DeWeese drops libel lawsuit in exchange for newspaper column

House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Greene, has dropped a libel lawsuit against his hometown newspaper, The Herald Standard of Uniontown, in return for the newspaper giving him space to run a column.

Hell, if it was this easy to resolve differences, who needs judges and lawyers and juries?

Read about the settlement in The Herald Standard.

And if you have nothing better to do for the next 10 minutes, you can also read DeWeese's column.

DeWeese has a lot on his plate. With the Bonusgate criminal investigation continuing, the inability of the House to accomplish anything during his tenure as leader, his own reelection in doubt on April 22 and the likelihood that the Democrats will lose control of the House this November, the last thing DeWeese needed was a protracted (and public) legal battle with a newspaper.

By the way, the reason DeWeese sued the newspaper in 2002 was over a series of articles questioning $12.5 million in taxpayer dollars that DeWeese kept in a leadership account he controlled. DeWeese and other Legislative leaders continue to control these accounts despite all the promises of reform in Harrisburg.