Arlen Specter: “I will as soon as I finish. Today, it is the Democrats who don't want to make tough votes, but there have been days when…”

“I will as soon as I finish. Today, it is the Democrats who don't want to make tough votes, but there have been days when it was the Republicans who didn't want to make tough votes. Senator Reid said that they were experts on being cut off from offering amendments because they have tried to offer amendments and couldn't. And he mentioned the minimum wage and stem cells, among other items. But there is a significant difference on what is happening today and yesterday during the pendency of this bill, and that is that the amendments to be offered relate to the bill, are germane to the bill. Senator Kyl wants to offer amendments that deal with the text of the bill. When Senator Reid was talking about stem cells, he was talking about hypothetically, or maybe he did try to offer a stem cell amendment--I don't know--or tried to offer a minimum wage amendment, but he tried to offer it on a bill which was not germane. It makes sense to say we are not going to vote on stem cells on the highway bill, illustratively. And although Senator Reid wants to vote on stem cells, he hasn't pushed that issue as hard as I have. I have been working on the stem cell issue since it burst upon the scene in November of 1998. The subcommittee which I chair on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education has had 16 hearings on it. I am the coauthor of the Specter-Harkin bill which has passed the House as the Castle bill.…”