Philadelphia Inquirer Washington Bureau
By Steve Goldstein
WASHINGTON - Once again, Arlen Specter finds himself in a tricky position.
With hearings on Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. two months away, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman and moderate Pennsylvania Republican is attempting to uphold abortion rights while conservatives see an opportunity to overturn or erode the Roe v. Wade decision.
Conservatives want Alito to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as the swing vote on controversial cases. They will be watching Specter for any signs that he may be encouraging opposition to Alito.
An abortion-rights supporter, Specter is caught between trying to preserve those rights and not giving the White House or conservative GOP colleagues cause to challenge his chairmanship.
"It's very difficult for Specter to thread the needle, because of all the obligations he has," said Richmond Law School professor Carl Tobias. "There's substantial pressure on him because of the issue of reproductive freedom."
In an interview yesterday, Specter used a different analogy.
"I would call it a high-wire walk - without a net," he said. "I think it is difficult."
Conservative leader Paul Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation, said that as the swing vote, Alito's positions were magnified.
"Let's face it, it's all about abortion," Weyrich said. "Specter tried to extract from Alito a commitment to superprecedent on the issue. Alito did not buy it. I got the impression that Specter really pushed hard on the issue."
While noting that it was unclear whether Alito could be a deciding vote on an abortion-rights case, Specter said that "the right to choose poses a very difficult question for the country, and therefore for me.
"You really wonder with all the tremendously important issues that the court faces... that the woman's right to choose dominates the scene, but it does," Specter continued. "That's the principal battle line which is present."
Specter said he began his questioning of John G. Roberts Jr., now chief justice, with the abortion issue and planned to do the same with Alito.
Ralph Neas, head of the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, said Specter's recent track record showed tough questioning of nominees but votes that supported Republican candidates.
Other left-of-center advocates questioned whether Specter would align himself with other moderate Republicans, such as Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, who said he saw "caution flags" in Alito's positions on privacy issues.
These advocates believe that Specter may push quite hard, up to a point, realizing that there are other issues before the committee - asbestos litigation and immigration policy - that he cares deeply about.
Specter tried to assert his independence last week from the White House by refusing to accede to a request for speedy confirmation hearings.
"I'm disappointed in the date," President Bush said of the scheduled Jan. 9 start of hearings.
As he did with Roberts, Specter has tried to get the nominee to acknowledge that Roe v. Wade has become settled law, with 38 Supreme Court decisions upholding it. The senator has used the term superprecedent to describe a decision that is virtually unassailable for this reason.
Specter elicited from Alito his view that a right to privacy exists in the U.S. Constitution, another underpinning for reproductive rights.
"Specter can live with a strong conservative as long as that person maintains the proper degree of reverence to the principle of privacy," said Muhlenberg College political scientist Chris Borick.
During his meeting with Alito, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D., Ill.), who voted against Roberts for chief justice, said they discussed the judge's opinion in the Planned Parenthood v. Casey case.
As a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the ThirdCircuit in Philadelphia, Alito dissented from the court's ruling striking down a Pennsylvania requirement that a woman inform her husband before having an abortion. Alito told Durbin that he had spent "more time worrying and working over that decision" than any other he made.
Durbin said that Alito told him he was focusing on the Roe requirement that the state cannot place an "undue burden" on women seeking abortion - thus implying that the judge's reasoning was not an attack on abortion rights per se.
Abortion-rights backers were quick to respond that Alito's comments did not ensure support for the right to choose.
Naral Pro-Choice America said in a statement that support for the right to privacy could not be equated with support for Roe v. Wade.
For Specter, the high-wire act will be balancing the interests of abortion-rights supporters with his own interest in retaining his committee chairmanship.
"As a moderate Republican, Specter has had to live with making decisions that are probably not ideal for him but that he finds generally acceptable," Borick said. "This appears to be exactly such a situation."
