DOORMATS

Tom Barnes of the Post-Gazette reports today on a coalition of good government groups complaining about the amount of energy company money flooding into the campaign coffers of Pennsylvania politicians. (Post-Gazette 11/11/11)

We love ya, fellas, but don't expect to ride this issue on a wave of voter outrage.  The 2005 pay-raise backlash - the uproar every activist hopes to replicate - was a rare perfect storm. Generally, a regular ho-hum attitude reigns over the antics of the knuckle-heads in the State Capitol (many people actually conflate their state legislators with their Congressman and vice versa).

There are some very, very hinky things going on in Harrisburg by specific people in power.  Yet, very rarely, if ever, do you - you, the activists, the gadflies, the agitators - single them out and call them what they are: thieves, crooks, liars, etc.  Instead, you make broad stroke indictments of "the culture" without ever singling out the bad actors and going for the jugular.  Only when you've isolated them and brought as much pressure as possible upon them, will you capture anyone's attention in a big enough way to effectuate change.

Here is a perfect example from today's Post-Gazette story:

"The liberal groups said they are hearing that House Republican leaders are using redistricting threats to line up members' votes for the 'weak' gas regulation bill. Mr. Kauffman said if a House Republican doesn't vote for the bill, he may end up 'with a thousand more Democrats in their new district.'"

There are two - and only two - individuals that have that power among the House Republican leaders - Speaker Sam Smith and Majority Leader Mike Turzai.  Why didn't you specifically call them out, by name, for what is nothing less than blatant blackmail?  Their names aren't even mentioned in the story.

Inexplicably, you even threw into the mix Congressional members of both parties who have practically no ability to do anything about the perils of hydraulic fracturing.  Ho-hum.

There are three villians in the story you want to tell -- the blackmailers Smith and Turzai who carry the (frac) water of Governor Tom Corbett, the President Harding of this generation's Teapot Dome scandal, who sold his soul for $1.6 million from the energy companies.

You accuse two politicians of blackmail, without specifically naming them or their crime, yet no one will ever hear from you again about it.

Kind of like how you filed a stunning lawsuit accusing those in the highest levels of the state legislature and the state judiciary of colluding to connect the 2005 payraise for the judiciary with protection of the newly passed gaming legislation from judicial scrutiny.  (Inquirer 2/7/06) Then, a few years later, Corbett uses a grand jury to investigate how the gaming law came into being and issues a report (with no indictments) that doesn't mention any of those listed in your lawsuit -- former GOP Representatives Ed Krebs and Scott Chadwick, former Republican Senator Bob Jubelirer, conservative activist Matthew Brouillette, ex-wife to state senate GOP campaign guru Mike Long, Suzanne O'Berry, and Mike Long himself.

Where was the outrage when Corbett completely ignored sworn statements given by some of those listed above?  We're guessing O'Berry wasn't called before the grand jury,  nor Brouillette or Krebs or Chadwick.  These people were part of a stunning chain of events you uncovered yet there was no mention of it in what was supposed to be a bombshell of a grand jury report.

Where is your outrage this week when a secretary, Jill Seaman, is convicted of 40 felonies in connection to the computergate scandal, yet the Speaker of the House Sam Smith (who signed millions of dollars in contracts, was on emails about the illegal activity and in meetings about the illegal activity) isn't even subpoenaed by the prosecution?

Until you specifically call out, by name, the few bad-actors who have the real power to change things to the carpet aggressively, you're going to continue being treated like doormats by the wider group of people you chastize instead.