Specter Wins Committee Chair
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WASHINGTON – Senator Specter yesterday won the backing of Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans to be their new chairman, surviving complaints from abortion opponents after submitting an extraordinary statement underscoring his support for Bush judicial nominees.
“I have assured the president that I would give his nominees quick committee hearings and early committee votes,” Mr. Specter said at a news conference during which outgoing chairman Orrin Hatch, a Republican of Utah, said the panel’s Republicans were unanimous in backing the Pennsylvania moderate.
“I have no reason to believe that I’ll be unable to support any individual President Bush finds worthy” of the federal bench, Mr. Specter told reporters.
He read from a statement he wrote that was cleared by committee members as well as the GOP leadership. The leaders are determined to confirm Mr. Bush’s second-term judicial nominees, possibly including a Supreme Court appointee.
In the statement, Mr. Specter repeated the guarantees he had made over the previous two weeks – that he did not have a litmus test on abortion rights for judges and that he would give Mr. Bush’s nominees quick hearings and push for their confirmation.
Mr. Specter also promised that he would fight possible Democratic filibusters and would not block legislation or a constitutional amendment in committee, “even one which I personally opposed.”
With unhappy abortion opponents flooding the Capitol with complaints, GOP senators had said a public reckoning with Mr. Specter was required to smooth things over – and to give Republicans some political cover.
Even so, Mr. Specter said he felt no pressure to change any position. “There’s nothing that I have said here today that I haven’t repeated often in prior statements in the course of the past two weeks and many years before,” he said.
An official vote won’t come until January and can still be appealed to the full 55-member GOP caucus.
But all nine judiciary Republicans agreed they would stand behind Mr. Specter in January’s vote for chairman despite his post election statement saying that anti-abortion judges would have a difficult time gaining Senate confirmation given Democratic opposition.
That comment infuriated abortion opponents, and Senate conservatives – during meetings arranged by GOP leadership – subjected Mr. Specter to an exceptional grilling on his views and intentions.
The agreement by committee members to support Mr. Specter “represents the views of people at this time, on this day,” said Senator Sessions, a Republican of Alabama.
Mr. Specter promised to do his best to stop Democrats from blocking more of Mr. Bush’s nominees. In the past four years, Democrats have been successful in halting 10 judicial nominees through threats of a filibuster, while allowing more than 200 to be confirmed.
“I have already registered my opposition to the filibuster and will use my best efforts to stop any future filibusters,” Mr. Specter said. “It is my hope and expectation that we can avoid” future gridlock with next year’s 55-44-1 Republican Senate majority.
Abortion opponents lobbied hard to keep Mr. Specter out, holding a “prayin” at the Capitol on Tuesday and burying GOP senators’ offices with emails, faxes, and telephone calls.
“The fact is that he has supported every single nominee,” said Senator DeWine, a Republican of Ohio. “And to me, you look at a person’s record. You look at what they have done. And you judge them based on their word, and you judge them by what they have done.”
Added Senator Chambliss, a Republican of Georgia: “We’ve been in the trenches, and Arlen Specter has stood side by side and toe to toe with all of us in opposition to the antics coming from the other side. He has been 100% supportive of the president’s judicial nominees. You cannot ask for any more of a chairman than to be that way.”