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  The 
chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee expressed strong concerns on 
Wednesday about a proposed Microsoft settlement as his panel begins hearings on 
the landmark antitrust case against the software giant. Sen. Patrick Leahy, a 
Democrat from Vermont, said firstly he was worried that the terms of the pact 
reached last month with the U.S. Justice Department and nine of the states in 
the case were often vague and vulnerable to manipulation. 
``Second, I am concerned that the enforcement mechanism described in the 
proposed decree, lacks the power and the timeliness necessary to inspire 
confidence in its effectiveness,'' Leahy said in a text of his opening remarks 
at a hearing on the settlement. Leahy urged U.S. District Judge Colleen 
Kollar-Kotelly to seriously consider the alternative remedy offered last week by 
another nine states that have refused to sign the settlement. 
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