Here Comes the Parade! Corbett is Drum Major

A Captain Renault post: Here comes the parade! AG/SC Tom Corbett is way out in front of the band as the Drum Major. Corbett starts the preliminary hearing/show trial/Corbett re-election parade tomorrow in Dauphin County Court.

The Republican campaign strategy for the last month of the election is right on track. Corbett is following the script and using the Bonusgate investigation just as the Republican party laid it out. The short version of the Republican plan: spend many months investigating just Democrats, give Republicans lots of time to get rid of evidence while you investigate only Democrats, indict Democrats in the summer, run "out of time" to investigate and charge any Republicans before the election, hold a show trial a month before the election. Then help the press write damaging stories about Democrats during the preliminary hearing/show trial.

Perfect. All of the pieces of the plan are falling into place. Corbett is following the script exactly as it was written. Pennsylvania is a key state in the Presidential election and Republicans are looking for any edge they can get. Enter AG/SC Tom Corbett stage right.

Here is a sample from the Beaver County Times of what the media will cover this week and what the stories and headlines will look like:

Bounsgate hearings rake up political stink

By Bill Vidonic Times Staff

Published: Saturday, October 4, 2008 11:04 PM EDT

For Elder Vogel Jr., this week’s “Bonusgate” preliminary hearings couldn’t come at a better time, less than a month before the Nov. 4 general election.

The Republican candidate for the state 47th Senatorial District has been painting his Democratic opponent, Jason Petrella, as a puppet of the same people responsible for an atmosphere of corruption and greed within Harrisburg.

And for the next few days, there will be constant reminders of corruption accusations against Beaver County politicians and staffers, as the hearings begin on Tuesday and are expected to last at least three days.

Read the entire Beaver County Times story here.

I will follow the Corbett re-election parade here all week and will highlight the MSM stories that write it and play it exactly as Corbett and the Republican party planned.

Will leading Democrats stand up to denounce Corbett and the Republicans? Will editorial writers weigh in and at least expose this obvious misuse of Corbett's office and immense power as the state's top law enforcement officer?

Here comes the parade, and somewhere today Karl Rove is smiling. He couldn't have engineered this strategy any better himself.

Developing...more to come.