A sane person barely trusts politicians to perform their limited, legitimate duties. No sane person could possibly believe that expanding their power beyond that small scope is anything but a terrible idea.
With that in mind, Sen. Arlen Specter has a stunning belief in the government’s boundaries, even by politician standards. He wants an explanation from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on why the NFL destroyed the Spygate tapes.
“That requires an explanation,” Specter told The [New York] Times. “The NFL has a very preferred status in our country with their antitrust exemption. The American people are entitled to be sure about the integrity of the game. It’s analogous to the CIA destruction of tapes, or any time you have records destroyed.”
The destruction of tapes proving that a football team cheated against another football team is analogous to the government’s destruction of tapes proving that it tortures prisoners. I can’t possibly give that any further boost. Sen. Specter forced the fullest possible amount of grotesqueness into this conversation.
He went on to say:
“I don’t think you have to have a law broken to have a legitimate interest by the Congress on the integrity of the game … What if there was something on the tapes we might want to be subpoenaed, for example? You can’t destroy it. That would be obstruction of justice,” Specter said to The Times.
If violation of the law (even illegitimate laws) need not be the criteria, is it reasonable to assume that we’ll soon have an anti-tape destruction bill zipping through Congress to prevent Joe in Milwaukee from destroying his tapes of that night in Tijuana where he got just a wee bit tipsy and took pictures of himself giggling at the window displays advertising drugs that aren’t legally sold over the counter in the United States. I imagine such a bill would garner 97 votes¹ in the Senate and 434 votes² in the House, just as soon as the economic stimulus package passes.
Anyone else think this is grounds to remove Specter from office? He hasn’t broken any law, but he’s clearly not mentally capable of carrying out the duties of a United States Senator.
¹ Senators McCain, Obama, and Clinton are too busy to do their jobs vote.
² Ron Paul will vote against it, although he will stuff it full of pork for his constituents. But he’ll vote against it, so that makes it okay.