When Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter went more public last week with his increasingly strange and quixotic battle against the National Football League -- supposedly over the New England "Spygate" scandal -- some politically savvy wags raised an interesting point.

They noted that the longtime GOP stalwart's No. 2 source of campaign funds in recent years has been none other than employees of Comcast Corp. and their families, linked to at least $153,600 in donations going back to 1989. That's significant because Philadelphia-based Comcast has been engaged in a protracted war with the NFL over an issue that has nothing to do with New England and spying but is worth millions of dollars: Whether the cable giant can and should charge its consumers extra money to view the NFL Network.

Good find, but if you dig a little deeper...it's even worse than that.

Look again at the list, and see who Specter's No. 1 source of campaign contributions has been -- by far. That would the law firm -- also based here in Philly but with a large D.C. presence -- of Blank Rome LLC, now a growing lobbying powerhouse. Since 1989, partner and employees and family members from Blank Rome have donated $358, 483 to Specter's political kitty, dwarfing all others.

And who is one of Blank Rome's largest lobbying clients? That would be Comcast Corp., which according to publicly available U.S. Senate disclosure records has paid some $600,000 in fees to Blank Rome since 2004 to lobby Congress on a variety of issues. The first issue that's listed is "a la carte pricing" for cable channels -- linked to the very issues that Comcast and the NFL Network are fighting over. A well-known Republican insider, former Justice Department spokeswoman Barbara Comstock, has been one of Blank Rome's lobbyists on the Comcast account....

...But what is the point, other than the above-mentioned embarassment of the NFL and its commissioner Roger Goodell? True, destroying the tape wasn't the smartest PR move by the PR-savvy NFL, but the tape would show...what? That the Pats spied on the Jets?...that's already been acknowledged by everyone involved, which is why New England was hit with a fairly severe punishment by league standards......

SQUAREHEAD:

Should that guy be concentrating on more important issues in this country than a ball game?

To tell the truth, why are all these people wasting millions and millions of dollars on a stupid sport when we have millions of Americans that are poor and/or homeless?

SQUAREHEAD:

Should that guy be concentrating on more important issues in this country than a ball game?

SQUAREHEAD:

Good point Bill,but alot of your athletes give and start all sorts of charities,Teams help on charities,fans give to charities.The Senator should be the one working on that problem being a politician to solve the problem instead of worrying about a ball game.

SQUAREHEAD:

Good point Bill,but alot of your athletes give and start all sorts of charities,Teams help on charities,fans give to charities.The Senator should be the one working on that problem being a politician to solve the problem instead of worrying about a ball game.

Who pays  to build the staduims for these multimillionaires to play in, them or alot of tax payers who don't even go to the games or who could care less about the sports and who do not make in their entire life what some of these players in one year?

What about the fuel that is wasted in the planes to fly these players all over the country and sometimes world to play silly games!!!

Soooo much money and fuel is wasted!!!

SQUAREHEAD:

Face it guys,there are more important issues for him to pursue than a ball game!Great politician,to heck with America,I'm attacking the NFL!I'll deal with other issues later,this ball game thing is more important than dealing with things that should be fixed in the country!

CosmicMaskedAvenger:

SQUAREHEAD:

Face it guys,there are more important issues for him to pursue than a ball game!Great politician,to heck with America,I'm attacking the NFL!I'll deal with other issues later,this ball game thing is more important than dealing with things that should be fixed in the country!

Gee, sounds like you think the whole "perfect season" thing is not such a big deal anymore....


Why is big Football any different than big Oil, or big Drug, or big Corporate America??????  They've got a scandal, thanks to the NFL and the Patriots, and it needs to be resolved.

SH is starting to look like a politician/clinton, lets just not look at "this" anymore, it is not that important!!!