Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) has asked for an independent probe into spying on signals done by the Patriots over the last bunch of years. And he’s not even up for election for a couple of years…
Spector, who is up for reelection in 2010, is the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. As the committee’s ranking member, he controls a minority of the committee budget and can therefore fund congressional action.
With everything going on in the world today does it really matter that the Patriots may have videotaped signals from the Eagles and Steelers and used the information to beat them a couple of years ago? So what if there is a formal investigation, it’s not like scores or titles are going to change is it?
Sure, there is some oversight interest because of federal anti-trust exemptions, but seriously, is this really important enough to be spending the Senator’s time and budget on?
This all, of course, reminds me of the ridiculous hearings about steroids in baseball. (Thanks again Sen. Mitchell (D-ME). How exactly was that representing your constituents? Maine doesn’t have professional sports teams.) Which took a lot of time, money, energy, and attention and resulted in the pastime possibly being a bit cleaner, but little else.
This is one of those things that always kills me. How is it that a Senator who rails against the Federal Government putting its nose where it doesn’t belong – like business and environmental regulations, and welfare, and health care, and federal guidelines for education – has the contortionist ability to suggest that monitoring professional sports is a critical mission for the limited exercise of Federal oversight? Especially at his age?
