Home for the holidays
Between the holidays, illness and losing a fight to Christmas lights this weekend, it’s been a quiet time here in blogsville. Crappy timing after being added to PoliticsPa’s blog list — but stuff, and stuffing, happens.
If you wonder why people hate politicians — this AP story probably makes it clear. Yes, whining by soon to be former State Reps about the pay raise vote and, predictably, blaming the media for public outrage over the middle-of-the-night all-but-secret vote.
While virtually all quoted in the story are Republican, don’t think for a second that this isn’t a two-party problem. The House Democratic Campaign Committee threatened to pull support and funding from any candidate who spoke out against the pay raise. This came on direct order of slimy Bill DeWeese and Mike Veon, who as luck would have it, lost his seat over the issue. This tactic may have cost the Democrats two seats in Chester County, and worse, any kind of credibility as reformers.
I’m sorry, guys, people don’t buy that you’re underpaid for a part-time job — in fact, based on poor job performance, most people in Pennsylvania think the state legislature is overpaid. The fact that the members of the legislature don’t get this — even after being shown in no uncertain terms by the voters — is truly frightening. It sounds a bit like Kevin Federline whining about his poor album sales.
If you think voters were angry this election day, you might want to wait until 2008, because voters don’t take being told they’re stupid very well.