SPECTER

PHOENIX — It certainly was reassuring to learn yesterday that, even with Americans dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economy teetering on the brink of recession, and the sub-prime mortgage morass deteriorating daily, Sen. Arlen Specter hasn’t lost focus of the truly important matters that should concern our nation’s leaders, such as why the NFL destroyed the videotapes provided by the Patriots as part of the infamous “Spygate” episode in September.

Interesting, isn’t it, that Specter, that ever-vigilant, wrong-righting Republican from Pennsylvania who happens to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee, suddenly decided to make a federal case of this matter the week of the Super Bowl?

Do you think that maybe — just maybe — he’s hoping to reap maximum publicity out of all this?

Surely not. What politician would stoop to something like that?

I’m not sure how Specter’s putting Spygate on a par with Watergate enhances his standing in the eyes of his constituents.

Then again, one never should underestimate the stupidity of Eagles fans, who likely vote early and often and are rumored to spend their summers in the shameful pursuit of rooting for the Phillies.

Specter is, himself, an ardent Eagles fan, and has been known to call in frequently to sports talk shows in Philadelphia. Which, by the way, ought to tell you a thing or two about his intelligence.

He’s reacting to the NFL’s handling — or, in his mind, mishandling — of Spygate as if it was a breach of security on the part of the of a government intelligence agency.

It’s one thing if Specter is up in arms about spying done by the CIA or the FBI. But this is the NFL that has provoked his irate inquisitiveness.

Safeguarding state secrets is one thing. Protecting the defensive signals of the New York Jets is quite another.

“That requires an explanation,” the senator told the New York Times regarding the NFL’s destruction of the tapes that revealed spying by the Patriots. “The American people are entitled to be sure about the integrity of the game. It’s analogous to the CIA destruction of tapes.”

It is ludicrous for a U.S. senator to make such an analogy.

Someone ought to point out to Specter that creating a possible distraction for the Patriots is aiding and abetting the Eagles’ archrivals in the NFC East, the New York football Giants — a gesture that would be viewed as, in his political circles, tantamount to helping to get out the vote for Hillary in the Pennsylvania primary.

Not that the Patriots likely are paying any attention whatsoever to either Specter, or Spygate, at this point. One game away from completing an historic, undefeated season that would establish their superiority beyond the shadow — or specter — of a doubt, the Patriots long ago pushed the embarrassing incident into the past.

They were wrong. Coach Bill Belichick was wrong. They were caught. They were punished.

Belichick was fined $500,000, and suffered a costly blow to his reputation. The organization was fined another $250,000. The Patriots also had their first-round draft choice in 2008 stripped from them by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

That was the first time the league has exacted a first-round pick as penalty for a rules transgression, and the half-million dollar levy against Belichick was the largest ever against a coach.

“The action we took,” Goodell said yesterday morning in Phoenix at his annual, State of the League news conference, “was decisive, and it was unprecedented, and it sent a loud message not only to the Patriots, but to every NFL team that … you better follow the rules.”

Goodell said there was a “very good” explanation why the tapes were destroyed: “There was no purpose for them.”

As to what Specter’s purpose is, Goodell is unsure.

“This issue is five or six months old,” the commissioner said. “I think we’ve been forthright in dealing with it. I don’t think [what the Patriots did] affected the outcome of any game.”

Nor does Goodell think it taints the Patriots accomplishments this season.

“I think what [the Patriots] did this season was certainly done within the rules, and they should be congratulated,” he said.

It would seem that Specter and his colleagues in the Senate have more important issues to think about.

Such as what entitlements to tack on to the next piece of pork barrel legislation that comes up for a vote.

jdonalds@projo.com