State & Local stuff.....

Lots of stuff to comment on today. Wow! Some of it good, some not so good and some bad. Oh well, that's the state of politics these days.

Let's start off with State, shall we?
House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese (D-Greene), has been busy going throughout the state on a public relations tour of Pennsylvania's newspaper offices. "It's been a very difficult lesson", he says. Yea, I bet it has, especially when you get caught with your hands in the cookie jar. This guy is a very skillful manipulator, and very skillful at bending the truth as well.

Being an elected official is the only job he has ever had in his adult life. He graduated from Wake Forest University, joined the Marines (1972-1975), won his first election in 1976 and has been in the halls of power in Harrisburg ever since. Almost thirty-two years. Amazing isn't it?

Mr. DeWeese is not taking any personal responsibilty for the bonus program that is being investigated by the State Attorney General's office. Of course not. It's always someone else's fault, right? He says he was mislead by staffers. Yeah right. Believe that one and I have a bridge to sell ya. He says he acted swiftly upon learning of the potential wrongdoing by his top staffers. Well, he did fire them. I guess he expects brownie points for that. You can't tell me that the top staffers are doing this bonus for campaign work thing, to the tune of $1.9 million dollars, and the boss does not know anything about it. This doesn't even pass the smell test. Come on Bill, we're not idiots here. We'll be hearing lots more on this in the near future.

In today's Harrisburg Patriot-Snooze, we found an interesting Letter To The Editor about nothing getting done in the state legislature. We've all been complaining about that for years. They have only three speeds - slow, slower and STOP. I'll be looking into this one in more detail and will publish my results here between now and Christmas.

Moving on........to local, and the comedy of errors that is Harrisburg City government. Jeez Louise!
Remember the BIG party this past Labor Day on McCormicks Island? Well, the last 44 of the more than 125 partgoers that were busted had their charges dismissed. Look out for that law suit against Harrisburg for the strip searches of arrested out-of-state partygoers. The City of Harrisburg will eventually lose this one. This is a big-time lawsuit. A similar lawsuit was settled in early October in New York, very very similar to this case, and the defendants won big-time. The same will happen here, Harrisburg will lose this lawsuit. Watch for the fireworks on this one.

The really BIG story this week is in City Council chambers. Tuesday night was the Budget and Finance Committee meeting. It lasted 3 - 1/2 hours and was very contentious. Our local Channel 21 News sent a team to cover it, and it was shown on their 11 PM news that night. It was not a pretty sight in Council Chambers, as there was much spirited debate. Council member Dan Miller is a CPA and he was trying to explain financials of the 2008 City Budget that King Reed has presented to Council, but he was getting nowhere fast. Dan's a good man, and I think Linda T. and a couple of the others should really listen to what he is saying. Linda T. unfortunately, is looking ahead to her future campaign for Mayor, and is not doing much to further her cause with her caustic attitude. It was a long meeting to say the least.

Tonight's Special Legislative Session at City Council Chambers is going to be a doozy. Tonight they have to either approve or reject King Reed's budget. Jeez Louise, it's going to be a LONG meeting tonight. If you are going to attend, get there EARLY to get a seat, bring your bottled water, some snacks, and some Advil or Tylenol, cause you're gonna need it. This meeting will be SRO folks. SRO! This will not be pretty, not at all.

I feel bad for City Council, they're on the short end of the stick no matter which way they vote on the budget tonight. They're between a rock and a hard place on this 2008 budget. King Reed has really stuck it to them this time. You'll see what I mean tonight. Stay tuned.......