U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, who suffered some embarrassment this past summer when local news media reported his failure to respond to a jury summons, made amends yesterday, reporting for jury service, along with his wife, Karen.

The Santorums showed up to serve in a pool of 48 potential jurors in an Allegheny County Common Pleas Court trial.

And Rick Santorum made sure the media knew about it. One of his staffers contacted Pittsburgh journalists to remind them that the senator would finally be fulfilling his civic duty.

Court records show that Santorum had obtained three deferrals in the past two years and had failed to respond to a fourth summons. His wife had obtained eight deferrals since 2000.

After local media reported his failure to appear in August, he and his wife made arrangements with the court to serve during the Senate's Thanksgiving recess.

"If this is what people think is a good use of their United States senator's time ..." Santorum said.

Under any circumstances, the senator would have been unlikely to make it onto a jury, if only because he is an attorney. Trial lawyers, preferring to present their cases to impressionable minds, will generally seek to banish any barristers in the jury pool.

But if Santorum didn't want to sit through a two-week jury trial, and he didn't, he had something else going for him: a conflict of interest.

In a remarkable coincidence, the Santorums ended up in jury pool for an asbestos lawsuit. A former asbestos installer afflicted with abdominal cancer is suing 15 companies.

It just so happens, Santorum is among a group of senators who are drafting a complex piece of legislation that would create a pool of funds for asbestos victims, removing such cases from the court system.

During questioning of potential jurors, Santorum told the lawyers in the case that he could render an impartial verdict, but Common Pleas Judge Eugene B. Strassburger III didn't buy it...

Santorum's wife was sent home for the same reason.

The Republican senator has blamed Democratic shenanigans for the frequent jury summonses that he and his wife have received...

Any Allegheny County resident who spends one to three days in a jury pool is exempt from jury service for the following 12 months. A stay of more than three days on a jury entitles a citizen to a three-year exemption.

But residents, like the Santorums, who request deferrals end up right back on the list of people who can be summoned.

When informed of that by a reporter, Santorum shrugged.

"That's plausible, I guess," he said.

The Santorums earned their one-year exemption yesterday. But late next November, the senator might just have to report for duty again.

By Jeffrey Cohan