Our interest has been piqued by reports that partisan Republican Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett has put a grand jury to work looking into contracting and patronage practices at the Pennsylvania Turnpike.Unsurprisingly, the only reported targets of this grand jury have been Democrats.
The Post-Gazette reports that Corbett has Democratic Congressman and Philadelphia Democratic Party Chair Bob Brady his is sights:
"The complaint also declares that when members of Teamster Local 250, which represents turnpike employees in the western half of the state, ceased donating money to the Philadelphia Democratic Committee, a turnpike manager named Melvin Shelton, 'instructed plaintiff to deny all grievances brought on behalf of employees represented by Local 250.' Mr. Kovac's complaint also says he told turnpike Executive Director Joseph Brimmeier that he believed Mr. Shelton, in fact, did little work for the commission 'but rather, worked to further the interests of Congressman [Robert] Brady, the Philadelphia Democratic Committee and Teamsters Local No. 77.'" (Post Gazette 10/30/2009)And, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has been tipped off that Democratic State Representative Tony DeLuca could be in hot water with the grand jury:
"Earlier this year, Peggy Denham, who works for the state as a municipal auditor, said she testified that Rep. Tony DeLuca, D-Penn Hills, helped his daughter Deborah Brinker get a job with the Turnpike Commission, and arranged jobs for other relatives with public agencies...According to Denham, DeLuca arranged for Brinker to work for the turnpike by persuading Penn Hills council to hire Bonnie Brimmeier as its solicitor. She is the sister of Joe Brimmeier, the commission's executive director." (Tribune Review 10/30/09)Yet, Corbett refuses to use his grand jury to investigate allegedly shoddy work and fleecing of the Turnpike by the construction contractors Allan C. Myers, Inc. Instead, the FBI is handling the investigation. (Inquirer 10/31/09)
Why would Corbett ignore malfeasance by a Pennsylvania contractor who is allegedly ripping-off the Pennsylvania Turnpike to the tune of tens of millions of dollars?
It could be because the owner of Allan C. Myers, Inc. is a major -- no, make that massive -- Republican campaign contributor.
Not only has A. Ross Myers contributed $15,000 directly to Corbett in just the last two years (we're still waiting to see what he's given to Corbett in 2009), but he's also sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican interests in every corner of the state since 2004:
$300,000 to Pennsylvania Future Fund (Bob Asher's PAC)
$27,848 to Friends of Joe Scarnati
$1,000 to Friends of Bob Mensch
$3,250 to Lloyd Smucker for Senate 5/20/09
$8,250 to Friends for Jay Moyer
$1,000 to Friends of Sheryl DeLozier
$45,000 to Friends of John Perzel
$2,000 to Friends of Dave Reed
$8,500 to Friends of Kate Harper
$1,000 to Friends of Tom Ellis
$52,500 to Friends of Rob Wonderling
$15,500 to Friends of Bruce Castor
$6,000 to Friends of Jim Matthews
$100,000 to Lynn Swann for Governor
$2,500 to Friends of Senator Jubelirer
$2,500 to Friends of Senator Brightbill
$35,000 to House Republican Campaign Committee
$1,000 to John Rafferty for Senate
$1,000 to Bob Godshall for Legislature
After seeing this list of GOP largess, it makes sense that Corbett would ignore shennanigans by this Republican donor and instead pursue Congressman Brady and Rep. DeLuca.
It doesn't end at punting an investigation of Allan A. Myers to the Feds.
Corbett has definitively shown that his investigation of the Turnpike isn't going to lead to any headaches for Republicans by how his gubernatorial campaign is raising money.
Just this week, John Micek with the Morning Call reported that a sponsor of a high-dollar Corbett fundraising event in Philadelphia was Timothy J. Carson...the Vice-Chairman of the Turnpike and major Republican poo-bah. (Capitol Ideas 11/6/2009)
Just how serious a probe of the Turnpike is Corbett conducting if he is rubbing elbows (connected to fists full of campaign cash) with one of the very persons he is supposedly investigating?
Where can I contribute to the Defendants Defense Fund?
ReplyDeleteSir, if I were ever to get out, I would never mention what goes on in here. I'd be just as indictable as you for laundering that money.
ReplyDeleteInvestigations are the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes, really. Pressure and time.
ReplyDeleteThat and the big god-damn poster.
Like I said, under a investigation, a person will do most anything to keep his mind occupied.
One often turns to their favorite hobby blogging!
What you hear isn't half of it.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans got scams you haven't even dreamed of.
Kickbacks on his kickbacks and I ain't talking Jeff Reed the Steeler's Kicker.
There's a river of dirty money running through Harrisburg.
Lobbyists, Attorneys, and Public Relations Firms channel it, filter it, funnel it - Stocks, securities, tax-free municipals -
They send that money out into the real world and when it comes back...by the time they all retires, they have made them millionaire.
As in Star Wars there is someone else within the Force. He's a phantom, an apparition, second cousin to Harvey the Rabbit.
ReplyDeleteHe has been compromised if not conjured out of thin air by the OAG.
He doesn't exist, except on paper...like “Kids For Cash” he has a birth certificate, driver's license, social security number, but that is only for his friends.
The funny thing is, in Harrisburg and Philadelphia on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to an Ashland, Kentucky prison to be a crook.~
ReplyDeleteHey, anybody come at you yet?
ReplyDeleteAnybody get to you yet?
Hey, we all need friends in here.
We could be a friend to you.
The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry but the investigation knows no bounds of speed.
What the OAG never figured out, and what we know now, was that these HDC men and women would never break, never lie down, never bend over for anybody and I mean Anybody!
ReplyDeleteBut I was wrong, once confronted with evidence and testimony from lower campaign workers, they ran to the OAG to cut deals, and the deals they cut, sealed their fate.
Nobody is standing up to the OAG these days.
I agree, it is like if Guns kill people, then, Pencils miss spel words, Cars make people drive drunk, and Spoons make Rosie O'Donnell Fat.
ReplyDeleteStrange but True!
It is during adversity when one can really make a big difference. But making a difference is not about being a big hero.
ReplyDeleteIt is simply about leaving the bathroom a little cleaner going out, than when you came in.
It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.
Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.
Thank God, Todd Eachus will keep the HDC in tack and no great changes are being planned except hiring back some caught in this mess!
It's very hard to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this.
ReplyDeleteAnd no matter where you run into it, prejudice obscures the truth.
Well, I don't think any real damage has been done here.
Because I don't really know what the truth is. No one ever will, I suppose.
Most of us now seem to feel that the defendants are innocent as far as hving no criminal intent, but we're just gambling on probabilities.
We may be wrong.
We may be trying to return guilty men amd women to the community. No one can really know.
But we have a reasonable doubt, and this is a safeguard which has enormous value to our system.
No court, judge or jury can declare men and women guilty unless it's sure.
We cannot understand how so many here on the blogs are so sure.
Maybe you can tell us?
I don't feel I have to be loyal to one side or the other. I'm just asking questions.
No need to be afraid of the OAG. They all practice bluff. They do not deal with justice here, but with the law and forget was not the one conceived to serve the other?
ReplyDeleteSome believe that is OAG's right, but it is no right. Few Defendants here have rights?
It is OG's duty and they must perform it.
There are many ugly things in this Commonwealth. I wish I could keep 'em all away from others, but that is never possible.
If you just learn a single trick, you will get along a lot better with all kinds of folks.
You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...Until you climb inside of his or her skins and walk around in it.
It is like when a child asks you something; answer him, for goodness' sake.
However, do not make a production of it.
Remember, children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults can, and evasion simply muddles 'em and confuses adults.
The OAG will not produced one iota of evidence that the crime the Defendants are charged with ever took place.
The witnesses for the Commonwealth, will be presented to the public as ladies and gentlemen’s, to any court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted.
The OAG is confident that any judge or jury will go along with them on the assumption, the criminal assumption, that HDCC Defendants did immoral things, illegal deeds, and are not to be trusted.
After all, they work for politicians and do understand how put down they are.
An assumption that one associates with minds of their caliber that, in it, a lie, which, no one need to point out to you.
The Commonwealth Plea Bargain Witnesses may lie in an effort to get rid of their own guilt or save some love ones.
Now I say guilt, because it is guilt that motivated many in Harrisburg.
Many have committed no crime, but have merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, not to work on campaigns when working on state time.
A code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with.
Some tried to destroy the evidence, but what was the evidence?
They are just human beings being accused of doing something that in our society is unspeakable.
Mixing politics with campaigning with state employment to assist citizens before, during, and after elections.
Now the thunder is crashing down on them afterwards.
Yet, in this country, our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts, all men and women are created equal. We are not idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and of our jury system. That is no ideal to us. That is a living, working reality. I am just a man, not fit to do the work of God... or the Devil.
We are confident that all evidence will be reviewed without passion, but with fairness, In the name of God.
SHOW ME THE MONEY!
ReplyDeleteJust another example of "pay-to-NOT-play", eh, Tommy. That's quite a pattern of behavior we are starting to see.
ReplyDelete