Sen, Arlen Specter

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Is it me or is this guy looking like a Mccarthy-esque jack-ass? Does the fact he investigated the JFK assaination really make him qualifies to decided how a football team should be punished for breaking the rules? Does he really think that the Pats taping signal is a slippery slope to 4th graders cheating on math tests !!!

I mean they got caught taping signals (which many people feel isn't all that uncommon), and stealing signal w/o taping is relatively common.

They were fined 3/4 of a MILLION dollars and give what the competition comittee felt was a stiffer penalty than a suspension (losing #1 draft pick)

I mean really what's next does he want the Nats investigated for cheering? maybe Joba needs to looked at for pumping his fist? IF only we could have a congressional hearing on why Manny Rameriz get 20 mil a year and doesnt hustle to 1st base? Or drag Arod to the Senate and question him about his high pay as opposed to lack of post season production.

or maybe, just maybe, Specter should paying a little more attenion to what going in the GOVERNMENT!

OK rant over . . .

</rant>

Specter is actually one of the Repub. members in Congress that I really like. He's not straight-line Repub. in his beliefs - pro-choice, pro-stem cell, forces tax cuts to be only people making under $1mil, critical of GOP policies, wire tapping, intel leaks, spending...and one of Time's 10 best senators, 2006.

Like every elected official, he has been bought and sold by a particular industry, unfortunately:

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Arlen Specter has taken $153,600 in campaign contributions from Comcast or those affiliated with Comcast as employees or through its PAC. The only firm which has given more money to Specter is the law firm Blank Rome, LLP, which represents Comcast and which has given Specter $358,453 although the organization itself did not donate, rather the money came from the organization's PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families. [10]. Arlen Specter has publicly declared that he would support legislation ending the NFL's anti-trust exemption, allowing local teams to negotiate their own cable contracts to the benefit of Comcast. [11] It appears that Specter may have violated the code of ethics for senators because of the link between his two largest donors and his attack on the NFL.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlen_Specter

Yeah, that's pretty much what this comes down to...he's carrying water for Comcast in their dispute with the NFL over the NFL Network.

Don't know much about his comcast stuff, but I say good to the pressure on the NFL.

Why the heck would Gooddell destroy the tapes so quickly??? That only happens when you have something to hide and cover up.

I don't think what the Patriots did was that bad and really don't care. I believe that there's more to the story than what we got however, and I think that is what pisses Spector off. We'll never know what the full story is, but at least a little pressure saying, "WTF!!" shows everyone that there is consequences.

I like what Wilbon and Kornheiser said on PTI today. Wilbon basically said that he wanted Specter to just sit down and shut up, but he also liked the fact that he was putting pressure on the NFL, as "the media has been eating out of the NFL's hands".

Kornheiser just wanted Specter to sit down and shut up. :D

Being a Patriots fan, I think that Sen. Specter was just trying to exact a measure of revenge on the team that the Steelers and Eagles can't beat. :D

Seriously though, I think everyone is pretty tired of Spygate, so I think we can all agree when I say:

Just let it go.

I think that was the only thing Goodell could've done [try and cover it up]. I mean, they were caught in Week 1. With 16 weeks before the end of the season, what is he supposed to do?

He obviously wanted to get the issue shelved as soon as possible and return to normalcy. Unfortunately, that backfired on him.

Now the league has to deal with the after-effects of an issue that they wanted put to bed in September.

My only question is why should the government care about cheating in sports?

Let's shake up the election process....vote out all the politicians and vote in the butcher, the baker, the plumber, it'll at least take a year or 2 for them to screw up or be bought and who knows they might actually do a better job.

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Originally Posted by HoustonGM

My only question is why should the government care about cheating in sports?

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Yea

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Originally Posted by HoustonGM

My only question is why should the government care about cheating in sports?

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Beacuse as Arlen Specter said, "if you can cheat in the NFL ...you can cheat on your grade-school math test"

And what does the government need to focus on more than 8 years old cheating on math tests ??

wtf

I don't know Specter's motives, nor am I commenting on if he should be doing this, but the congress does have authority to regulate the NFL as they are specifically given authority over interstate commerce (the NFL is a business involved in primarily interstate commerce) via Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution,

The Congress shall have power...
To regulate commerce... among the several states...
To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

and the Pat's cheating is business fraud of the other team(s) and of paying customers.

I'm sorry but screw all the congressmen who can't seem to find anything else to do but pick on professional sports and its athletes.

Here's a list of things that could be worked on instead: gas prices, food prices, home mortgages, bridge inspections, utilities prices and my personal favorite why the heck do we keep voting for these old SOB's

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Originally Posted by SirKodiak

the Pat's cheating is business fraud of the other team(s) and of paying customers.

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But collectively the teams run the commissioner's office and have therefore already decided that the Patriots have been punished. You can argue that the fans have lost something - but the owners have already reached a resolution.

The thing that the bandwagon "OMG Pats r cheaterz!" crowd is getting wrong is that all the taping was LEGAL by NFL rules - the problem is that they were taping from a non-sanctioned location after that rule was implemented last year. If Goodell found no evidence of any wrongdoing over that, then his (sizable) penalization of not only a first round draft pick, but $750,000 should have been the end of the story. Instead, Specter used Walsh's *supposed* new evidence as the basis for his stand against the NFL, and even now that Walsh's cache of material has been proven redundant to what was handed over originally, he continues this witch hunt.

It's getting really ridiculous. I'm not happy that the Patriots broke the rules, but they were penalized, and the stain of this scandal on top of that should be enough punishment, IMO.

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Originally Posted by SirKodiak

I don't know Specter's motives, nor am I commenting on if he should be doing this, but the congress does have authority to regulate the NFL as they are specifically given authority over interstate commerce (the NFL is a business involved in primarily interstate commerce) via Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution,

The Congress shall have power...
To regulate commerce... among the several states...
To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

and the Pat's cheating is business fraud of the other team(s) and of paying customers.

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Soooooooo, what about holding? offsides? roughing the passer? Those are all cheating too, why aren't they being investigated?

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Originally Posted by gRYFYN1

Beacuse as Arlen Specter said, "if you can cheat in the NFL ...you can cheat on your grade-school math test"

And what does the government need to focus on more than 8 years old cheating on math tests ??

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Thats his actual quote, I can't make that **** up!

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Originally Posted by kenny1234

But collectively the teams run the commissioner's office and have therefore already decided that the Patriots have been punished. You can argue that the fans have lost something - but the owners have already reached a resolution.

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That the owners have reached a resolution does not impact the ability of Congress to impose itself on the matter. I am not saying that they should, only that they have the right.

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Originally Posted by gRYFYN1

Soooooooo, what about holding? offsides? roughing the passer? Those are all cheating too, why aren't they being investigated?

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:rolleyes:

People get tired of hearing about an issue, and give up on it without ever finishing the process. Steroids are the perfect example.

If you're tired of it, change the channel. Skip the article.

Although I too question Specters motives, I also question Goodells and the NFL's. I don't have any problem with investigating to see if all stones have been turned. Yes our govt. has other more important things to do, I would assume this takes a minimal amount of his time and he can find time to multitask.

So, in short....I really don't care if he investigates or not, and I'd rather he ensure the NFL hasn't in fact covered things up. If we all just give up on things every time they get old there will be no 'checks and balances' whatsoever.

And this is the same guy who endorsed the "magic bullet" theory. A complete tool...and he sure sounded like one in his press conference.

I just wish the commissioner would have come out and said that they filmed at an illegal location, so all this "cheating" talk would have never started in the first place.

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Originally Posted by yankee hater

They are, the referees are reviewed and graded.

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By the government?

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I don't give a rats tail about the other teams, but *I* got screwed out of cash.

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I don't buy this line of thinking. You paid to see a baseball game. That's it. And that's what you got. And besides, there were always whispers of steroid use. It's just that the media ignored it, as did the MLB as a whole, but anybody with any interest in the game would have been naive to think that steroid use wasn't going on. I don't know whether or not you thought there were steroids in the game, but if you did, and you still paid, you have no right to complain.