Specter scolds Reid on Senate floor again

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., on Wednesday questioned the competence of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., after Reid described Republican senators as "49 puppets" of President Bush.

"I wonder if he is up to the job when he resorts to that kind of statement, which only furthers the level of rancor and insults and animosity with that kind of insulting comment," Specter said on the Senate floor.

On Tuesday, Reid said Bush "is the man that's pulling the strings on the 49 puppets he has here in the Senate."

Specter accused Reid of violating Senate rules, which prohibit members from saying anything that would suggest another senator's actions are "unworthy or unbecoming of a senator."

This was the second time in the past five months that Specter has criticized Reid on the Senate floor. After Reid ordered an all-night session in July for a debate on the war in Iraq, Specter described him as "rude," "dictatorial" and "ineffective."

The latest exchange is another sign of the bitter partisan standoff in Congress as lawmakers struggle to finish 11 of 12 annual spending bills for fiscal 2008 before the Christmas recess.

Reid spokesman Jon Summers said Republicans are stalling the spending bills on orders from the White House.

"If Senate Republicans are serious about being independent of the White House, then why do they keep doing the bidding of the president instead of the work of the American people?" Summers said.