Can softball make Congress a nicer place and maybe help end gridlock?

That’s the pitch, so to speak, according to U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Bob Casey, D-Pa., who joined their staffs Tuesday evening for a softball game whose tradition dates to the early ’70s.  read more »

Sen. Arlen Specter announced yesterday that the Hodgkin’s disease that he fought and beat in 2005, has returned.

The recurrence was diagnosed based on a routine follow-up PET (Position Emissions Tomography) scan that showed small lymph nodes in his chest and abodmen. A biopsy of one of the nodes was positive for recurrence of Hodgkin’s, a disease of the lymph system.

“I was surprised by the PET scan findings because I have been feeling so good,” Specter said in a statement. “I consider this just another bump on the road to a successful recovery from Hodgkin’s, from which I’ve been symptom free for 3 years.”

From Brett Lieberman:

A “succession of failures” is how an obviously frustrated U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., describes the field of Republican presidential candidates.

Specter also didn’t have such nice things to say about Iowa, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire or the enter presidential primary system.

“Pennsylvania is idiotic to let Iowa and New Hampshire exert so much influence,” he said. “America is idiotic to let them have such influence on who is going to be commander-in- chief.”