Arlen Specter: “Again you thought wrong. You are in the habit of thinking wrong. I am in mid-sentence, but I am not surprised to be…”

“Again you thought wrong. You are in the habit of thinking wrong. I am in mid-sentence, but I am not surprised to be interrupted. We have other business we are taking care of. I have to soon excuse myself to go to the Judiciary Committee hearing, where we are taking up the question of electronic surveillance, where we have been in session listening to the Attorney General since 9:30 this morning. When the Judiciary Committee had taken up this bill, we took it up under very difficult circumstances. We started last year with the immediate job of confirming the Attorney General. The Senate went into session on the 109th Congress on a Tuesday, and we had the Attorney General in on Thursday and confirmed him in short order. Then we moved through the bankruptcy bill and the class action bill. Then we tackled the very tough problem of the filibusters, which had delayed the confirmation of circuit judges. We worked through that problem. Then in the midst of all that, we had a series of hearings on a wide variety of issues: Miller, the New York Times reporter who was kept, and the business about identity theft. We worked through hearings on the tough immigration problem. Then we took up the issue of the confirmation of Chief Justice Roberts, where the staff of the committee worked through the month of August; then we took up the question of the confirmation of Justice Alito. We worked through the months of December and January.…”