Brendan Calling

More Smoke from Specter

On the heels of Charles Schumer’s press conference regarding the White House initiated purge of US attorneys, we get this graf in the Times:

The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, seemed to want to give the White House the benefit of the doubt, for now, but said the administration should offer explanations. “The situation has become so convoluted that I think the administration would be best served for people to come forward and discuss the matter, even if they acted entirely properly,” Mr. Specter said in an interview on Monday.

As I’ve stated repeatedly, Specter wrote the language that made this possible; Specter lied about his involvement; Specter now blames it on his chief counsel Mike O’Neill, but has taken no public steps to reprimand or fire his chief counsel; Specter chaired the judiciary committee at the time.

If anyone needs to “come forward and discuss the matter”, it’s the Senior Senator from Pennsylvania, whose efforts as Chair of the Judiciary have made “The situation… become so convoluted.”

Someone is skating by here, and it is Mr. Specter, without who this entire farce could not have proceeded. I for one am not prepared to accept the Senator’s excuses at face value.

One Response to “More Smoke from Specter”

1. lutton Says:
   March 13th, 2007 at 11:01 pm

   Some comments on TPM indicate that the two finalists for the US Attorney in Utah (I think) were X & Y (it’s public, I just forget who), where X is the White House choice and Y is the Republican Senators (Specter, Hatch, etc) choice.

   At the same time Y finally gets the nod, this under-the-radar provision worms its way into the Patriot Act via Specter’s office. Quid pro quo? You decide…