On the Stank from Harrisburg

Great editorial from today's Pocono Record:

Pray for the wind to stay out of the northwest. If it shifts to the south, the stench of Pennsylvania politics may be overwhelming.

Berks County is within smelling distance. That's the home of Rep. Thomas R. Caltagirone, who is scheduled today to take part in an act of calculated political treachery.

Caltagirone is a Democrat, at least for the moment. But he has said he will vote today for Republican John Perzel for speaker of the House of Representatives in Harrisburg. . . .

The idea Perzel and Caltagirone both supported in 2006 was a middle-of-the-night pay raise for legislators. Caltagirone not only voted for that raise, he was one of the legislators who grabbed it immediately through the device of unvouchered expenses. That's a long story. The short version: Caltagirone and Perzel are in favor of government of the legislators, by the legislators, for the legislators.

And one man is going thwart the hopes of hundreds of thousands of voters. He is going to substitute his personal agenda for a public agenda that called for change. . . . This is one of those back-room deals the electorate was hoping to scuttle. It's the same kind of backroom deal that led to legislators giving themselves a raise most voters don't think they earned, politics as usual.

Voters didn't throw enough of the rascals out this time . . . .

There's more.

The Inky is live blogging the ordeal at Battle for the Gavel and you can catch the shenanigans live on-line via our friends at PCN Online. Or, just open your windows -- as long as you can tell Republican moans from Democratic ones, you'll know what happened just a quickly as anyone else.


(Image Credit: www.the-tree.org)