With all due respect, Senator, but you must be smoking some of your brother's weed. (Post-Gazette 11/17/10) There is no way that Justice Melvin will "render a fair and appropriate decision."
Millions of dollars were spent to put Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin on the Commonwealth's highest court for moments just like Monday when the court will hear your appeals regarding the 2011 legislative reapportionment plan. She is going to stick it to you just like the Reapportionment Commission did last month.
The ONLY, slimmest of narrowest chance you have for victory is to get her off the bench. A three- Democrat to three-Republican tie on the Supreme Court will create havoc and present more opportunities for more equitable options for Democrats in the matter. (PoliticsPa 1/18/12) When you're as far behind the proverbial eight ball as Democrats are at this moment, chaos is your friend...and your only hope.
Justice Melvin is accused of being compromised and corrupt in a manner much more insidious than Rolf Larsen. (Tribune-Review 1/11/12) She should be off the bench until her legal problems are settled.
Here at CasablancaPA, we imagine how the GOP would handle such a situation in the Democratic Party's shoes. With this much at stake, we're pretty certain they would try every option, turn over every stone, and pull out all the stops to gain any advantage.
This is about the future of the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania and all it stands for -- equitable education funding, clean air and water, affordable health care, to name just a few. All the Democratic press releases, Tweets, amendments, floor speeches and policy hearings are just futile screams into the wind unless the party controls the legislative calendar.
We are reminded of the following contrast between the Republican and Democratic parties' responses to the Bush/Gore results in 2000. It should be required viewing for all the Democratic Caucus leaders (and any of their staff who aren't urging a full-frontal assault on Melvin.) Pennsylvania Democrats should not proceed with the attitude of a Warren Christopher when Melvin provides them with the kind of red meat James Baker would rip to shreds. Nothing worth having comes to you without a fight. Start punching! Now watch and learn:
There are reasons to conclude that Justice Melvin herself, and almost certainly, her two campaign manager sisters, used illegal methods and taxpayer money to win election to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
ReplyDeleteUgarte is right: chaos is our friend, that is, the citizens' friend. Chaos sets the stage for real reform.
FYI the Newt Gingrich South Carolina vote was a vote against the WallStreetWashington Elite Republican Establishment. The big loser was the Republican Establishment, all to the good, in my view.
Pennsylvania's Elite (to be generous) Republican Establishment has not gotten the message to the point where not one, not one, Republican has expressed any opinion about an illegal campaign for highest Court in Penna. We expect House and Senate to do something like this but most of us, naively, thought this kind of behavior was off-limits to Supreme Court Justices.
Dave Freed-LeRoy Zimmerman for AG? What are these people thinking? I now understand the evolutionary purpose of Democrats: to expose Republican obtuseness.
And does it not scare you that Mike Veon is in jail for, at worst, misusing taxpayer money, not unknown in Harrisburg, and the Orie Gang taints the Supreme Court and only Casablancapa reminds of us this perfidy. "Equal Justice Under the Law" is a old fashioned, qaint perhaps, idea but there are sentimentalists who resonate to that simple American idea.
I am from MontCo where Ds shellacked the Republicans on 8 November 2011 and the Republicans, activists and rank and file, have not understood that they lost and that the lose was their self-absorbed incompetence and insensitivity to voters.
Thanks Ugarte for an informative and compelling post. All the best to you and Signor Ferrari.
Will Justice Melvin make a deal to recuse herself in return for a promise that her sisters won't do significant jail time?
ReplyDeleteAlthough Ugarte makes this a partisan issue, I see it as a good government issue. Can we trust the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Castille has shown less than stellar judgement when it comes to spending taxpayer money and has made some questionably contradictory statements about what he knew and when he knew it.
Republican arrogance may be the party's downfall. Voters are not pleased with "more of the same."
Think what Republicans would be doing if it were a Democrat who had acted like Justice Melvin and her sisters. Actually, we know. Mike Veon is in jail for SIX years.
GOVERNOR CORBETT YOU ARE A DIGRACE TO PENNSYLVANIA. I AM I LIFELONG REPUBLICAN AND MY WHOLE LIFE HAS BEEN DEVOTED TO WORKING FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. I HELD OFFICE IN HARRISBURG FOR 20 YEARS AND YOUR ACT TO FIRE JOE PATERNO WAS THE SINGLE MOST DISGRACEFUL AND COWARDLY ACTION I HAVE EVER WITNESSED BY ANY GOVERNOR. I FOR ONE WILL NEVER SUPPORT YOU AGAIN AND I WILL SUPPORT WHOEVER CHALLENGES YOU SHOULD YOU SEEK RE-ELECTION.
ReplyDeleteAS AN ATTORNEY, YOU HAVE IGNORED THE BASIC RIGHT OF EVERY AMERICAN, THE SO CALLED "RULE OF LAW". YOUR PARTICIPATION WITH THE LYNCH MOB, KNOWN AS THE PENN STATE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, MAKES A MOCKERY OF THE STATE JUSTICE SYSTEM. YOU CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS. YOU EITHER SAT ON INFORMATION THAT YOU WERE AWARE OF WHILE RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR FOR POLITICAL REASONS OR YOU WEREN'T WILLING TO ALLOW DUE PROCESS WHERE EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO THE PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE.
YOU CAN COVER UP THE PRE-ELECTION INVESTIGATIONS, BUT YOU CAN'T COVER UP YOUR VOTE, ALONG WITH EVERY MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, TO FIRE THE COACH.
JUST TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT. I WRITE THIS STRICTLY AS A PENNSYLVANIA CITIZEN. I HAVE NO CONNECTION TO PENN STATE IN ANYWAY. I AM STRICTLY AN ADMIRER OF SOMEONE THAT EVERY PENNSYLVANIAN SHOULD BE PROUD OF AND WHO BROUGHT PRIDE AND PRESTEGE TO OUR STATE.
IT'S A SAD DAY IN PENNSYLVANIA
Amazing. Corbett and his protoge Linda Kelly wrote a condemnation saying that McQueary had reported a rape to Joe Paterno. That, actually, turned out not to be true, but it killed Joe Paterno.
ReplyDeleteNow Corbett says he was the 'winningest coach'? What???
What about the reason he died, Mr. Corbett?
The chickens will come home to roost, Corbetts past indiscretions with questionable outsiders?
I hope the people will vote this tool out of office by a landslide, and The Lord despises the hypocrite.
Hope DeWeese gets off too!