'Still cronyism even when the cronies are Democrats'

For those Kool Aid drinking Democrats who think the elevation of Joe Hoeffel to a power-sharing position next to Emperor Jim Matthews is a good thing, consider the long-term damage a career politician like Joe Hoeffel will do to the party.

Hoeffel ran on a platform to end the cronyism, patronage and no-bid contracts awarded by the previous Republican-led Board of Commissioners in Montgomery County.

Elected as the minority representative on the board, Hoeffel found himself as board vice chairman after Emperor Jim Matthews needed a stooge to second his motions. Enter Joe Hoeffel, willingly.

Consider Hoeffel's second major action as a newly-seated Montgomery County Commissioner. (His first was to elect Emperor Matthews as board chairman).

During the first regular commissioners' meeting of 2007, Hoeffel hired his former campaign manager and another top supporter from his election campaign to county jobs.

The positions were not advertised and no other candidates were considered. Jim Maza, Hoeffel's campaign manager, will be paid $90,066 for a part-time job. Hoeffel's other pal, Jeffrey Albert will be paid $90,033. In both cases, that's more than the $84,000 a year that the commissioners are paid.

That is called cronyism. That is the kind of political patronage that has ruined our government. The silence of the far left on Hoeffel's duplicity is deafening. They liberals are still gloating from the fact that they could lose an election and still gain control of county government thanks to the Three Republican Stooges who run the show: Jim Matthews and the men pulling his strings, Ken Davis and Bob Asher.

Read the editorial, "Montgomery County appointments still cronyism even when the cronies are Democrats," in today's edition of The Mercury to fully understand how Hoeffel betrayed Democratic voters, much the way Matthews betrayed Republicans.

What Democrats still don't understand is that you can't take the high road when you're wallowing in the mud. It's the same problem they're having nationally with corruption and pork spending by Congress under Nancy Pelosi. It's the same problem Joe Hoeffel, a former Congressman, has brought to Montgomery County.