[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 14 (Wednesday, February 8, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S854-S855]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            STAMINA, LEADERSHIP, AND RESPECT FOR THE SENATE

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, all of us who are friends and colleagues of 
the senior Senator from Pennsylvania, Senator Specter, are delighted 
with his robust recovery from a difficult illness.
  Nearly a year ago Senator Specter announced that he had been 
diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. He declared that he was going to beat 
it, just as he had beaten a brain tumor, heart surgery and several 
other challenges. We are delighted that his promise has been fulfilled, 
as we knew it would be.
  Over the last year he underwent a regimen of grueling treatments. 
Throughout dozens of Judiciary Committee hearings and voting sessions 
on difficult topics, he and I sat side by side, month after month, as 
his treatments progressed. He slowly lost his hair, but he never lost 
his grit, his sense of fairness or his respect for the Senate and its 
special role in our system of Government. Nor did he lose his 
legislative skill, or his humor. Then, and now, he has maintained for 
himself, and for our committee--a brisk schedule, fueled by an energy 
level that would be daunting to many who are half his age.
  He has all of the vigor of his earlier days, and maybe more. His hair 
is back, and if I may say so, he looks better than ever.
  He is an inspiration to us all, and his example is a particular 
inspiration to millions of victims and survivors of cancer, and their 
families, across the Nation.
  I value the partnership that he and I have forged over the years, and 
especially during the time that he has been our committee's chairman. 
One product of our partnership is the asbestos trust fund bill that is 
now before the Senate. Bringing this bill on its long journey to the 
Senate floor has required unending commitment and effort. I have been 
proud to work with him on this project, and I applaud him for all he 
has done to bring the bill to this point.
  I commend to the attention of our colleagues an editorial about 
Senator Specter in today's edition of The Hill newspaper.
  I ask unanimous consent that the editorial be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                     [From the Hill, Feb. 8, 2006]

                            Looming Specter

       The past year has been tumultuous for Sen. Arlen Specter 
     (R-Pa.), but he has emerged from its trials triumphant.
       It is not quite 12 months since the lawmaker announced he 
     had been diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, a form of cancer. 
     In his statement disclosing his ailment and the imminent 
     start of chemotherapy, Specter said, ``I have beaten a brain 
     tumor, bypass heart surgery and many tough political 
     opponents, and I'm going to beat this, too.''
       He has been as good as his word. He lost his hair but 
     continued to shoulder his heavy workload (and to keep in 
     shape playing squash before he got to his desk in the 
     morning). He was never absent, and his hair is back. At 75, 
     Specter is looking spry.
       At the time of his diagnosis, the senator had only just 
     secured his chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee, after a 
     tough battle against conservative Republicans who feared he 
     would not fight hard for conservative Supreme Court justices 
     should President Bush have the opportunity to nominate them.
       Those fears have proved unfounded. There are now two new 
     members of the high court, Chief Justice John Roberts and 
     Justice Samuel Alito, whose conservative credentials are not 
     in doubt. Those on the right trust and hope (just as those on 
     the left believe and fear) that the new justices, replacing 
     the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Sandra 
     Day O'Connor, will move the court toward conservative 
     textualism and away from the ``living Constitution'' ideas 
     that have produced liberal change on social issues for the 
     past two generations.
       It is Specter, a supporter of abortion rights, who has 
     presided over these changes to the bench. And he has done so 
     with aplomb and without any hint either of truckling to those 
     on either his right or his left. He rejected, for example, 
     conservative demands that Alito's confirmation hearings be

[[Page S855]]

     brought forward in December so that the nominee would not be 
     left hanging out as a target for too long. At the same time, 
     he did not allow his own ideological positions to blind him 
     to the nominees' obvious qualifications. Alito's and 
     Roberts's critics were given ample time to air their 
     concerns, yet both were steered swiftly and comparatively 
     easily to confirmation.
       Bush must surely be well-satisfied with his decision in 
     2004 to back Specter's re-election despite their obvious 
     differences in ideology, temperament and outlook.
       Specter is not resting on his laurels. His agenda is 
     dominating Senate business. He is presiding over a Judiciary 
     investigation of the National Security Agency's controversial 
     terrorist surveillance program. And his asbestos reform bill, 
     an effort to clean up a mountain of debilitating litigation, 
     is atop the legislative calendar put together by Majority 
     Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).
       People who know Specter rarely make the error of 
     underestimating him. They are even less likely to do so 
     following his performance in the past 12 months.

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