Arlen Specter 2d funniest in D.C.

WASHINGTON _ Is Arlen Specter the funniest celebrity in Washington?

Nope, he's the runner-up.

This is not a joke.

Pennsylvania's longest-serving senator in history turns out to have great comic timing and a sense of humor somewhere between Stephen Colbert and Henny Youngman.

Specter finished second last night in a contest to determine the funniest celebrity in the nation's capital, a charity event to benefit VH1's Save the Music Foundation and the Institute of Musical Traditions.

Most of the other performers were members of the media, so Specter stood out not only for his age - at 77 he was the oldest contestant by a good quarter-century - but for being a good sport among his famously dour and introverted congressional colleagues.

The winner was a guy from the satirical newspaper, the Onion, who probably won many votes from the judges for representing an organization named for a vegetable.

Specter, looking trim and relaxed, a consoling martini nearby, said his jokes ranged from "the questionable to the highly questionable to the highly, highly questionable."

He riffed on his Senate colleagues' bedroom prowess, or lack thereof, their erudition, or lack thereof and their humility. One story imagined presidential candidates Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton comparing their dreams.

After Biden said he dreamt that the Lord came to him and predicted he would be the Democratic nominee, Obama replied that God had, in fact, visited him and said he would not only be the nominee, but the next president.

Said Clinton: "I had a dream and I don't remember telling either of you those things."

Despite being an audience favorite, Specter said he would not relinquish his day job.