Leading senator has cancer

WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a moderate Republican who will play a key role in the battle over President Bush’s judicial nominees, announced Wednesday that he has cancer.

Specter, 75, said he has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, a cancer of the lymph system. In a statement issued by his office, Specter’s doctor rated the Pennsylvania senator’s chances of recovery as “excellent.” The statement said Specter expects to perform all his official duties, including chairing the Judiciary Committee.

Hodgkin’s disease is a relatively curable form of cancer but still is serious.

Specter has been working to avert a showdown over the president’s conservative choices for the federal bench. His committee votes on all judicial nominees.

The biweekly chemotherapy that Specter will undergo for at least six months can cause fatigue. But the senator, who has bounced back from heart-bypass surgery and a brain tumor and still plays squash every day, vowed he would not let the treatments interrupt his service in the Senate. “I have a lot more work to do for Pennsylvania and America,” he said.