Bonusgate:The Biggest Political Scandal in PA History
November 10th, 2009 | by BGuzzardi |
Bonusgate may be the biggest political corruption scandal in Pennsylvania’s history. The Southeast media has done a disgracefully inadequate job of reporting and commenting on this. The investigation has already impacted Harrisburg behavior below the radar. The testimony in the upcoming trials may completely alter the power dynamics in the House of Representatives. The silence of the Republicans is curious, too.
Bonusgate involved the use of government taxpayer money by incumbents to fund and finance private, partisan political campaign. The At least, 458 House staffers were involved and more than a 100 House Democratic staffers have been interviewed. It is likely that many, many more in House Republican Caucus and the Senate Republican Caucus have been interviewed. Legal defense fees, paid for by innocent taxpayers, as of August 2009 were more than $8,200,000 and the innocent taxpayer also paid the $3.2 million in bonuses which triggered this investigation.
In July 2008, more than a 1000 days ago, 12 former House Democrats were been indicted including Mike Veon, former Democratic House Minority Leader. No incumbents have been indicted and no Democrats have been indicted.
Former state Representative Sean Ramaley’s trial is scheduled for December and the other trials scheduled for January 2010. To date, 12 Democrats have been indicted and five have agreed to plead guilty including Michael Manzo. Interestingly, Michael Manzo’s wife, Rachel Manzo, has not pled guilty. Rachel Manzo was a top aide to incumbent Democratic Representative Todd Eachus before he became Democratic House Majority leader. There is evidence to indicate that not only the incumbent House Majority leader was involved but also House Majority Whip (and former Democratic House Minority Leader) Bill DeWeese as well as former Representative and now Pennsylvania Secretary of Revenue Steve Stetler were involved. Read the testimony and documents for Eachus here, Stetler here and DeWeese here. How does Rachel Manzo wind up in handcuffs, but not her supervisor Eachus?
More on Bill DeWeese’s involvement here.
The Republicans have been strangely and unexpectedly silent in exploiting this massive political corruption. See open source evidence against former Speaker of the House Republican John Perzel and here, with Brian Preski, his chief of staff and campaign manager. Casablancapa has details on Senate Republican involvement in Bonusgate.