Specter Meets With GOP Brass to Make His Case

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The New York Sun

WASHINGTON – Senator Specter gained ground yesterday toward winning the Senate Judiciary Committee chairmanship, which was thrown into doubt after he said judges who oppose abortion rights would face confirmation problems.


“I expect him to have the support of the committee,” the panel’s current chairman, Senator Hatch of Utah, said after a closed-door meeting of its 10 Republican members.


Mr. Specter, a moderate GOP senator from Pennsylvania who just won election to his fifth term, sought the meeting after social conservatives opposed to abortion campaigned to deny him the job of guiding possible Supreme Court nominees – as well as lower court nominees – to confirmation.


“Nobody in the meeting was against Arlen,” Mr. Hatch told reporters, with Mr. Specter at his side. “Senator Specter handled himself very well and frankly, I’m for him, as I should be.”


Despite picking up the crucial support yesterday, Mr. Specter stopped short of declaring victory.


“No chickens have hatched, and I don’t count any chickens until they’re hatched,” he said. “But with Senator Hatch beside me, I’m a little less unconfident.”


Mr. Hatch, who cannot keep the post because of Republican term limits on chairmanships, said he expects the matter to be fully resolved before the 109th Congress convenes in January. It moved in that direction yesterday when even conservatives on the judiciary panel characterized their meeting with Mr. Specter as productive.


Outside the Capitol, about 20 opponents of legalized abortion held a “pray-in” protesting the prospect of Mr. Specter’s becoming the panel’s chairman.


Mr. Specter, 74, stunned conservatives at a November 3 post election news conference when he said judicial nominees seeking to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case legalizing abortion, would probably be blocked by Democrats.


“The president is well aware of what happened, when a number of his nominees were sent up, with the filibuster,” Mr. Specter said then. “And I would expect the president to be mindful of the considerations which I am mentioning.”


Mr. Specter spent virtually all of yesterday, the first day of Congress’ return after the election two weeks earlier, offering private reassurances to conservatives in hopes of quelling the controversy. Before the Judiciary Committee meeting, he spent 90 minutes with eight Senate party leaders in Majority Leader Frist’s office.


“Arlen has done a tremendous job reaching out to senators over the phone and in person,” said Dr. Frist, who only days earlier expressed concerns about Mr. Specter’s remark. Other conservatives on the Judiciary panel who had earlier distanced themselves from Mr. Specter also characterized their meeting with him as productive.


“We got our questions answered, and we had a good discussion,” said Senator Sessions, an Alabama Republican whose own federal judgeship nomination in 1986 was thwarted, in part, by Mr. Specter. But when asked if he will support Mr. Specter for the chairmanship, Mr. Sessions said, “I haven’t announced any decision.”


Conservative and religious leaders who led the 20-person praying protest said elevating Mr. Specter could jeopardize their support of GOP senators – including Dr. Frist – who are eyeing a White House run in 2008.


“It is a betrayal and a slap in the face to millions of pro-life Americans who helped re-elect this president,” said Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition. “Don’t turn to us in four years when you want to run for president … and expect us to contribute millions of dollars.”


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