Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), one of Congress's most senior Republicans and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymph system, his office announced yesterday.
The senator "has an excellent chance of being completely cured," his oncologist, John H. Glick, said in the statement. Specter, 75, will undergo chemotherapy every two weeks for the next 24 to 32 weeks at the Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia.
The statement said Specter expects to "be able to perform all duties of his office," which include a hefty schedule of potentially bruising hearings on judicial nominees, starting March 1. President Bush recently resubmitted several nominees who were blocked last year by Democratic filibusters. Democrats have vowed to block them again, while GOP leaders have called the filibusters intolerable, placing the Judiciary Committee at the center of an approaching showdown.
Specter, who prides himself on playing squash daily, was elected to his fifth six-year term in November, after surviving a strong challenge from a staunch conservative in the GOP primary. More moderate than most Republican senators, Specter had to assure his colleagues last fall that he would push to get Bush's judicial nominees out of committee and to the floor.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30324-2005Feb16.html
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