DeWeese is no reformer
In today’s political climate in Harrisburg, the buzzword on everyone’s lips is “reform” and it is difficult to find any member of the General Assembly who does not now tout him or herself as a “reformer.” The proof, however, is in the pudding, and it is evident that many of our elected officials who have deservedly become known as schemers have not changed their spots. One of the self-proclaimed new reformers is, believe it or not, longtime master politician and wheeler-dealer, House Majority Leader H. William DeWeese.
Obviously, DeWeese has a radically different definition of “reform” than that which would be adopted by most reasonable and prudent individuals.
In DeWeese’s world, it is acceptable for the Democratic Caucus to pay massive bonuses ranging up to $40,000-plus to highly-compensated House staffers, which the recipients are told to keep secret.
When the secret becomes known, as many secrets do, the DeWeese strategy is to attempt to avoid disclosing the names of the recipients and amounts they received for their stellar work – work which Pennsylvanians have every reason to suspect was in part political campaign activity for which it would be unlawful for one to receive any type of publicly-funded compensation.
It was only after pressure from the media and that which was exerted after the Republicans released their list that DeWeese had no choice but to capitulate.
The rank-and-file state employee knows that he or she will never receive a dime in bonus money no matter how competent, dedicated and hard-working they may be. For the well-connected, privileged few, though, taxpayer money flows without limit, as the party leadership has a blank check that we somehow ceded to them.
As this bonus mess was brewing, Mr. DeWeese appeared on a Pennsylvania Cable Network call-in program. While I give him credit for courage in agreeing to subject himself to interview and unscreened caller questions, I give him low marks for his overall performance.
I would acknowledge that as the skillful con man that he is, he was warm, gracious, and charming. He had an explanation for everything he has done that was wrong and against the interests of the public and open government.
He sought to explain away his demotion of those who had the courage to think for themselves and vote against the legislative pay grab of 2005 by asserting that the committee posts of which they were stripped did not pay them much more compensation than the position to which they were being demoted.
DeWeese did a tap-dancing act on this program which rivaled anything we ever saw from Fred Astaire (and I apologize to Mr. Astaire for comparing him to a man known not for dancing, but for the dishonor he has brought to our Commonwealth.)
If there were ever valid arguments for reducing the size and vast expense of our huge legislature and imposing term limits so that scoundrels like Mr. DeWeese do not gain inordinate power and the opportunity to expectorate in the faces of the taxpayers, the latest scandal over bonuses, just the latest in a series of head-in-the-sand legislative disasters, presents them.
Thus far, the proclamations of members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly to promote and enact reform are laughable. We shall believe it when we see it, and if H. William DeWeese has his way, we shall not ever see it!
Oren M. Spiegler
Upper Saint Clair