mine would be stunned at the severity of the possible sentences. 381 years for Veon? that's like a sentence for a serial killer.

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation_world/20080710_ap_pade...
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.

.... trying to "out prosecute" the soon to be retiring Meehan. I guess he sees him as his top competition for 2010. It's like Veon and co. were his white whale.

And do you think anyone with any sort of megaphone (Rendell? Wagner? CBK?) is gonna ask why no republicans were indicted? Don't hold your breath.

Some of the staff members indicted helped create and operate a system for using state funds for political purposes. Itis proper to hold them accountable.

Others were just doing the job they were assigned to do and that included political work. They should not have been doing that work. But they were doing what staff members for both parties have been doing for a very long time. Indicting them is an overstretch. My guess is that they were indicted for two reasons--to make the case seem more substantial and to flip them into testifying agsint the people who created this scheme. They are like the two poor computer guys in Fumo's office who were threatened with going to jail so that they would testify against the Senator.

I've not thought a great deal about this, but I'm getting more and more concerned about this kind of prosecutorial behavior. Shouldn't there be one standard for everyone. Shouldn't people be prosecuted if everyone else who has done what they are accused of doing would be also prosecuted. Should people be prosecutied just because they may know something about someone else?

Virtually everything about Meehan's corruption investigations in Philly had to do with obvious fraud against the public, selling out the public interest for individual's private gain. I personally do not have a lot of sympathy for many of the conspiracy theories.

"BonusGate" by contrast is an area where the whole practice is somewhat slimy but that people in both parties were practicing some form of it for years and in this instance allegedly only took it further. It does begin to invite certain questions of why no other charges against the lesser infractions as well. So yes I share hypothetical concerns about issue #1 but I am also curious about "best practice" solutions for question #2.
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.

Tom Corbett has a real Democratic challenger this year, John Morganelli, the D.A. of Northampton County.

Here he is:
http://www.johnmorganelli.com/

You can contribute online - just 20 bucks!

Or volunteer, which I plan to do in my waning days out here in the LV.

Here is his press release from a month ago about the radio ads that Corbett was airing this year - ironically, a highly political use of taxpayer money.
I don't think the Morganelli campaign has put out a statement yet about what an abuse of power "Bonusgate" is.

---------------------
June 7, 2008

DA John Morganelli, Democratic Candidate for Attorney General, Says AG Corbett Misuses Tax Dollars

Corbett Misusing More Tax Dollars than Bonusgate/ Who Polices the Attorney General?

Attorney General Tom Corbett has spent and misused hundreds of thousands of tax dollars, and maybe even a million, for political style radio advertisements in Philadelphia and SE Pennsylvania. Mr. Corbett’s blatant and unaccounted use of public money to raise his name recognition in an election year is the same kind of misuse of public money for political purposes that Mr. Corbett is investigating in the so-called “Bonus- Gate Investigation.

"In fact, Mr. Corbett is spending more tax dollars than was doled out in the alleged use of tax dollars to reward political work. The larger question here is "who polices the Attorney General," said Morganelli.

Here are the facts. Approximately a year ago, thanks to the effort of Senator Vince Fumo, the legislature allocated 10 million dollars to address illegal gun trafficking in Philadelphia and SE Pennsylvania. The money was entrusted to the Office of Attorney General to establish and deploy a Gun Task Force aimed at illegal gun trafficking. Unfortunately, Mr. Corbett decided that he would divert hundreds of thousands of dollars, and maybe even a million dollars, to create and air radio ads that do nothing about illegal guns. These are nothing but political advertisements disguised as “public service announcements” saturating the airwaves of SE Pennsylvania in an election year solely designed to raise Mr. Corbett’s name identification.

Mr. Corbett has decided, like those under investigation in “Bonusgate” that our tax dollars, rather than his campaign funds, can be used for his re-election campaign. Although DA Lynne Abraham appears on some of the ads, DA Abraham is not on the ballot and has no control over the content of the ads or how any of the money is spent. Even the legislature that allocated the funds has no control over how the money is spent. With no accountability, Mr. Corbett continues every day for the last year to saturate the airwaves with tax–payer funded political style ads that do not take one illegal gun off the streets. Every dollar that is spent on raising Mr. Corbett’s personal profile is one dollar less that is used to pay investigators to crack down on illegal guns.

Today, I am calling upon Mr. Corbett to stop campaigning with tax-payer dollars. At the very least, Mr. Corbett should agree that it is improper for him to use tax dollars in this fashion in an election year. Any public service announcement that is needed for this program can be done solely by DA Lynne Abraham who is not a candidate this year.

I am also asking him to give the public a full accounting about how much money was spent on creating the ads, and placing them on the many radio stations. The public has a right to know how tax-payer money is being used and Mr. Corbett is the only person who knows exactly how much public money has been misused to date.

- 30 -
------------------

Anyways.

I am so pissed off right now (not to mention inadequately caffeinated) that I can barely write. Corbett doesn't even seem worried about the appearance of partisanship.

One thing I am really really mad about (aside from the destruction to people's personal lives and the need for very good people to hire lawyers they can't afford) (and please understand, this was clearly done and timed to regain Republican control of the state house in November)...if this results in any state house losses in the west this year, then the burden of keeping the Democratic majority that many of us worked so hard to achieve two years ago (not to mention sacrificing my sanity, my health and significant expensive fiberglass portions of my Toyota) is going to fall on none other than my own beloved Montgomery County - because I don't think Bucks or Delco has bothered to recruit any candidates. I am sorry to be political but since the bad guys are political, I have to be, and if you people don't want Ed Rendell to be camped out in Hburg with a Republican GA AND Senate WITHOUT FUMO AROUND TO MAKE THINGS HAPPEN, I suggest everyone here also concern themselves with the following state rep candidates:

152nd: Lisa Romaniello
http://www.lisaromaniello.com/

70th: Matt Bradford - no webpage yet

151st: my guy Rep Rick Taylor - tough reelect
www.taylorforpa.com/

61st: Frank Custer
http://frankcuster.org/

There is, also Chris King in Bucks too. But I am getting off topic here. &*!%@&$!@&!!!!

A follow-up article today most interested me for what certain key legislators and potential candidates said.

Despite having historical ties to both Veon and to Manzo (who was Deweese's chief of staff a year ago) Bill Deweese is apparently trying to distance hmself anyway he can from the mess.

In a news release Thursday, DeWeese expressed outrage at the allegations and touted the housecleaning and changes made in the House since revelation of the bonuses in early 2007. He did not respond to a request for an interview.

Some lawmakers and others say recent changes, including the new open-records law and measures on conduct and rules in both chambers, have not gone far enough.

Other Dem lawmakers and candidates were more wiling to speak their mind directly to the press.

"If true, these allegations are what cause people to lose faith in government," said Rep. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery), who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Connie Williams.

"As someone who is trying to make the case that government can make a positive difference, it makes it more difficult," Leach said.

Bully for Leach establishing the right tone here, I say.

A little more controversially Don Cunningham of Lehigh County who has been mentioned in another thread as a potential for Gov in 2010 was explicit in his criticism of the role DeWeese's leadership may have played in setting the conditions for the scandal in the first place.

Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham, a Democrat who is considering running for governor in 2010, has called for House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese (D., Greene) to resign over the scandal.

He said it would be impossible for DeWeese, who was not named in the indictment, to oversee reforms in the caucus.

"Either he didn't have control of his operation and didn't know how money was being spent, or he knew and was complicit in it," Cunningham said Friday. "Either way, for the interest of the party, I think a clean break is needed."

And to the question I posed earlier about whether the scandal pointed to the need for better, more explicit rules on the distribution of bonuses in Harrisburg one Republican lawmaker has proposed a bill which apparently neither our very own Babbette Josephs or as she wold point out Tom Corbett himself supports - outright banning bonuses.

Sen. John Eichelberger (R., Blair), sponsor of a bill banning bonuses for virtually all state employees, issued a news release after the indictments urging swift House passage of the legislation.

"The people of Pennsylvania expect to have this issue addressed in law, not by the often unkept promises of lawmakers who claim that it will never happen again," said Eichelberger, who ousted Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer in 2006 after the legislative pay-raise controversy. "Their lack of action under the current circumstances is truly unbelievable."

Rep. Babette Josephs (D., Phila.), chairwoman of the House State Government Committee, issued a statement late Friday defending her commitment to reform and saying the attorney general did not support the Eichelberger bill as it was drafted.

Which leads directly to a question I posed earlier and noone has nibbled at. What are the best practices that we should support in terms of bonuses for legislative staff to avoid this problem? What is the line we can all say no legislator should cross in giving bonuses? Is the outright ban too extreme and bad policy or is there a simpler less draconian step that would make the situation too emabarassing for legislators in the future to abuse the system in the way Veon et al are accused of? What more specifically does Rep. Josephs support? Why does Corbett not support a total ban on bonuses?

Lots of questions.
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.

Thanks to the DN's John Baer

Bucks County Democratic Reps. John Galloway and Chris King want a voter referendum on this November's ballot for a "citizens" Constitutional Convention.

It would consist of 150 delegates (three elected from each state Senate district; no public officials or lobbyists allowed) who would leave their jobs, meet for maybe nine months and be paid lawmakers' salaries ($6,350 a month) plus expenses out of current leadership accounts.

It could cover any issue from reforms to controversial topics such as Philly-only gun laws or same-sex marriage.

"We have a credibility problem right now," Galloway says, "and we need to engage the public . . . this is a way of giving people ownership of their government."

Reps. Gene DePasquale, D-York, and Rick Taylor, D-Montgomery, are seeking sponsors for a House bill to ban bonuses (the Senate passed such a ban last year).

DePasquale says, "It's clear the culture of the bonuses helped foster a lot that's wrong . . . that's unacceptable."

Also DelCo Republican Senator Jeff Picolla has called for a special session on ethics in response to the crisis

He wants to address campaign-contribution limits, ban gifts from lobbyists, cut leadership's money, require outside audits of all legislative accounts, increase penalties for ethics violations and convene a Constitutional Convention to consider reducing the size of the Legislature, reapportionment reform, term limits and more.

Could be debateably grandstanding but here is Rep.Cohn's letter in response specifically rejecting the call for a "special session".
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.

The Galloway-King proposal gives party machines the right to pick ALL the delegates to a state constitutional convention, as they have never been able to do before. The 1967-1968 Constitutional Convention gave the party machines control of the vast majority of the delegates, but reduced their control to a degree by making various public officials ex officio delegates whether the party machines supported them or not.

Those who were aggrieved at the selection process for three city council vacancies should be far more aggrieved in this proposal: it is the largest grant of power to party organizations in the history of Pennsylvania.

Cohen's letter is typical of his attitude towards the public. He doesn't want a special session becuase it might take place in an "atmosphere of panic." An "atmospoher of panic" is Cohen's way of talking about public pressure that might come from the public's quite justifiable anger against the indictments against Veon et. al.

Cohen is quite right that some bad ideas could come out of a special session. Shrinking the legislature and making legislators part-time officials are two of them.

But two good ideas could come out of them as well: redistricting reforms; bans on gifts from lobbyists; bans on large bonuses; campaign finance reform including contribution limits and public financing (Veon's operation was not exactly what we reformers mean by public financing.

It is totally disingenuous of Cohen to say that this is the wrong time to deal with these issues when he has been of no help--and in his opposition to redistricting--of some hindrance is moving these ideas in the past.

Indeed, the legislature has shown itself to be mostly immune to reform because the leadership of all caucuses is opposing it. If there were a strong reform movement in the General Assembly coming from the leadership of one of the caucuses--or a group of younger legislators who have come together to move reform--one that tried to focus public pressure on moving the good reform ideas, legislative reform would have happened long ago.

I say all this even though the health care and energy legislation that is awaiting action in the General Assembly does need to move. But special sessions and regular sessions can occur concurrently. There is no reason the General Assembly can't move on all of these issues before the election.

If not now, when?

But then I also liked these as well.

Barry Kauffman, of Common Cause, said that because of how state campaigns are funded (no limits on donations) and the way districts are drawn, "voters are almost irrelevant."

Tim Potts, of Democracy Rising, said that 56 percent of House members and 75 percent of senators seeking re-election face no opposition: "I don't know what you call a government in which the majority of elections are uncontested, but you can't call it representative democracy."

Not as overtly funny, but darkly poignent in their own way.

-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.

What the legislative staffers were allegedly doing to fix the election - generate partisan spam at taxpayer expense.

This strikes me as probably ineffective besides massively illegal. Dems might have gained control of the State House but I seriously doubt it was because of expensive illegal spam emails.

-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.