If the way the Republican party is going is any indication, if Specter is re-elected (which looks likely) he won't get chair of any committee. Why do you think that Santorum, a senator with a much shorter record than Specter, is so far higher up the Republican hierarchy? Because Santorum is a hardcore right winger, and not a moderate like Specter. That's another reason why I'm not voting for Specter, by the way - because, to make up the ideological difference with his own party, Specter is being drawn further and further to the right, as opposed to the moderate stance he had before (that kept getting him re-elected with a large portion of the Philadelphia voter body). That, and Hoeffel was my Representative before they redistricted and took him away. Those bastards.

--Jeff