Tuesday, October 7, 2008

When The Dog Caught the Car

A Signor Ferrari post:
Much like the dog who finally catches the car, Tom Corbett faces the difficult decision of what to do with it. By November 4, his politically-motivated "Bonusgate" investigation will have outlived its usefulness. Worse, it threatens to backfire and threaten his own political career.

There he was, yapping away at the top of his lungs, dashing down the street after the Democrats. Now reality has slammed its brakes and Corbett has smacked his poor little head against the bumper.

He thought he had a good thing going with his political corruption investigation against the Democrats. First, it give him a big stick of his very own to wield against his likely primary rival, former U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan, who's sitting pretty with his bright shiny prosecution of Vince Fumo. Secondly, it offered his friends in the General Assembly a very real opportunity to recapture a majority in the House.

No doubt, his friends in the legislature - Perzel, Scarnati, Smith and Pileggi - will remember this favor come the Republican gubernatorial primary. He'll need them, along with patrons like Bob Asher, to defeat Meehan.

One can only imagine the slowly creeping sense of horror when Corbett realized the conduct he'd vilified as corrupt and intended to prosecute as crime was simply standard operating procedure - not just for the Democrats, but for those very same friends he'll need to win the gubernatorial nomination.

Consider, for example, the charges Corbett filed against Veon in connection with spending state money on regularly-scheduled dinners with other legislators and staff.

Was it before or after he filed felony charges against Veon that he realized that every single committee chair and member of leadership in the House controls a nearly-identical contingency account used, in most cases, for nearly-identical dinners?

Was it before or after trumpeting to the skies a callow staffer's assessment of a $300 takeout bill as "outrageous" that he discovered the astronomical restaurant tabs his Republican colleagues charged to their own contingency accounts?

Was it before or after he deemed it criminal to accept per-diem payments while dining on the contingency account dime that the House comptroller reassured members there is "no need to adjust per diems" when accepting a House-paid meal consumed on Capitol premises - as were all of the meals for which Veon is charged?

Will our stunned puppy recover from this blow and seize that bumper with his puppy jaws? Whose wrath would he rather risk: that of the voters, who - let's face it - just might not notice or care about his breathtaking hypocrisy? Or that of the Republican movers and shakers, without whose money and support he can kiss his gubernatorial dreams goodbye?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are saying that you think it is OK for tax payers to fund free dinners for basketball buddies? And to pay for the staff to clean up after those free dinners?

You sound pretty upset, almost cranky. Maybe you are hungry, now that you don't get those free meals. Get a real job, theif.