Political Secrets

Political Secrets

March 28, 2008

The Federal Investigation in Washington County might be about bear more fruit. County employees that participated in turning the County Jail into a alleged Playboy mansion for Petitt and possibly some county employees.

The truth is that few in the political process are the people they should be. Petty, arrogant and consumed with power, they have been willing to become corrupt. When the goal is raw power, there is no other possibility.

Ask yourself the following questions:

How can a Judge write orders to allow the District Attorney to take girls out of the jail (even from other jails)? What could be the reason?

Why were women in question always handled by the same probation officer?

Why were the same two attorneys handling the majority of these clients?

How could everyone not know what was allegedly going on with the female prisoners at the jail?

Why were reports from now former employees ignored by everyone but one County Commissioner?

Of course, everything could be a coincidence.

On the other hand, Joe Ford once told me that there is no such thing as coicidence in politics.

Judge Janet Moschetta Bell did the right thing this week in ruling for Sandra Pettit. It proved again why she deserves to be a judge in this messy county.

State Rep. Jesse White at the recent opening of the Barack Obama headquarters. Is White now supporting Obama? Or will he follow his leader George Vitteck and support Clinton? Our bet, he was there to see Franco.

The Obama campaign locally was an interesting mix of African-Americans and highly educated white voters.

The crowd was packed and there was considerable energy for Barack. Whether that translates into actual votes remains to be seen.

In attendence: Dean and Joyce Ellis, Pat and Carl Maggi, Jim Proudfit, Jesse White, Cliff Cochrane, Jack and Vivian Millhollan, Lou Waller Sr., and Bob Griffin.

State Rep. Tim Solobay is a strong Hillary supporter. So is County Commissioner Bracken Burns. Commissioner Larry Maggi is currently uncommitted in spite of his father’s support for Obama.

The number of Democrats swelled to over four million in Pennsylvania. The secret is that this is good news for Barack Obama; bad news for Hillary Clinton; worse news for Rush Limbaugh. The location of the new registrations and party switches is crucial to understanding the implication.

Every county has experienced both a wave of new registrations and party switches; however, the phenomenon was strongest in Philadelphia, the southeastern suburban Philadelphia counties, and in Allegheny County. A look at the polling for Pennsylvania shows that Obama has the best numbers in the Commonwealth in the southeastern corner.

On the other hand, this is also the area where Governor Ed Rendell is best loved and has the most influence. Rendell has endorsed and is campaigning for Clinton. Congressman John P. “Jack” Murtha is also lending her support. Murtha’s influence extends throughout and well-beyond his district.

Rush Limbaugh has been conducting something he calls “Operation Chaos” which urges conservative Republican voters to switch to vote in the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton. Limbaugh suggests that this will keep the Clinton-Obama fight going while McCain can get stronger. The problem with this is that it is an attempt to use establishment Republican reasoning that has pretty consistently failed in recent years.

Democrats are used to both primary fights and the process of getting back together after somebody wins. Republicans consider it a mortal sin to challenge the “settled wisdom” by launching a primary fight. For Democrats, a good primary fight simply is an opportunity to raise name identification and campaign with a purpose. The most party switches are in those parts of Pennsylvania where AM talk-radio penetrates the least.

Democrats have increased registration by over 161,000 with about 23,000 representing party switches from the Republicans. If Limbaugh actually influenced half of those changes, his influence represents 0.25% of the Pennsylvania Democratic electorate. This is a fairly pathetic performance for a man who once commanded millions of loyalists.

Meanwhile, the Democrats in the House of Representatives are not giving the White House the wiretapping bill it wants. The secret is that the Democrats gave the White House all the power it wanted. It did not give absolute immunity to the various companies that wiretapped after 9/11; however, it did create a good faith” immunity. In other words, if the company felt in “good faith” that the actions were legal then there would be no liability.

So, why does the White House continue to fight? It might be simply that this is a President who is unwilling to compromise and takes a “my way or the highway” attitude. We suggest, however, a more rational reason. The determination of “good faith” would happen after discovery. If the power to wiretap without warrant was used 80% of the time for national security reasons and 20% of the time for political reasons, this fact would become known. Perhaps, this would provide a much more logical explanation for the Administration refusing to take a deal that gave them 99% of exactly what they wanted.