Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), a 26-year veteran of Capitol Hill and the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, shared some concerns about the Attorney General. (via BooMan and Steve Benen)
Spectre will back off; he always does. There is no reason that opening an impeachment investigation of Gonzales would tie up both houses of Congress. This is complete BS. House committee makes a simple vote to open an investigation, House floor makes a simple majority vote. If they can eviscerate the Fourth Amendment in about one full day’s worth of business, there is no reason this should take any longer. After that, you have staff counsel and members, plus some people brought in to assist, run the investigation until a report is ready to be voted on. In the meantime, the House conducts it’s business, and the Senate is not even involved until the House votes out Articles of Impeachment after receipt of the impeachment report and a determination that Articles are warranted. This is the same BS argument the Democratic leaders are hiding behind and it is a flat out lie.One audience member wanted to know if Specter might vote to impeach Gonzales…. Specter described himself as on a “one-man crusade” against Gonzales, but an impeachment, he said, would tie up both houses of Congress and be “a big distraction.
“I think we have ways of getting rid of (Gonzales) otherwise,” he said.
One audience member pressed the Republican senator about opening investigations into whether the government played a role in staging the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or allowed them to happen.
Specter said he had seen the FBI reports and believes the U.S. government played no role in the attacks, but added, “I don’t question the reason for your skepticism. Government does a lot of things.” And, he added, “Alberto Gonzales does a lot of things.”
