From Paul Kane's Capitol Briefing blog at the WaPo comes the story of mumbling equivocator Arlen Specter.

Faced with the prospect of having to figure out where he stood in the face of a looming Constitutional confrontation for which all precedent weighs against his party, Specter and other White House apologists asked for a voice vote on authorizing subpoenas in the investigation of the firing of the US Attorneys.

Why a voice vote? So nobody would actually have to go on record in support of the Pretzelnit.

Fine. Whatever it takes.

But Specter couldn't even manage that:

Leahy ordered a voice vote and barked out for all those in favor of the subpoenas to say "aye" - and all 10 Democrats clearly yelled "aye", as did Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). Specter, who is advocating a compromise in which Rove would testify publicly but not under oath and without being subpoenaed, clearly opened his mouth and seemed to move his lips. Then Leahy asked for the "nays", and Specter's mouth didn't open a sliver. Capitol Briefing convened a meeting of reporters afterward to decide whether Specter had voted in favor of the subpoenas. There was no clear answer, no one could actually confirm whether they heard him say "aye". We pounced on Specter and demanded an answer. But Specter refused to say which way he voted. He said he did what he did and if we didn't notice he wasn't going to help us. After trying a number of different ways to get him to show his hand, we gave up and left. But Specter had a change of heart and decided to clear the air, tracking down a few reporters. He did not deny that his mouth might have opened during the call for "ayes", but Specter denied saying anything, uttering any sound. "The fact of the matter is that I did not say anything. I did not vote and say either 'aye' or 'nay'. I just sat there hoping that it would all go away through negotiations," he said. "Factually, I did not say a thing."

"Factually, I did not say a thing."

This was supposed to be a clarification, mind you.

Arlen Specter, asked what he did in the face of Constitutional conflict, says, "I did not say a thing."

Story of his life.