Specter projected to lead panel

WASHINGTON -- Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, under fire from conservatives because of his views supporting abortion rights, appeared last night to have persuaded his colleagues to give him the chairmanship of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee despite demands from antiabortion activists that he be denied the post.

Following a grueling day of closed-door meetings with GOP leaders and Judiciary Committee members, Specter and Senator Orrin G. Hatch, the Utah Republican who currently chairs the panel, said they were hopeful that Specter would be awarded the chairmanship, as Senate tradition dictates.

"Senator Specter handled himself very well. Frankly, I'm for him," Hatch said, standing next to Specter after a nearly two-hour meeting to discuss the Pennsylvania senator's fate. "I believe he'll be a great chairman."

The battle represents an early test of how much sway conservatives will have over the new Congress. Social conservatives, flush with a slew of Republican election victories this month, are eager to see the swelled GOP majority approve further restrictions on abortion and gay unions and see the centrist Specter as a roadblock to those plans.

Specter has never been popular with his party's conservative wing, but he further provoked anger from antiabortion groups when he suggested after his reelection that President Bush might have trouble getting very conservative nominees approved by the Senate. Specter -- who has voted for every one of Bush's judicial nominees -- has explained many times that he would not impose a "litmus test" on nominees and was referring to the possibility that Democrats might filibuster certain judicial candidates, as they did 10 times during Bush's first term.

The Senate will not officially name its chairmen until next year, when the new Congress convenes. But the endorsement of Hatch -- a conservative, antiabortion lawmaker -- was a key indicator that Specter will head the Judiciary Committee, the panel that considers judicial nominees. Hatch also said no one on the committee spoke against Specter during the session.

The controversy over Specter puts Senate Republicans in an uncomfortable position. Awarding Specter the chairmanship will surely enrage conservative groups, which contend to have delivered critical support to reelect Bush and send more Republicans to Congress.

The activists held a "pray-in" near the Capitol yesterday and have been flooding Congress with e-mails and calls insisting that Specter be passed over for the post.

But denying the chairmanship to Specter would send a signal that the Senate is caving into pressure from Christian conservatives on matters involving not just policy, but internal Senate business. The matter is further complicated by the fact that the chamber's majority leader, Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, is widely regarded as a potential 2008 presidential candidate, one who does not need an early fight with cultural conservatives.

Specter said he answered questions from his colleagues, but would not detail the conversations. Asked whether he believed he had allayed the fears of conservatives that he would hold up antiabortion judges, Specter said, "I believe so."

"No chickens have been hatched, and I don't count chickens before they hatch," Specter said, but he added that Hatch's endorsement made him feel more confident of his position.

Republicans, controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House, have largely achieved their agenda in the past few years, passing massive tax cuts, expanding surveillance authority for federal law enforcement, and restructuring the Medicare system. But they have been frustrated in their inability to install all of Bush's judicial nominees.

While the Senate approved more than 200 judicial appointments during Bush's first term, Democrats filibustered against 10 who they believed were too conservative or unfit for the bench. Even with its looming, 10-vote majority, Republicans will not have enough votes to stop Democratic filibusters.

Frist recently resurrected the "nuclear option," under which Senate Republicans would ask the chairman, a Republican, to rule simply that judicial nominations need only 51 votes, not 67. A Frist aide said several proposals are under consideration.

Specter must win the support first of his Judiciary Committee colleagues, including Senator Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican whom Specter once opposed for a judicial post. Sessions said yesterday that he had not made up his mind on how he would vote.

The Republican caucus also must OK the slate of chairmen; Hatch said he expected that the issue would come up today at the group's weekly meeting.