Couldn't take it all away from him, it seems

The Washington Post has an article about the humbling of Arlen Specter:

Senate Democratic leaders gave party-switching Senator Arlen Specter, formerly a Republican but now a Democrat from Pennsylvania, the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on crime and drugs Thursday, a face-saving measure in the dispute over how Specter's seniority would be regarded by his Democratic colleagues.
Majority Whip Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, will give up the gavel on the panel, which holds jurisdiction over most Justice Department activities. Durbin will take over a newly restored subcommittee on human rights, which had been dissolved at the beginning of the current Congress because no committee member was available to run it.
Specter will not regain his seniority on the Judiciary Committee, at least until after the 2010 election, aides said, but they said he is pleased with the outcome. Senate Democrats, who balked at granting his seniority earlier, readily endorsed the plan. "What we don't want is an angry former Republican during a Supreme Court hearing," said one Democratic staff member.
Specter received another bit of good news when former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge announced that he will not seek the veteran senator's seat next year. In a statement released Thursday afternoon, Ridge said that "after careful consideration and many conversations with friends and family and the leadership of my party, I have decided not to seek the Republican nomination for Senate."