Specter Seeks, Gets Support
GOP Senators Expected to Approve Chairmanship
By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 17, 2004; Page A08
Key Republicans said yesterday they believe that Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) will be approved by GOP colleagues as chairman of the Judiciary Committee despite an uproar over his expressed doubts that a Supreme Court nominee who opposes abortion rights could be confirmed by the Senate....
***
The predictions followed an extraordinary, nearly two-week-long campaign by Specter to firm up his shaky grip on the chairmanship. It culminated yesterday in personal appeals by Specter to GOP leaders and committee colleagues to trust his assurances that he will do all within his power to win speedy approval for President Bush's judicial nominees....
***
Specter's appeals, made in closed-door meetings in the Capitol office of Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), came as about a dozen antiabortion conservatives protested outside a Senate office building where Frist has another office.
One protester carried a sign reading "Bork Specter" -- a reference to Robert H. Bork, a hero to conservatives, whose Supreme Court nomination Specter helped kill in 1987. Since then, "bork" has been used as a verb by conservatives to describe a legislative torpedoing operation....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54274-2004Nov16.html