Monday, April 6, 2009

Three Bonusgate Claims You'd Have To Be An Idiot To Believe

1) Bill DeWeese's political operative Kevin Sidella is a key witness against DeWeese.

The Tribune-Review wrote back in October that Sidella had been cooperating with prosecutors for nearly a year. A year before that article was written, Sidella had just left the state payroll and had begun collecting more than $6,000 a month from DeWeese's campaign committee. As of December 2008, according to campaign finance records, he still was collecting that monthly fee. Would Sidella's lawyer allow him to continue to collect payments from DeWeese for more than a year after he supposedly agreed to be a witness in a criminal case against him? How would that compromise his testimony? Let us count the ways.

2) "File 16" contains embarassing sexual information about House members.

DeWeese has told colleagues privately that the file his lawyer Bill Chadwick refuses to turn over to current leadership - known around the Capitol as "File 16" - contains evidence of sexual liasons among House members and their staff. If that were true, why would the Attorney General's office be interested in the file? Chadwick copied Deputy A.G. Frank Fina on his response denying the Caucus leadership access to the file. What is the A.G.'s interest in cheap office gossip? None. DeWeese's actions have made him a pariah in the caucus and threaten his standing as a member of leadership. Whatever is in that file is more damaging to DeWeese than this ridiculous tantrum. DeWeese is not known for sacrificing himself to protect someone else's dignity. Just ask Mike Manzo.

3) Someone other than DeWeese responded to emails thanking him for bonuses and kept them a secret from DeWeese.

This hardly needs explanation. Someone DeWeese trusted to answer his email would, for some reason, keep the emails a secret from DeWeese? A double agent perhaps?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

let's address them in reverse order:

#3 - Yes its entirely plausible that staff responded to email for Deweese, just as secretaries respond for their bosses all the time in offices in and outside the capitol..

#2 - since this site likes whats "heard in the hallways" ... the sexual rumors involve the married majority Leader Todd Eachus and one of his current staffers who received one of the largest bonuses. maybe thats why he wants the "file 16" so badly? so he can see what the AG might have on him?

#1 - Sidella's lawyer said his supervisor was Manzo so its logical that Sidella would be testifying about Manzo and not Deweese ... or maybe Sidella knows what illegal things Cott was doing and will testify about him too

Signor Ferrari said...

Could be, Anonymous .... could be.

Yes, it's possible that a staff person might respond to DeWeese's e-mail, but would that person keep the contents of the e-mail a secret from DeWeese? "Hmmm...it appears from these thank-you e-mails that people are being given bonuses for campaign work. I must make sure that DeWeese never finds out about this!" Like I said, a double agent?

And why on earth would the Attorney General's office be interested in evidence anyone's extramarital affair? Is the state going to start prosecuting adultery?

Anonymous said...

The state might be interested in prosecuting a sex for pay raise issue though, perhaps there is more to the affairs than can be seen on the surface.

Signor Ferrari said...

Since the Attorney General has already determined that those bonuses were for campaign work, do you think they're going to drop the charges against the defendants and start all over? "Never mind, never mind, it wasn't for politics; it was for sex!"

And we thought our fellow CasablancaPa team members had some far-fetched conspiracy theories.

Like we said, though, you can believe it. You just have to be an idiot.

Anonymous said...

Like I said many times before, staff works on constituents problems and needs and that is a form of campaigning every day.

A few crossed the line, some them have been cooperating but many just did their jobs.

Now we are seeing all these rumors and innuendo about Eachus, DeWeese, and Corbett.

Does anyone think this is relevant and will improve government? I do not think we need to lock up people that devoted themselves to their bosses and campaigns.

They can reimburse the state and be done with the charges and the reforms to make sure these kinds of misdeeds have already been passed.

Anonymous said...

I don't think anyone wants to see investigations into the sex lives of House members. That could get uncomfortable for a lot of people. Remember the saying, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone."