Arlen Specter

Arlen Specter was never much of a Republican. He won't be much of a Democrat either. His record in the Senate has always been quirkily centrist. He has voted for Republican presidents' conservative Supreme Court nominees but still supported abortion rights. He was one of only three GOP senators who voted for President Obama's $787-billion stimulus bill. He often exasperated other senators by offering his own idiosyncratic bills. Conservatives dubbed him a RINO: Republican In Name Only.

WASHINGTON -- For Roger Clemens and Major League Baseball, Wednesday marked a conclusion of sorts in Congressional involvement. For Commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL, it may have marked a beginning. Goodell met for about an hour and a half with Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), discussing the New England Patriots and defending the league's decision to destroy tapes and notes turned over by the Patriots in an investigation that has become known as "Spygate."

Say what you want about Sen. Arlen Specter and his obsession with the New England Patriots' videotaping scandal. Yes, he's a politician. Yes, he could be focused on more important issues. Yes, he's a Philadelphia Eagles fan. Yes, he's supported by a cable company fighting the NFL. But he could still be right. The Pennsylvania Republican is calling for an independent investigation of Spygate.

The Northeast's dwindling cast of Senate Republicans has Democrats circling Arlen Specter's seat in Pennsylvania, convinced the party is well-positioned to make a competitive race out of the 2010 election. Leading the pack of prospects -- at least in celebrity -- is Chris Matthews, the MSNBC "Hardball" host and a former Capitol Hill Democratic staffer.

A pair of U.S. lawmakers visited the Syrian capital on Sunday in an attempt to persuade the Arab state to make peace with Israel and woo it from the Iranian sphere of influence. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.) visited Syria after a trip to neighboring Israel, which gave its blessing to the lawmakers' mediation effort. Israel and Syria have been in a state of war for decades despite occasional diplomatic forays between the two nations.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) on Sunday reiterated his reservations about President Bush's legal authority to order domestic spying, saying that Congress had not given Bush a "blank check" to order warrantless eavesdropping. Specter also said that if planned congressional hearings determined that the president broke the law, one possible remedy could be impeachment, though he quickly added that such talk was theoretical -- and premature.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter on Thursday denied any connection between special projects he gained for his state and a Washington lobbyist whose wife works in Specter's office. But his office said it was sending the matter to the Senate ethics committee. "To satisfy all conceivable concern, we are voluntarily forwarding this case" to the ethics committee, the Republican senator's chief of staff said in a statement.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday he might seek to block funding of a domestic eavesdropping program in an effort to force the Bush administration to answer lawmakers' questions about the operation. In a warning to the White House, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said he planned to introduce legislation that would cut off funds for the surveillance program, which he described as a threat to civil liberties and a violation of domestic espionage laws.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee lashed out at Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday, accusing the vice president of secretly lobbying other GOP members of the committee to block hearings on the administration's domestic surveillance program. In an unusually sharp attack, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.

Setting the stage for a summer of political fireworks, a leader of the Senate effort to overhaul immigration law has said that he will answer a House plan to hold immigration hearings around the country by having his own set of hearings. The announcement by Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.