Sen. Arlen Specter, Back in Top Form

Judiciary Chairman Kicks Off Alito Hearings

Sen. Arlen Specter is a serious man, occupied with serious matters, like yesterday's confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito and, beyond that, the specter of hearings on domestic spying.

And before that, the Harriet Miers nomination fiasco, and the John Roberts hearings, and the near-Armageddon over judicial filibusters, and . . . and . . .

And yet:

"I think what I'm going to be most remembered for is having my hair grow back," says Specter, sighing. Yes, most of his hair has grown back after he lost it during treatments last year for Hodgkin's lymphoma.

"With all the weightier issues I've been involved with . . ." His voice trails off. And then back on: "I get more comments about my hair than I do about any of the substantive issues I've been involved with."

The Pennsylvania Republican waited 24 years to become chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Enough already on the hair, or the lymphoma. He's feeling fine, he says. Plays squash every morning, doesn't feel sluggish, works a full schedule.

And yes, okay, the hair's back! Combed neatly to the right yesterday -- as opposed to curly, back when he was opposing the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork in 1987 (earning the ire and perhaps irreversible distrust of conservatives) and fiercely questioning Anita Hill in 1991 (earning the ire and perhaps irreversible distrust of women's groups).

Specter began the first day of the Alito hearings in his Georgetown condo, just before 5 a.m. He slept like a baby ("cried all night," he jokes), took two sips of coffee, ate a banana and a bowl of cereal -- All-Bran, Shredded Wheat and Raisin Bran mixed together.

He arrives at his office in the Hart Building at 8 a.m., after his squash game. He answers, sighing, a reporter's question about what he had for breakfast.

Then, en route to an interview with ABC's "World News Tonight" in the Judiciary Committee room, he speaks of how he would pay close attention to both Alito's "words" and "music" when the nominee testifies. By "music" he means demeanor, which becomes a hallway soliloquy from Specter on former chief justice William Rehnquist's position on Miranda rights. Rehnquist was against Miranda in 1974, but for it in 2000. "He said it had become embedded in the culture of police work," Specter says, waxing substantive.

He intends to ask Alito what he thinks about "embedded in the culture" as a legal principle. And whether the notion could be applied to a woman's right to an abortion -- which Specter strongly favors.

A few minutes later, he sits down to an interview with Elizabeth Vargas, the new co-anchor of "World News Tonight." He wears a gray suit, crisp purple tie. She asks him about his health (he mentions, again, how often he plays squash). He says he carries a tissue around because his eyes tend to get watery.