U.S. Senate

The rumor mill is in full force this week over the possibility that television host and Philadelphia native Chris Matthews will mount a 2010 U.S. Senate challenge against Republican Sen. Arlen Specter.

Appearing Monday night on The Colbert Report at the University of Pennsylvania, Matthews, who hosts MSNBC’s Hardball, when pressed by Colbert for an announcement responded, “Some kids want to be a fireman, I want to be a Senator.”

After a routine chest and abdomen scan and a follow-up biopsy of a suspicious lymph node, doctors have determined that U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter's Hodgkin's disease has returned, albeit at a "significantly less advanced" stage, according to a statement released Tuesday evening by the office of Pennsylvania's senior senator.

"It is expected that Senator Specter will continue to perform all the duties of his office as well as his activities associated with his candidacy for re-election," according to the statement.

Specter was originally diagnosed with the disease in 2005 and continued to work while undergoing treatment.