Lincoln Blog

August 27, 2008:

Sometimes Republicans make it very difficult for you to support them.

Take, for example, the antics of Attorney General Tom Corbett's campaign staff in the wake of their opponent, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, speaking Monday before the Pennsylvania Press Club.

In a scene more reminiscent of the Keystone Cops than the state's top law enforcement officer, Corbett's staff "staked out" Morganelli's car - which was parked at a meter on a downtown Harrisburg street.

For those who have never had the misfortune to attempt parking in downtown Harrisburg, many of the meters are limited to two hours and you must feed an obscene number of quarters into them to get even that amount of time. This results in frequent tickets - providing a steady stream of revenue to support the city's legendary overspending. But, I digress.

According to Corbett's sleuths, Morganelli stayed parked at the meter for four hours - this at a meter limited to two hours. Thus, he was over parked for about two hours.

Corbett's people are howling that Morganelli has "ripped off" the taxpayers for his own personal benefit. Being somewhat familiar with downtown Harrisburg parking rates, Morganelli owes the city - according to the Corbett campaign -- $3.00.

Perhaps this is a payback for Morganelli having attacked Corbett at the Press Club for changing office policy to allow he and his top deputies to charge their dry cleaning to taxpayers.
Morganelli though, said much more: he scored Corbett on a number of issues including taking $50,000 in campaign contributions from indicted casino owner Lou DeNaples, and raised serious questions about Corbett's handling of the bonus gate investigation.

No word from the Corbett campaign as to whether or not the DeNaples contribution will be returned. Nope, $3.00 in quarters is apparently more important.

The Corbett campaign faces a stiff challenge this November, the Republican Party in the state having rotted out from under them and produced a million plus Democratic voter registration edge. They are not going to win the campaign using tactics more often found in a race for borough council. There are serious and important issues to be debated.

The time has come for them to stop acting like amateurs and raise the level of discourse in this campaign to one more befitting the people of Penn's woods.

Give Us Your Feedback!