The local political story is the continuing trial of former State Senator Vincent Fmo (D-Philadelphia) on theft and obstruction of justice charges. When you read about the daily testimony concerning Mr Fumo, you just shake your head: what could ever have possessed the man to do this stuff, and to think that he could get away with it?
But it was a smaller story that caught my eye, one which, to me, says a lot more about the culture of corruption that surrounds politicians, and this one isn’t even about something illegal:
Rendell ally gets job despite hiring freeze¹
By Mario F. Cattabiani, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff WriterHARRISBURG – When is a hiring freeze not a hiring freeze? When you are a deposed state representative who needs a job and you know the governor really well.
Gov. Rendell made an exception this week to his administration’s four-month-old hiring freeze to create a $95,002-a-year bureaucratic post and fill it with a fellow Democrat, former State Rep. Dan Surra.
The 18-year representative from Elk County began his new job – senior adviser to Michael DiBerardinis, secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources – on Monday.
In his new role, Surra will focus on the administration’s Pennsylvania Wilds initiative to increase ecotourism and development in a 12-county region in the northern part of the state.
When the state is facing a budget deficit, and has responded with a hiring freeze to keep from taking on new obligations, Governor Rendell finds a $95,002 job for one of his friends.
My guess is that6 this isn’t anything illegal.
If you read the local section, not only will you see the stories about the Fumo trial, but about Mayor Michael Nutter’s (D-Philadelphia) planned budget cuts, to deal with the city’s looming budget deficit, a plan which includes shutting down eleven of the city’s libraries. The people re up in arms, the proposal is drawing all sorts of protests, one of which is seen in this photo:
While I’m somewhat amused that the gentleman holding the sign doesn’t understand that you have to have a budget to buy books, it does show that there are some real concerns in Pennsylvania about money, and the government not having enough to meet all of the things people want. That’s why Governor Rendell imposed the hiring freeze. Yet, when it came to the Governor’s friend needing a job, well, the rules that apply to the rest of us mere mortals somehow don’t apply.
This is what happened to Mr Fumo, and this is what seems to be happening throughout government: an attitude that they are somehow different from us, somehow better than us. Vince Fumo apparently liked to boast about spending OPM: other people’s money. He apparently thought that he could have an ex-wife tailed, and have his private eye call the cops when he observed her getting behind the wheel while possibly intoxicted, and that he could even pay for it with state money. One of the charges against him is that he used state funds to have this done, but just as important, to me, is the attitude that this was something he could and should do, even if he had paid for it all himself.
We common folks tend to understand that some things are just wrong, some things are maybe funny to fantasize about but stupid to do, and don’t do them. For Mr Fumo, who is an attorney and thus should have known what the laws are concerning the use of public funds, the self-importance of being a powerful state senator, a decades-long state senator, apparently outweighed common sense. For Mr Rendell, it’s the idea that he can help a friend in need, without regard to the hiring freeze he put in place himself.
As much as I’d like to blame it all on Democrats, Republicans haven’t been exempt. Convicted felons Randy Cunningham, Bob Ney and Ted Stevens all acted like the rules simply didn’t apply to them.
Our ideal is of the public servant, the man who has the interest of the people at heart. Maybe a lot of these guys come into office actually feeling that way, but as the sycophants and flatterers and people wanting things keep sucking up to them, it’s as though some of them — most of them? all of them? — lose sight of why they are there and that they really aren’t better than everybody else.
I don’t know how else to explain it.
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¹ – The Philadelphia Inquirer, Wednesday, 14 January 2009, p. B-1
I know how to explain it, they’re all freeking lawyers! They believe the law is theirs to manipulate and use as they please. They make the laws and make tons of cash off the laws. But the law dosen’t apply to them, just us “little people.” Get the damn lawyers out of the legislature and 90% of this crap will end.
Get the damn lawyers out of the legislature and 90% of this crap will end.John
The lawyers who tend to infest our legislatures are of the third-rate varity who cannot make it big in the ‘slip and fall’ game’. They are not the type that will make partner in a major law firm but those who would trip over their own feet chasing an ambulance.
They may believe that any societal or economic problem can be solved by litigation, legislation, or regulation.
They tend not to be the problem-solvers in society but those who create more difficulties for decent folk.
Good point Art Downs. Though they are not the problem-solvers the common thread is they are lawyers. However, once these fools are in the legislature they have firms tripping over themselves to hire them on as partners, consultants or just so they can put the legislatores name on their letterhead.
Though I am not a fan ot term limits — as far as I am concerned, the voters can vote out anyone they choose — they might be necessary. If Ted Stevens developed the same mindset as Vince Fumo, part of that was because he had been in office for so damned long. (Mr Fumo was in the state legislatiure for thirty years.) Serving in public office is no longer something temporary, before a return to the private sector, but a lifetime sinecure, with the routine inconvenience of presenting oneself to the voters for Reaffirmation.
Too many of these people have forgotten from where they came.
Dana: Yet we don’t have that problem with presidents since they have term limits. Face it, limiting the term of our representatives works. We don’t have presidents for life. Why should we have senators or congressmen for life? Yes, voters can vote them out. BUT THEY DON’T. Voters are us, and we get complacent, lazy, unwilling to go with the new. An the politicians become more entrenched because of that.
While Dana is not a fan of term limits and supposes they may be necessary, I am very much a fan of term limits. Dana has focused in on PA and alluded to the US in general while I focused on the US while alluding to state governments, but I strongly believe “power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely” and “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t” are key contributing factors in the need for term limits.
While I agree that, in a vacuum, term limits is far from the best idea, I firmly believe it is the best possible solution when dealing with the twin difficulties within human nature I have stated above. Nothing could better deal with the problems in government than term limits.
The simplistic signs say it all. How can we have any government function (such as a library) without a budget?
What effect will an increase in the number of libraries (or their operating hours) have on crime? How many gang bangers would choose to read Crime and Punishment rather than indulge in criminal activity?
A society that fails to provide libraries for its citizens might well be giving its subjects the services that they think they need but the lack of libraries would be a symptom and not a cause.
Such slogans are as hollow as those that proclaim: “People, Not Profits” or “What if they Gave a War and No One Came.” Cute, glib, and meaningless.
[...] noted here our good, caring Governor Ed Rendell’s (D-PA) attitude to helping those people who lost their [...]