Convictions reflect on the whole legislature

Published: February 8, 2012

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Every time a former state House member or staffer in the "Bonusgate" scandal admits guilt or is found guilty by a jury, it's an indictment of the entire institution.

Rep. H. William DeWeese, a Greene County Democrat, became the first sitting House member to be convicted in the scandal when a Harrisburg jury returned its verdict Monday. It found him guilty of conspiracy, conflict of interest and three counts of theft while acquitting him of one theft count.

His own former lieutenant in the Democratic Caucus, former Rep. Mike Veon, is serving a six-to-14-year state prison sentence for similar charges after being found guilty of similar charges. Former Republican Rep. John Perzel - a Republican and like Mr. DeWeese a former speaker of the House - has pleaded guilty similar charges and awaits sentencing. In all, 11 Democrats and nine Republicans have pleaded guilty or been found so for using taxpayer-funded resources for political campaigns.

It's not clear why the "Bonusgate" investigation did not venture into the Senate chamber. But in Allegheny County, state Sen. Jane Orie, a Republican, will go on trial Jan. 27 for similar charges and for allegedly doctoring evidence in her first trial, which ended in a mistrial. And former Sen. Vince Fumo, a Philadelphia Democrat, is in federal prison for a conviction on similar charges.

There are, undoubtedly, many honest members of the state House. Yet the conduct of Mr. Perzel and Mr. DeWeese applied to both of the party caucuses, thus covering the entire House. There was scant defiance from the rank and file, which for the most part continues to do what it is told on both sides of the aisle. No legislative whistelblowers emerged to expose the use of millions of public dollars for political purposes. There has been little rock solid reform, other than some rules changes that are readily pliable.

And even as the DeWeese case went to the jury, legislative leaders whined about the state Supreme Court's rejection of baldly gerrymandered legislative districts that had been drawn by those legislative leaders specifically to suit political purposes. From the lack of reaction in the Legislature, one would think that Mr. DeWeese's conviction, or those of his predecessors, were about those individuals going astray. The convictions are about an entire institution gone astray. Failure to enact sweeping reforms amid such overwhelming evidence worsens the crime.

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