Editorial: Bipartisan disgrace

The indictment yesterday of Rep. John M. Perzel (R., Phila.) and nine other Harrisburg Republican insiders brings a pathetic bipartisanship to the legislature's cesspool of corruption.

Attorney General Tom Corbett announced the charges 16 months after he indicted a dozen Democratic House officials in the wide-ranging "Bonusgate" probe.

Critics had accused Republican Corbett, a candidate for governor, of ignoring the GOP in his investigation. But the new round of charges has finally produced an ugly symmetry.

As Philadelphians know, Perzel isn't any old minnow in the political pond. He was speaker for nearly four years, and has served 30 years in the state House. The former maitre d' from the Northeast was for a time one of the most powerful legislators in Harrisburg.

Now he is a criminal defendant, indicted by a grand jury for allegedly masterminding a sophisticated scheme to spend $9 million in public money on computer technology to enhance GOP campaign operations. It's illegal to use taxpayer dollars for campaign purposes.

Part of the alleged scheme included a data collection system that sounds like something from the Nixon White House.

After Perzel's narrow election in 2000, he initiated the creation of a program that would maintain data about voters, including birth dates, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, whom they planned on voting for, and whether they would like a yard sign for the candidate. The purpose was to determine whether a voter was for or against Perzel, was undecided, or refused to talk, the grand jury said.

Charged with Perzel are five of his former top aides and former Rep. Brett Feese of Lycoming County, who once led the House Appropriations Committee. Feese, a former district attorney, "retired" last week from his $197,000-a-year post as chief counsel to the House GOP.

This new round of charges doesn't target an obscure crew of backbenchers involved in petty theft. It's an indictment against the House Republican brain trust when it was at the height of its power.

Likewise, the charges leveled against House Democrats last year targeted leading figures such as former Rep. Mike Veon. He was the power behind the throne of Democratic leader Bill DeWeese (D., Greene). Five of the Democratic defendants have signed guilty plea agreements.

Taken together, these indictments on both sides of the aisle allege that key members of the House leadership over the past decade were corrupt and ripping off taxpayers. The allegations paint a picture of systematic theft of taxpayers' money by both parties to help them win elections and strengthen their grip on power.

It's not just a few bad apples.

It's an indictment of an accepted culture in the legislature, where protecting incumbency matters more than anything. Meanwhile, the taxpaying public that legislators are elected to serve gets the shaft.

It's the same crowd that accepts bundles of money from special interests and thwarts reform at nearly every turn. Maybe 2010 will be the election year when voters finally wise up.