Headline in today's Chicago Sun Times: "FAST EDDIE GETS TIME."

Long before Rod Blagojevich was scheming about how to appoint someoneto the US Senate, long before Illinois even thought about the need for a gubernatorial wing at the state prison, there was Fast Eddie, or 10th Ward Alderman Ed Vrdolyak.

Way back in my Chiocago days, he was known for his slick style. Natasha Korecki of the Sun Times said today he "for years was known for his slippery ways."

Well not any longer. Fast Eddie, now 72, was sentenced to 10 months in prison for real estate fraud.

Headline in today's Chicago Sun Times: "FAST EDDIE GETS TIME."

Long before Rod Blagojevich was scheming about how to appoint someoneto the US Senate, long before Illinois even thought about the need for a gubernatorial wing at the state prison, there was Fast Eddie, or 10th Ward Alderman Ed Vrdolyak.

Way back in my Chiocago days, he was known for his slick style. Natasha Korecki of the Sun Times said today he "for years was known for his slippery ways."

Well not any longer. Fast Eddie, now 72, was sentenced to 10 months in prison for real estate fraud.

The Senate voted on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in October, 1998, when she was nominated as a federal appellate judge. And eight Republicans still in the Senate voted for her.

One, Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter, is now a Democrat. The others were Richard Lugar of Indiana, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett of Utah.

Sotomayor was confirmed by a 67 to 29 vote; all the no votes were Republicans. Among the "no"s still serving: Alabama's Jeff Sessions, top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will consider the nomination; and fellow committee members Charles Grassley of Iowa, and Jon Kyl of Arizona. Current Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was also opposed.

The roll call:, http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=105&session=2&vote=00295

Sen. Arlen Specter's going to get a subcommittee to chair after all.

The Pennsylvania Republican-turned-Democrat thought he had retained his all-important seniority last week, when he announced the switch. Specter was first elected in 1980, which would make him the second-ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee and number four on the powerful appropriations panel. And it could put him in line for an appropriations subcommittee chairmanship.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., seemed amenable.

"Senator Reid can you talk about Senator Specter's seniority now?" a reporter asked that day. "He said he would be coming in as if he were elected, in 1980, a Democrat."

"That's right," Reid said.

Tuesday, though, Senate Democrats refused to go along, and moved Specter to the bottom of the seniority ladder. Then Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., stepped in and offered to give up the helm of his crime and drugs subcommittee, one of judiciary's busiest panels.

Twenty-three years ago, Sen. Arlen Specter, then a Republican, voted against Alabama prosecutor Jeff Sessions' nomination to the federal judiciary.

Sessions lost that bid - a rare defeat at the time for President Ronald Reagan - and Tuesday, Specter said his vote was a mistake. He was one of two Republicans to oppose Sessions.

Sessions was chosen Tuesday by fellow Republicans to replace Specter, who has become a Democrat, as top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"I voted 10,000 times. I don't expect everybody to agree with all my votes," Specter said Tuesday. "I don't agree with all my votes."

And, he said, "my vote against Senator Sessions for a federal judgeship was a mistake. I have found him to be an egalitarian." When Sessions was turned down, many senators objected to his statements questioning the civil rights movement, statements Sessions said misrepresented his view.

He ran for the Senate in 1996 and has been since re-elected twice.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said he plans to “certainly have somebody in place” to replace Supreme Court Justice David Souter by the time the court begins its next session in October.

“It would be irresponsible if we didn't have somebody in place by the beginning of the October session,” Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, told ABC’s “This Week.”

The Senate is scheduled to meet during most of May, June and July before breaking for a month-long summer recess in August. It plans to return Sept. 8. The new court session begins the first Monday in October.

Leahy said he would consult with members of both parties once President Barack Obama announces his choice to replace the 19-year court veteran, who said Friday he would leave at the end of the current term this summer.

Leahy, who voted for President George W. Bush’s choice of Chief Justice John Roberts in 2005 but against Bush’s appointment of Samuel Alito a few months later, said he will make recommendations to Obama. Only four Democrats backed Alito.

This time, Leahy said, “I’ve also recommended that he sit down with both the Republican and Democratic leadership and talk about this (nomination).”

Leahy would not discuss precisely what he would recommend, but said, “I would like to see certainly more women on the court. Having only one woman on the Supreme Court does not reflect the makeup of the United States.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1993, is currently the only woman on the court.

Leahy had another thought Sunday: “I would like to see more people from outside the judicial monastery, somebody who has had some real-life experience."

Also appearing Sunday was Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, currently the senior member of the committee, since Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is switching to the Democratic party.

It is not yet clear, though, that Hatch would become ranking member, because of the complex nature of determining committee seniority.

Hatch said Sunday he was concerned that Obama’s call last week for empathetic judges could mean activist judges.

“He should not appoint radicals to the court and I share the view that he should appoint somebody who basically will obey the law,” Hatch said.

Appointees, he added, should “not put their own policy preferences into law. And that's what bothers me about some of the comments that the president has made.

“He's bright enough to know that those comments basically indicate that politics, preferences, personal preferences and feelings might take the place of being impartial and deciding cases based upon the law, not upon politics.”

Read Sen. Leahy's 2005 statement of support for Justice Roberts

Good news for Republicans: Arlen Specter's defection can be a great development for the GOP, even though the nation may suffer for awhile.

That's the word from Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

In a post Wednesday on the Powerline blog, he explains why the Pennsylvania senator, who said this week he will become a Democrat, will hardly be missed by Republicans:

"First, his departure likely spares Republicans from spending valuable resources in what would have been an expensive and divisive Republican primary - a primary battle that Specter appeared extremely unlikely to win. Indeed, Specter cited recent polls showing him trailing former U.S. Representative Pat Toomey (R-PA) by more than 20 points as his main decision to bolt the Party," Cornyn writes.

Second, "in the unfortunate and unlikely event that Senator Norm Coleman loses his legal battle in Minnesota, Harry Reid will now have his long-coveted 60-seat, filibuster-proof supermajority in the United States Senate. With Nancy Pelosi firmly in control of the U.S. House of Representatives and President Obama just 100 days into his administration, Republicans will have lost the ability to impact legislation in any meaningful way."

As a result, Cornyn explained, "the Democrats will be able to pass their left-wing agenda completely unchecked, and if they intend to fulfill their campaign promises, the American people can look forward to higher taxes, socialized medicine, record deficits and the loss of secret ballots for our workers."

Here's the logic: "While this would unquestionably damage our country's interests in the short-term, the complete absence of any checks and balances in Washington could have a significant impact on next year's midterm elections.

"Democrats would own everything that happens in our government. They will be unable to cast the GOP as 'obstructionists' who are blocking Obama's agenda, robbing them of one of their oft-repeated political attacks."

Read Cornyn's comments.

One of Sen. Arlen Specter's complaints about Republicans is that they're too few moderates, and those who once were prevalent in the northeast are fading fast.

So, a reporter asked Tuesday of Specter, "Did you feel at all pushed out by Republicans here?"

Specter, who said he was switching to the Democratic party rather than face a tough GOP primary challenge for his seat next year, laughed.

"What about Republicans here?" he asked the Capitol press mob. "Well, first I have to find out how many of you here are Republicans. Will you raise your hands?"

None went up. (After all, reporters are taught to keep their political leanings to themselves).

Specter chuckled. "That's what I thought," he smiled and said. "You take the Fifth."

Former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey said Monday he's weighing a Republican primary challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter next year _ and that could be rough news for Specter.

Toomey came within 17,000 votes, out of 1.4 million cast, of defeating Specter in the 2004 GOP primary. Toomey, who heads the conservative Club for Growth, is a hero to conservatives around the country for his promotion of tax cuts and his criticism of what he considers wasteful spending.

Specter, on the other hand, is less beloved within his own party_ especially since he was one of three Republicans this year whose vote for President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan assured its passage. But the 79-year-old incumbent is proven vote-getters; he's the longest-serving Pennsylvania U.S. senator in history, having served since 1981.

Toomey issued this statement Monday:

 “As this disastrous recession worsens, I have become increasingly concerned about the future of our state and national economy.  Unfortunately, the recent extraordinary response of the federal government – more corporate bailouts, unprecedented spending and debt, higher taxes – is likely to make things worse.  I think we are on a dangerously wrong path.  Pennsylvanians want a US Senator focused on real and sustainable job creation that gets our economy growing again.  That is why I am considering becoming a candidate for the US Senate.”