Survivor

It looks as though Senator Arlen Specter will have the support of all of the current Judiciary Committee members to become the next chairman after seemingly agreeing to support President Bush's judicial nominees and working to give them quick committee hearings and ensuring floor votes. Specter continues to maintain his independent streak ("Specter said he felt no pressure to make the commitments he made"), and has left himself some wiggle room ("I have no reason to believe that I'll be unable to support any individual President Bush finds worthy" of the federal bench).

Not all of the Senators seem to be enthusiastic about Specter. Notice Senator Jeff Sessions' lukewarm response: The agreement "represents the views of people at this time, on this day." Presumably, if Specter tries to be too much of a maverick, today's views are not necessarily tomorrow's. In all, it was worth putting pressure on Specter to rein in his "Roe is inviolate" tendencies, and to attempt to return some degree of propriety and civility to the confirmation process.