New converts to any cause generally are a lot more holier-than-thou than longtime true believers.

But the prize for over-the-top zealotry has to go to newly minted Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter, who all but accused his erstwhile GOP colleagues of literally killing their own one-time vice presidential candidate.

That’s no exaggeration, sad to say.

Speaking Sunday on “Face the Nation,” just hours after Jack Kemp’s death was announced, Specter blamed the GOP agenda — health-care spending, in particular — as the reason for his leap across the political aisle.

“If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer,” he said, “we could have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today.”

Really?

If Arlen Specter truly has the power of predicting life and death, he should leave the Senate and start booking bets.

Then again, if Specter truly believes that an infusion of government spending is all it takes to cure weighty problems, then he sure needn’t worry about establishing his Democratic bona fides.