The legislative food chain

I really like what columnist John Forrester Jr. had to say about Bonusgate and Democratic Majority Leader Bill DeWeese in his most recent column in the Reading Eagle:

Over the years, I've watched DeWeese closely and with fascination, probably because the Greene County lawmaker is as intelligent and charismatic as he is ruthless and ambitious.

Early in his career he became one of the youngest lawmakers to be chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, a job usually given to a more-senior member and to a lawyer, which DeWeese is not. In 1990, DeWeese led a palace coup against his boss, House Speaker Robert W. O'Donnell. In victory, DeWeese showed O'Donnell no mercy, vanquishing him to remote quarters and ostracizing him in caucus.

This is a man clearly comfortable at the top of the food chain in the legislative shark tank. And he didn't get there by being stupid, uninformed or by not watching his back.

DeWeese came through the legislative bonus probe unscathed. But his claims that he knew nothing of the scheme his subordinates were carrying out aren't sitting well with many - including reform activists and even members of his own caucus.

Read the full column at the newspaper's Web site.