PERZEL RUBS IT IN CORBETT'S FACE

A Captain Renault post: Pete DeCoursey of Capitolwire published an interesting story today about John Perzel paying a political consultant for opposition research on House members in his own caucus. DeCoursey often reports on the real inside scoop on the intracaucus politics of the House and Senate Republican and Democrat caucuses. It is usually fun stuff to read.

Read the entire DeCoursey article here.

As I read the story, I was especially interested in how brazen Perzel and his staff continue to be at mixing politics and their "official" duties while on the public payroll. It's as if Perzel and his staff team never heard of Bonusgate. Either that or they already know Corbett has no intention of investigating and taking a close look at John Perzel and his legislative and political operation. The events in the DeCoursey story take place throughout several months in the first half of 2008. Most of the reported events were happening at the same time Attorney General Tom Corbett over and over again claimed to be investigating all 4 caucuses.

When you read DeCoursey's story it's clear Perzel's legislative, taxpayer- paid staff continues to be very involved in his political operation. Most objective observers of the political scene in Harrisburg would say Perzel and his staff always operated that way. What's that you say? Isn't that what Corbett indicted 12 Democrats for in July? It sure is. And yes, it's very hypocritical with a healthy dose of double standards thrown in by Corbett for good measure.

The DeCoursey story points out what many have been saying about the interaction between Corbett and Perzel throughout the Bonusgate investigation. Perzel clearly has no fear of Corbett and seems to be able to continue with business as usual while he rubs it in Corbett's face. Perzel may as well just put up a sign in his office: "Tom who? You can't touch me!"

The political operative hired by Perzel and mentioned in DeCoursey's story wrote a letter on Nov 7th to Rep. Curt Shroeder outlining the tasks Perzel assigned to him. The letter (and the other documents with the DeCoursey story) describes some of the interaction between Perzel's Chief of Staff and the political operative and demonstrates that the Chief of Staff and other Perzel public staff were very involved in Perzel's political operation on a regular basis.

Somebody should be calling for a grand jury investigation. Oh wait, there already is a grand jury investigation -- just not of John Perzel. So much for "investigating all 4 caucuses."