Arlen Specter Answer Quotations

You have both sides poles apart and insistent on finding some answer to that question in advance of the hearing, which no one is entitled to, ... Late Edition.

I believe he went somewhat beyond the usual practice of answering just as many questions as he had to in order to be confirmed.

I think he ought to have to answer questions and be subject to examination, because the answers that he gave were evasive,

resist, if not refuse to confirm, Supreme Court nominees who refuse to answer questions on fundamental issues.

He cannot be required to answer how he's going to decide a case that might come before the court, ... That would undercut the very basics of judicial independence.

And that's why I believe -- and I have seen with my experience in the Senate the value of public hearings -- when FBI Director Mueller has to answer these questions, when CIA Director Tenet has to answer why the president wasn't warned in the August 6 briefing about the tall buildings being in jeopardy, the White House and the CIA headquarters.

Nominees answer about as many questions as they think they have to to be confirmed,

Notwithstanding his answers and my efforts to glean some hint or realistic expectation from his words and body language, candidly it is not possible to predict or have a solid expectation of what Judge Roberts would do,

We don't have enough in this questionnaire, the answers so far, to go forward,

It has been my experience that the hearings are a subtle minuet with nominees answering as many questions as they think they have to in order to be confirmed.

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Sen. Kennedy just propounded a very, very long question. Now let him (Roberts) answer the question.

But I think he did answer many, many important questions, such as he solidly affirmed the right to privacy

He did not give a definitive answer because obviously that question is going to be before the court again; it's going to be on the next term, ... But I think he - as they said in the old song, 'Kansas City,' he went about as far as he could go.