In his role as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman in 2005 and 2006, Arlen Specter ended up playing a very important role in getting John Roberts and Samuel Alito confirmed to the Supreme Court. But Specter didn’t smooth his path to the chairmanship. Some excerpts from my new Confirmation Tales post:

The 2004 elections gave George W. Bush a second presidential term and a 55-seat Republican majority in the Senate. But one big concern that many conservatives had was that, pursuant to Senate Republican term limits on committee chairs, Arlen Specter was lined up to succeed Orrin Hatch as Judiciary Committee chairman….
In 2005, Specter would be one of only a few liberal or moderate-liberal Republicans in the Senate, and he would be well to the left of all the other Republicans on the Judiciary Committee. Specter had long been vocal in his support for Roe v. Wade in particular. Did it make sense for other Republicans to confer the powerful committee chairmanship on him at the very time that conservatives would be aiming to confirm to the Supreme Court and the lower courts nominees who would regard Roe as a lawless exercise of judicial activism?
By his own account, Specter had a “lifelong ambition to be chairman of the Judiciary Committee.” … He had served on the committee during all 24 of his years in the Senate, and he was eager to fulfill his career dream.
After a bruising primary campaign against conservative challenger Pat Toomey, Specter had comfortably defeated his Democratic opponent in the general election in November 2004. But the morning after the election, Specter ignited a firestorm, as he seemed to signal that he would oppose a Supreme Court nominee who did not accept Roe as “inviolate” precedent….
Whether or not he was acting in response to the criticism that he had received, Specter displayed in his early actions as chairman that he understood that he had a responsibility to his much more conservative colleagues that superseded his own political preferences.

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