Category: Fumo

Justice And Vince Fumo

Federal prosecutors are still doing what they can to make disgraced Dem bigwig Vince Fumo die in prison.

Fumo, who represented Pennsylvania’s infamous 1st District in the State Senate for three decades, was convicted in 2009 of 137 federal corruption charges and sentence to 4 years, 7 months in prison.

The fed prosecutors think that was too light and are demanding that the 68-year-old hack be re-sentenced to 15 years.

Frankly, this demand to inflict pointless pain strikes one as more of a desire to seek headlines than justice.

Fumo is out of power, impoverished and disgraced. Meanwhile federally oriented thieves, rapists and tax cheats like Charles Rangle, Bill Clinton and Tim Geithner are rich, free and lionized in circles of power.

Fumo deserves what he is getting but no more. For Pete’s sake, it’s not like he ever smuggled guns to Mexican drug lords or anything.

What Fumo did is  not even as bad as taking fed stimulus money to close important technological plants and move them to China.

Let’s keep some perspective on justice and real corruption, here.

Feds Want More Pain For Fumo

Federal prosecutors think the 4.5-year sentence given to the Democrat who represented the 1st District in the Pennsylvania State Senate from 1978 to 2008 was too soft and are appealing it , which is a rather unusual thing for prosecutors to do.

The feds wanted the 67-year-old Fumo to get 15 years for his three decades of scam and graft at the taxpayers expense but U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter chose instead to hear to the pleas for leniency from Gov. Rendell and other political luminaries in the state, and hence Fumo has an expectation of one day walking out of the Ashland Federal Prison in Kentucky where he is serving his sentence.

Personally, I’m OK with the 4.5 years since Fumo has also lost his $100 G pension and I don’t think that what Fumo did is any less vile than what Gov. Rendell just did in authorizing $300 million in hand-picked pork projects as bankruptcy looms for the state.

Frankly, I don’t think Fumo’s thievery is any less immoral than protected-from-firing public school teachers making $87,000–plus  voting to strike for a raise that will put a few more grains of sand on the back of widow on a fixed income trying to keep the home in which she raised her kids.

Besides, Fumo is still likely to serve more that the 27-months that his 1st District predecessor did for his thievery.

The feds are also appealing the one-year sentence of Ruth Arnao who was Fumo’s aide.

Another Inky Fumo Tale And What’s Not Mentioned?

The Philadelphia Inquirer, today, reported the sentencing of Susan A. Skotnicki, 53, a longtime aide to “disgraced former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo”.

What did the Inquirer again neglect to mention regarding Ms. Skotnicki or the “disgraced former State Sen.”?

To assist the Inquirer in its journalistic mission, I’ll again point out the party involved was the Democrats.

Ms. Skotnicki, btw, got four years probation for theft via inflating her boss’ meal expenses by thousands of dollars.

Surprise (Not): Inky Mentions GOP In Scandal Story

The top story in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer involved the filing of corruption charges by Attorney General Tom Corbett against former Senate Majority Leader John Perzel and nine other Republicans.

And it was topest story I’ve seen in the Inky in a long time, with a four-column double-deck headline and a subhead and big three column picture and a big, bold pull out and a couple of sidebars.

And yes, as I predicted,  it mentioned that  those charged where Republicans several times – including in the pull out and in one of sidebar headlines.

I was wrong, though, that the Inky would fail to mention that Corbett was a Republican. One of the sidebars concerned how the rest of the party was going to take vengeance by not helping him in his bid for governor.

Frankly, I think Corbett is going to get all the help he wants and is now the front-runner. He is my choice right now.

One of the funniest aspect of the coverage is John Baer’s column about Perzel: The Fumo-ish fall of an unsubtle pol.

Baer, and the Inky, still couldn’t bring themselves to point out that Vince Fumo was a big-time Democrat.

If the Inquirer handled the far more common Democratic scandals and groups like ACORN in the same manner as they handled these charges, the state would be much better off.

A Republican Scandal Looms, Will Inky Mention Party?

Yesterday, I said that GOP scandals are less in frequency and magnitude and lo and behold one looms according to Tony Phyrillas. 

Phyrillas reports that Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett has announced that 10 Republicans connected to the Pennsylvania Legislature, includingformer Speaker of the House John Perzel, have been charged in scheme masterminded by Perzel to funnel $10 million in tax dollars to political campaigns.

So, how is that different than state and federal grants to ACORN?

Seriously, kudos to Corbett.

And who wants to bet a dozen donuts that tomorrow’s Inky mentions the party? Two dozen says it’s in the headline. Three dozen says they don’t mention Corbett’s party affiliation. (Yes, he’s a Republican).

Here’s a link to Corbett’s website detailing names and charges.

Vince Fumo Is A Democrat

Jeff Gammage had a very interesting story in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer as to what former State Sen. Vince Fumo can look forward to as he serves his 55-month sentence at a federal facility in Kentucky.  He neglected to mention Fumo’s party, a simple oversight I’m sure.

Fumo, of course, is a Democrat. Perhaps Gammage felt that mentioning the 55-month prison sentence made it redundant to refer to the political party.

The story can be found at:  http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/20090830_No_place_for_titans_.html?page=1&c=y