http://www.attytood.com/2007/03/profiles_in_inaudible_courage_1.htmlProfiles in (inaudible) courage
Well, at least our hometown senator, Republican Arlen Specter, is honest about one thing, which is that he just wants this entire U.S. attorney scandal -- in which a change in the USA Patriot Act inserted by a Specter aide has played a key role -- to go away.
But today, the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Specter is now the ranking Republican, took a vote on issuing subpoenas to White House aides in its probe of the growing scandal. So where did Specter finally come down? Check this out:
Specter, who is advocating a compromise in which Rove would testify publicly but not under oath and without being subpoenaed, clearly opened his mouth and seemed to move his lips.
Then Leahy asked for the "nays", and Specter's mouth didn't open a sliver. Capitol Briefing convened a meeting of reporters afterward to decide whether Specter had voted in favor of the subpoenas. There was no clear answer, no one could actually confirm whether they heard him say "aye".
Reporters spent much of the afternoon, it seems, trying to pin down the Pennsylvania senator:
But Specter had a change of heart and decided to clear the air, tracking down a few reporters. He did not deny that his mouth might have opened during the call for "ayes", but Specter denied saying anything, uttering any sound.
"The fact of the matter is that I did not say anything. I did not vote and say either 'aye' or 'nay'. I just sat there hoping that it would all go away through negotiations," he said. "Factually, I did not say a thing."
Good grief -- he couldn't have found anything in Scottish law to fall back on. By the way, Specter said recently that he plans to run for re-election in 2010 (he'll be 80 then), so expect to see A LOT of this kind of stuff over the next few years.
And that's factually.