Santa Comes Late: DeWeese Gets Hosed!
I suppose, I should laugh. The thought of Bill DeWeese being blindsided and not being elected speaker, despite theoretically leading the majority party in the Pennsylvania house is wildly entertaining.
But, despite today’s defection of Rep. Thomas R. Caltagirone of Berks County, who wrote a letter to the rest of the Democratic caucus telling them he would rather support Republican John Perzel for speaker than DeWeese, I’m not sure this game is over. I’ve been hearing reports since almost election day that a GOP legislator had been tabbed to flip for the Democrats under pressure from Ed Rendell.
How sweet would it be for DeWeese to own his speakership to Rendell, as the two hate each other? Or, alternately, watch DeWeese get flushed down the toilet.
Caltagirone, who plans to stay in the Democratic Party, was clear that the thug-like behavior of the Democratic leadership, DeWeese in particular, was the reason he decided to back Perzel.
"I have become increasingly distressed over the years with the manner in which our Democratic leaders have conducted the business of the caucus," he wrote his colleagues.
"The leaders of our caucus have shown little regard for many members of the caucus, the constituents they represent, and the legislative initiatives we should be supporting," he said in the letter. "Instead, they have operated the caucus as a personal fiefdom, promoting their own personal and political ambitions behind a wall of secrecy and petty personal vindictiveness."
Let me be the first to step up and buy Tom Caltagirone a beer for telling it like it is. I can think of a half-dozen Democratic state reps who would have every right to vote against DeWeese but this guy stood up for it. He’s completely right. Bill DeWeese embarrasses me to be a Democrat and every day we keep him in leadership reflects more poorly on us than him. We need to purge the party of these corrupt, immoral hacks and truly become a party of reform, whether it be locally, in our county party or on the state level. When the national party leadership is less morally challenged than local and statewide leadership you know we have a big, big problem.
As Democrats, I ask you to stand up in support of Caltagirone and help to lead the fight to give us party leadership we all can be proud of. This is a rare opportunity for us, finally, to unshackle this party from corrupt and inept leaders and start making progress.