Arlen Specter to Stand Strong Against Illegal Spying -- In the NFL

Posted by William K. Wolfrum, Shakesville at 5:14 AM on February 4, 2008.

This post was originally published on 2/2/08

This is rich. Arlen Specter has spent the last few years trying to be the Senate's voice of reason when it comes to the government eavesdropping -- and that voice has continually reasoned that everyone should do everything Bush and Cheney and Co. want, including giving immunity to law-breaking telecom companies.

Not satisfied of being an impotent toadie of the Bush Administration, however, Specter now wants to really break open the Eavesdropping scandal. The barely existing scandal in the NFL, that is.

"Senator wants to know why NFL destroyed Patriots spy tapes"

WASHINGTON -- With the Super Bowl fast approaching, a senior Republican senator says he wants the NFL to explain why it destroyed evidence of the New England Patriots cheating scandal.

"I am very concerned about the underlying facts on the taping, the reasons for the judgment on the limited penalties and, most of all, on the inexplicable destruction of the tapes," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., in a Thursday letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the matter could put the league's antitrust exemption at risk. In a phone interview with the Times on Thursday, he said the committee at some point will call on Goodell to address the antitrust exemption as well as the destruction of the tapes.

"Their antitrust exemption has been on my mind for a long time," he said in a Capitol Hill news conference Friday.

Basically, when the Bush Administration gets everything they want, and when telecoms are either given immunity or straight-out pardoned by Bush and the government is allowed to spy on anyone they want through the number of loopholes the FISA bill will have, you can thank Arlen Specter. Because in reality, all he's done is been a convenient roadblock for an administration that never met a civil right they liked, and they've used him often.

But now he's worried about eavesdropping in the NFL and thinks it's the Senate's job to clean it all up. Because, you know, the Super Bowl is tomorrow and now he's getting maximum face time. Jesus.

Let's see, everyone knows the U.S. government is spying on its people, and have use private telecom companies to do it, even before Sept. 11, 2001. For his part, Specter has created a bill to protect the telecoms - then lied about it. He's introduced one impotent bill after another, it seems, and has been the ultimate example of why bipartisanship means "lie, cheat, or force the Democrats to do what we want" in Republican-speak.

Basically, when the Bush Administration gets everything they want, and when telecoms are either given immunity or straight-out pardoned by Bush and the government is allowed to spy on anyone they want through the number of loopholes the FISA bill will have, you can thank Arlen Specter. Because in reality, all he's done is been a convenient roadblock for an administration that never met a civil right they liked, and they've used him often.

But now he's worried about eavesdropping in the NFL and thinks it's the Senate's job to clean it all up. Because, you know, the Super Bowl is tomorrow and now he's getting maximum face time. Jesus.

Tagged as: bush administration, fisa, football, specter, warrantless wiretapping, nfl

William K. Wolfrum is a regular blogger for Shakesville