IS THIS THE WEEK WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR?

Now that a budget deal has been reached and the public relations deck is finally clear, is this the week partisan Republican Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate finally announces his self-described "shocking" next round of indictments?

On his gubernatorial announcement tour last week, Corbett told the Sunbury Daily Item that his bonusgate investigation is at a "critical juncture" and said, “When we make our next announcement, as I said to The Associated Press, people are going to eat their words." (Sunbury Daily Item, 9/18/09)

Oh, my! It sounds like Corbett means business!

Given his public statements in the year since he arrested Democrats alone and the nearly three years since he launched his bonusgate investigation, Corbett certainly has created enormous expectations.

Not to worry though: the rumors are rampant regarding Corbett's targets, and there has been extensive reporting on the Republicans Corbett is likely to arrest.

Here is a re-cap of some of the rumors and reporting from the last two years:

Representative Jim Marshall and Judy Jehu, along with many other Republican state legislative employees who work on campaign finance reports and petitions while on the clock.

Dozens of Republican legislators who used their contingency accounts to purchase meals while collecting per diems on the same day.

Republican legislators incuding Tom Killion, a GOP Lt. Governor hopeful, who shoveled tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions through their legislative offices to the House Republican Campaign Committee.

There is former Republican Rep. Brett Feese, the current Republican House caucus chief counsel, who seems to have taken on too much outside legal work to get it all done during non-business hours.

John Hanley and the House Republican staff he supervised who spent a suspicious amount of time working for both the taxpayers and Republican candidates.

There are also the non-profit organizations run by former and current Republican State Representatives (and Rick Santorum) who used federal and state funding including WAM money to benefit themselves both personally and politically.

And, finally, there is the shenanigans by Rep. John Perzel and his former right-hand-man Brian Preski who, among other things, used the Republican House Caucus IT department for their own personal and political gain.

Indictments for these transgressions individually would hardly qualify as "shocking;" all of them together might raise an eyebrow.

If the seldom-mentioned Senate Republican staffers Mike Long and Drew Crompton (and their former bosses Sens. Bob Jubelirer and Chip Brightbill) were added to the list of potential arrests, Corbett might edge closer to the "shocking" line.

Corbett has an extensive menu of Republican misdeeds to fill up an impressive grand jury presentment. It has been long enough...time to finally place his order.