The Bucks County media are not very interested in Harrisburg politics. Too bad because the basis for the corruption at the Doylestown Courthouse is identical to the corruption at the State Capitol. Election Control. The Bucks County Register of Wills office functioned identically to the Democratic and Republican parties caucus rooms in the capitol. They used government employees for political work. In the case of Doylestown, the Republicans in the Register of Wills office directed county employees to work for Republican candidates and paid them for the political work by calling the political work compensated time off. The worker could take off from their courthouse job or collect money in exchange for the time off. Records were kept in a “”Pink Book” that has never been found. Workers who did not cooperate were made to sit in a “Bad Girls Chair” in front of a known Republican Political Operator. The tax money paid to the workers for their time off has never been recovered. Same for the millions lost during the criminal activities in the capitol.
In Harrisburg some of the corruption took the form of a “bonus”, a pay-off really, -for political work. In Harrisburg and Doylestown the money came from taxes. KEYSTONE CORRUPTION a 2013 book by a veteran political reporter for Pittsburgh based newspapers, documents the millions stolen by the politicians via the caucuses. Millions.
Several people went to jail but restitution wasn’t made. The reporter is frustrated by the lack of consideration by the trial judges for the millions. Senator Vince Fumo went to jail. Sure it was reported by the Bucks County media but not well and not as crimes against the people, as it should have been reported. Republican State Representative Bill DeWeese, Representative John Perzel and Democratic Whip Mike Veon also went to jail with “wrist slap” sentences, far shorter than drug dealers receive for violations of less magnitude. Very Frustrating.
The Bonusgate Grand Jury wrote the Legislature is “utterly incapable” of reform. It labeled the caucus system broken, with no tangible benefit to the people. It sure benefits every elected official in the capitol. Each One. Every One.
The Bonusgate grand jury issued an unusual report calling for eliminating the partisan caucuses, reducing bloated Capitol staff and even changing the kinds of constituent services handled in district offices, saying “the current operational structure and ingrained procedures of the Pennsylvania House Democratic and Republican caucuses are irretrievably broken and in desperate need of systemic change.” Members said legislative employees spent “an enormous amount of time working on political campaigns when they were supposed to be performing their legislative duties.” Judge Barry Feudale, supervisor of the grand jury, added a statement that jurors were “mad as hell” to hear from numerous witnesses that “no one’s guilty because everybody does it.”
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/state/2012/02/12/Bonusgate-timeline/stories/201202121884#ixzz2oE0oZbCp
Over three years later the caucuses are still operating. In Bucks County the pay-to-play political systems are still in effect with favored insiders getting contracts in exchange for political “contributions”, bribes really, for government contracts. the bedrock of a culture that operates according to rules is the electoral process. When it is broken, as it is in PA at the state and local levels the elections are corrupt. The people elected are corrupt. The people appointed by being “endorsed” by a corrupt and broken process, including for example the judges, appoiunted by the corrupt elected officials put in power by the corrupt politicians are corrupt. Even if by some freak loophole in the corrupt system an honest person becomes involved they will either become corrupt or they will be marginalized by the corrupt system. So a once free election process is no longer able to perform even the minimum amount of it’s duty which is to protect the people from the elected officials.
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