Abortion opponents nationwide and in Kansas were speaking out Tuesday against U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter's bid to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"We don't trust him," said Mary Kay Culp, director of Kansans for Life, the state's largest anti-abortion group.
Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania, is in line to become chairman of the committee that will consider fellow Republican President Bush's judicial nominees.
But Specter raised the ire of abortion opponents with comments he made after the election, when he said judicial nominees who oppose abortion would unlikely be confirmed by the Senate. Since then, Specter, who was born and reared in Kansas before making his professional and political life in Pennsylvania, has said he was misquoted and emphasized his support of Bush.
"As the record shows, I have supported every one of President Bush's nominees in the Judiciary Committee and on the Senate floor," Specter said.
"I expect to work well with President Bush in the judicial confirmation process in the years ahead," he added.
Damage control
Specter met privately Tuesday with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and other GOP leaders, apparently to try to smooth over the furor.
But Specter's initial statements touched off anger among abortion opponents who say their support of Bush was one of the major reasons he was able to win re-election.
Bush is likely to have the opportunity to appoint two or more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, and abortion opponents are hoping for appointees who will tighten abortion restrictions or even overturn Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion.
"This goes to the very heart of what we've been working for in the system for 30 years," Culp said. "I have never seen the pro-life e-mail machine from every related organization pile on like they have on this one."
Reforms needed
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., a staunch abortion opponent, did not return a telephone call seeking comment. But after his re-election earlier this month, Brownback predicted a political battle over abortion.
"If we get a Supreme Court judge position open up, that will be a massive issue," he said.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., called the statement that's been attributed to Specter "regrettable."
He said he would respect the committee's selection of a chairman "that they think will best promote a bipartisan and productive environment within the committee."
The controversy over Specter is indicative of the political warfare that goes on over judicial appointments, Roberts said, and points up the need for reforms in the process.
Roberts said he supported a measure that would remove the requirement that 60 senators are needed to break a filibuster against a judicial nominee. He said a simple majority of 51 should be allowed to confirm all judicial nominees.
'Partisan vilification'
"Time after time, special interest and partisan senators have filibustered qualified nominees (who are) supported by the judiciary in their states and by their home state's senators. This unconscionable partisan vilification must stop," Roberts said.
Specter is in line to ascend to the chairmanship because Republicans are in the majority in the Senate, and because he will be the most senior Republican on the committee after the current chairman, Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, steps down from the position because of party-imposed term limits.
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