The Senate’s newest Democrat – Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter – is poised to snag a gavel after all. But that seems to have caused some headaches for the committee chairman involved.

After days of tumult over his switch from the Republican party, Specter has received an offer to head a subcommittee where he won the most prominence during his 28-year Senate career.

Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin , D-Ill., has told Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy , D-Vt., he plans to step aside and allow Specter to chair Judiciary’s Crime and Drugs Subcommittee, Durbin said Thursday. Specter is a veteran Judiciary member who chaired the full committee during the 109th Congress (2005-06) and was its ranking Republican until just days ago, when he switched parties to avoid a tough primary battle

Durbin said he had held conversations “over the past several days” with Specter, Leahy and Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., “about ways to best utilize Senator Specter’s talents and experience in our caucus.”

“To that end, I have offered the gavel of the Crime and Drugs Subcommittee to Senator Specter, who has been a leader on criminal justice issues for decades. ... I have also asked Senator Leahy to re-establish the Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee, which we created and I chaired in the last Congress.” Leahy had eliminated that panel at the start of the current Congress in January.

Leahy seemed less than thrilled with that part of the deal. Referring to the Human Rights panel, Leahy, said, “There is no subcommittee. I will work on it over the weekend. ... We have to find the funding.”

Durbin said he went to Reid last week and said he would be willing to give the Crime panel gavel to Specter. He said that offer stands regardless of whether Leahy agrees to create a Human Rights subcommittee for him to chair.

Oklahoma’s Tom Coburn was the ranking Republican on the Human Rights panel in the last Congress, but he now has the top GOP spot on the Constitution Subcommittee. The only Republican member of the Judiciary Committee who does not currently chair a subcommittee is Iowa’s Charles E. Grassley .

Grassley is the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, where he is fully occupied this year. But he has made clear he expects to assert his seniority in the 112th Congress to claim the Judiciary Committee’s top GOP slot.

South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham is the ranking Republican on Judiciary’s Crime and Drugs Subcommittee, which since January has held hearings on disparity in federal sentences for offenses involving crack and powdered cocaine, and on law enforcement responses to Mexican drug cartels.

Earlier this week Graham said Durbin had “been good to work with” on the subcommittee, adding, “I think you’ll see the subcommittee will be very active.”

Ruffled Feathers

The musical chairs comes after the Senate unanimous adopted a resolution (S 130) May 5 making Specter the least senior Democrat on Judiciary and the four other committees on which he sits, effectively postponing decisions about how to treat Specter’s seniority on committees until the 112th Congress.