In the 7th, it’s the petitions, stupid

August 9, 2010 at 12:00 pm

In an election cycle where the focus was expected to be on jobs, jobs, jobs, who would have thought that the big topic in the 7th Congressional District would turn out to be petitions, petitions, petitions?

First came the accusations that Republican candidate Pat Meehan submitted nominating petitions containing fraudulent signatures, and the subsequent investigation that had to be referred to the office of the Republican Attorney General—and GOP nominee for…

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The Orie case and Tom Corbett

August 5, 2010 at 8:11 am

Last month's preliminary hearing for state Senator Jane Orie (R-Allegheny) and her sister, Janine, answered one important question—they will stand trial on charges they used the senator’s taxpayer-funded legislative staff for campaign work. But the evidence and witness testimony introduced raised a number of others. Full Story

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Corbett confusion

August 2, 2010 at 8:41 am

This photo and accompanying news report, showing Tom Corbett—or at least someone working for him—engaging in the exact same behavior the Attorney General himself has investigated and prosecuted other elected officials for, pretty much speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

This, of course, follows on the heels of repeated revelations that Corbett himself—in addition to those working for him—has used a state-provided and taxpayer-funded phone to conduct campaign…

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Corbett’s latest spin is more of the same

July 28, 2010 at 3:51 pm

In the wake of his most recent “insights” about the state of employment in Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett insisted that, contrary to accusations made by Dan Onorato’s campaign, he was not blaming out-of work Pennsylvanians for the state’s unemployment rate.

Whatever you say, Tom.

In case you missed it, Corbett said there are plenty of jobs available to Pennsylvanians, after someone apparently either showed him the classified sections of a few newspapers…

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Stray thoughts on religion, ‘Young Guns’

July 27, 2010 at 10:40 am

I had a few thoughts I figured I’d share after reading one of the recent “Leftovers” posts on pa2001.com Central.

I must say, I am glad to finally see some real people of faith standing up to the “pretenders” who like to throw around self-serving claims about their supposed “religious beliefs” along with cherry-picked scripture to—as Catholics United’s executive director Chris Korzen put it—“score cheap political points and lead voters astray.”…

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Corbett’s team doing just fine?

July 26, 2010 at 10:59 am

A recent pa2010.com article analyzing the ways in which Dan Onorato and Tom Corbett have handled the latter’s controversial comments about unemployed Pennsylvanians contained an interesting assurance from GOP consultant Ray Zaborney that Corbett’s gubernatorial campaign is doing just fine.

Zaborney is the guy who ran Lynn Swann’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign, taking a guy with one of the most famous names from the Pittsburgh Steelers but managing to garner only 40…

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Will the real Tom Corbett please stand up?

July 21, 2010 at 9:46 am

At first Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Corbett was echoing GOP orthodoxy that suggests extending unemployment benefits to the long-term jobless will only give them an excuse to sit back and collect their checks instead of going out and accepting the work that, in Corbett’s world, exists. Now, his campaign spokesman has “clarified” his boss’ remarks and insists Corbett actually does believe that “the vast majority of people on unemployment are looking…

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Who is the GOP talking to?

July 20, 2010 at 10:38 am

Last month, Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX), echoing talking points released by the House Republican Study Committee, apologized to BP for its ill-treatment at the hands of the Obama administration, calling the establishment of the $20 million trust fund set up to help Gulf residents affected by BP’s massive oil spill a “shakedown” and the trust itself an administration “slush fund.”

A couple weeks later, in an interview with The Tribune-Review, House Minority Leader John Boehner,…

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Defending Paul Kanjorski

June 30, 2010 at 1:16 pm

Living almost literally on the opposite side of Pennsylvania from the 11th Congressional District, I’ll admit I have no idea what kind of lawmaker and representative Paul Kanjorski has been for his constituents.

But as a resident of a working-class area where I’ve watched many people over the course of my life thrown out of jobs, downsized, or otherwise become unemployed through no fault of their own, I can say with certainty that I saw…

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Ten million conservatives, one brain?

June 21, 2010 at 12:17 pm

Back in the days of old-time hockey, there was a family from Alberta, Canada by the name of Sutter that sent six of its seven boys to play in the NHL. Now, while the Sutters were obviously very talented, they weren’t always very well liked. A “fan” once hung a banner in the old Minnesota North Stars’ arena during a game in which a couple of the brother appeared that read “Six Sutters, one brain.”…

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