Beyond the Dome

Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania thinks his colleagues, the three presidential candidates, should spend a little more time helping the Senate solve its own problems.

So he was a bit disappointed when he asked Hillary Rodham Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama, in writing, to say whether they would sign a petition to move several stalled judicial nominations out of the Senate Judiciary Committee -- and all three, basically, blew him off.

Obama was the only one who even answered his letter. But Obama's letter, which Specter read on the Senate floor this morning, didn't come close to taking a stand on the "discharge" petition. Instead, Obama said he'd be happy to leave the issue to Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

"As a former constitutional law instructor, I fully appreciate the important work that our federal judges do and the need to fill judicial vacancies," Obama wrote. But "since I am not a member of the Judiciary Committee, I would defer to Chairman Leahy on the scheduling of any committee votes on these pending nominations, and I would defer to Senator Reid on the scheduling of any floor votes."

Not good enough, Specter said.

"No senator can delegate to anyone else his constitutional responsibilities," Specter said in his floor speech. "The Constitution does not refer to the Judiciary Committee. The Constitution does not refer to the majority leader ... The Constitution says, senators vote."