Above." Specter may be better defined by literature. What comes to mind is The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz , Mordecai Richler's wonderful novel about the Jewish kid from Montreal whose monomania for money defines his life. Substitute the word power for money and Fitzgerald's piece could be a portrait of Duddy at 80.