Can Specter concentrate on his daily work?

[groundgame]

It's hard to believe that not a minute goes by in the day of Senator Arlen Specter that two words do not stream out like a stock ticker tape across his mind: Matt Walsh. Specter's blood pressure medicine has likely been doubled as the NFL works slowly in it's dealing with the shaky Walsh figure. The delay must be driving the calculating and vindictive Specter crazy, and I love it.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

It's hard to believe that not a minute goes by in the day of Senator Arlen Specter that two words do not stream out like a stock ticker tape across his mind: Matt Walsh. Specter's blood pressure medicine has likely been doubled as the NFL works slowly in it's dealing with the shaky Walsh figure. The delay must be driving the calculating and vindictive Specter crazy, and I love it.

i wish you were right, but this guy has been in the United States Senate for a million years, where it takes a month to schedule lunch and six months to get a bill to the floor. He knows this is perking along and he is no doubt content to wait since he holds the trump card (i.e., the ability to call a hearing, give Walsh immunity and depose him under oath) at the end of the day.

 

[patsfanofNC12]

Wish this would just be put to rest already.

 

[otis p. driftwood]

i wish you were right, but this guy has been in the United States Senate for a million years, where it takes a month to schedule lunch and six months to get a bill to the floor. He knows this is perking along and he is no doubt content to wait since he holds the trump card (i.e., the ability to call a hearing, give Walsh immunity and depose him under oath) at the end of the day.

That's just not true. As has been stated about seven million times, Specter can't just call a hearing and drag Walsh up to the Hill.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

That's just not true. As has been stated about seven million times, Specter can't just call a hearing and drag Walsh up to the Hill.

Not sure what you mean. Specter is the Ranking Member on the Judiciary Committee and, however ill we think of him, a Senate Heavyweight. In this case, he would be waving the antitrust flag. Unless something is politically radioactive, Ranking Members can get hearings if they go to the Committee Chair, even if they are confined to a subcommittee. The only way to stop this is for the Chair, usually acting on instructions from the Leader, to instruct the majority to block it. Pat Leahy is the Chair and could quietly ask Specter not to push for hearings, but, so far, despite his New England constituency, Leahy has not leapt to the Patriots defense. It is not clear that Senator Reid has the interests of the Patriots at the top of his agenda. The Majority can, however, keep anything from getting to the floor, even when they allow hearings against their wishes.