AGAIN WITH THE PHONES?

It must be witchcraft, the spell that Gubernatorial Candidate Tom Corbett casts upon reporters during interviews that renders them incapable of recalling contradictory statements he's made in the past.

Again, today, in an interview with Pittsburgh's KDKA, Corbett yammered on about how he carries one phone for state work one phone for campaign work.

"I carry two Blackberries. I left one out in the car so it wouldn't go off [during the interview]. The other one is sitting over on the side table over there, and I can go back and forth between the two at any time."

For those of you keeping track, this back-and-forth, does-he-or-doesn't-he, why-can't-he-keep-his-story-straight ridiculousness started in September, with Corbett bragging to ABC27 News that he carries two cell phones:

"He says he has a separate BlackBerry for his campaign work and one for his 'work' work. Separation of government and campaigning is big with this attorney general." (Stop, you're killing us.)

But when ABC 27 confronted him with cell phone bills that showed calls between Corbett's sacred campaign-only phone and state workers on state phones during state time, he claimed, "It's easier to keep it on one."

Then why did you claim that you use two? (A journalist might have asked, if one could have been found.)

He had no defense, we remind you, for the hundreds of calls between those state workers (on state phones during state time), the state staff of Republican legislators (on state phones during state time), and the cell phones of his campaign staff. Not that he needs a defense, apparently, when no one dares to question anything he does.

In November, in response to a question from Associated Press reporter Mark Scolforo, Corbett again claimed he uses his "personal" cell phone (the one his campaign is paying for) for both state and campaign business, and he doesn't even know the number of his state-issued cell phone. (Again, no one bothered to ask why he changed his story.)

But he must have remembered the number by January, when he was back to bragging about his double-fisted technology. On WITF-FM on Jan. 7, Corbett said technology - "cell phones, BlackBerries" - allows him to simultaneously prosecute members of the legislature while seeking their support for his gubernatorial campaign. "I carry two, by the way," he said. (But he doesn't know the number of one of them, which he claims he never uses, except when he does.)

Then, in a February interview with the Patriot-News, Corbett's team went back to claiming he uses only one cell phone. "If anything, [Deputy Attorney General Marc Costanzo] said, Corbett is saving the taxpayers money by not using his state phone." (Remember? He doesn't even know the number!)

By now Corbett may have settled on sticking with the two-phones story, since it's been pointed out to him (you'd think he'd have known it before) that using his campaign-paid phone for anything other than campaigning is a violation of campaign finance and reporting laws.

Good thing for him nobody noticed. Or ever notices. Anything.