GOP Moderate On The Griddle
By David Paul Kuhn,
CBSNews.com chief political writer
Arlen Specter, R-Pa., is struggling to survive a storm of criticism ignited by his remark that judicial nominees who oppose abortion rights would face difficulty in getting confirmed by the Senate.
Specter, 74, was expected to become chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee in the new Congress, but conservative anger over the GOP moderate's post-election remark has thrown his elevation into doubt.
Specter's problems have been deepened by the fact that President Bush and Senate Republican leaders haven't exactly thrown their bodies over the hand grenades being rolled in the senator's direction by angry Christian activists and other social conservatives.
The White House has adopted a largely hands-off approach to the Specter controversy. And the senator's position was hardly strengthened on Sunday when Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist declined to say whether or not he would support Specter's elevation to the chairmanship of the committee.
The Tennessee Republican called Specter's position "disheartening to me. They were disheartening to a lot of different people," he said on "Fox News Sunday."
At a news conference following the election, Specter, who supports abortion rights, said Democratic filibusters would make it hard to secure the confirmation of anti-abortion court nominees.
"I would expect the president to be mindful of the considerations which I am mentioning," Specter said.
His remarks were widely interpreted as a warning to President Bush to refrain from selecting Supreme Court nominees who opposed abortion rights. The fact that Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who is ailing from thyroid cancer, could step down from the court only intensified the reaction that followed.
Conservatives roundly denounced Specter's comments, and began calling for his head.
The Pennsylvania senator has been practicing damage control ever since. He's been lobbying fellow senators and assuring one and all he's a loyal Republican. Indeed, his "litmus test" assurances have become a mantra.
"There has been a concern as to whether I would apply a litmus test to Supreme Court nominees, and the record is conclusive that I have never done that. I have voted for pro-life nominees," Specter said again on ABC's "This Week."
Specter will have the opportunity to plead his case when the Congress comes back into session this week. But there's no guarantee that the man who voted against confirming conservative darling Robert Bork's appointment to the high court is going to make the cut.
Interviews with Christian activists and other conservatives who oppose Specter suggest that while they certainly want Specter's head, they may be content with his soul.
Conservatives are concerned that a demoted Specter might be emboldened to exact legislative revenge. To some, the specter of a Specter voting with the Democrats is worse than forcing him to walk lockstep with conservative Republicans in exchange for green-lighting his appointment as committee chairman.
"We are in a full court press to see he doesn't get the chairmanship," said Rev. Pat Mahoney, who heads the Christian Defense Coalition. "However if we can't succeed, we can neuter him. And I think we have done that to some extent. Arlen Specter has gone on every conservative television show to say he won't use a litmus test [on abortion in approving judicial nominees]."
Though leading social conservatives remain determined to cut Specter down to size, some are leery of going too far.
"There's a concern if he doesn't get the chair then he'll vote for the minority," Mahoney continued. "I can tell you this with a hundred percent certainly: One of the real fears is that Arlen Specter would be more adversarial as a committee member than as a chair."
"This perhaps will force him to be on record in a way that won't be forgotten," said Carrie Gordon Earll, senior policy analyst for the influential evangelical organization Focus on the Family. "If he doesn't satisfy his colleagues they can always caucus and remove him."
Earll thinks removal by his colleagues is unlikely. But she believes that Specter's request for a closed-door meeting this week with committee Republicans will force the moderate to pledge his willingness to back Mr. Bush's judicial agenda.
Still, social conservatives want more. They want a champion of conservative judicial nominees ready to combat likely Democratic efforts to filibuster the appointment of an anti-abortion candidate to the high court.
Republicans will hold 55 seats in the Senate, five short of the 60 votes needed to put down a filibuster. Last year, Democrats used filibusters to block five of Mr. Bush's nominees to the federal bench.
If Specter fails to gain a position that should be his because of seniority, it would be a breach of Senate tradition. Social conservatives realize Specter remains likely to assume the post.
If that proves to be the case, groups representing evangelicals and religious Catholics want firm guarantees Specter will not stand in the way of their judicial agenda.
"The president's political capital will never be greater and everybody knows that Chief Justice Rehnquist is not coming back, so we are thinking that in January you are already going to have a battle over chief justice," said Mahoney, who is leading a protest outside Specter's office Tuesday.
"Judicial activism among the base of the base -- the most energized of the core base of the Republican Party -- this was their number one issue. They were looking at the potential of perhaps three supreme court nominees that would influence judicial decisions for 30 or 40 years," Mahoney continued. "This is why they worked so hard and now is the time for us to move."