Republican legislators now under investigation by grand jury

You'd never know it from reading the Erie Times-News,
but Attorney General Tom Corbett has dropped the other
shoe in his investigation into corruption in
Pennsylvania's House of Representatives.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran an article yesterday
noting that the grand jury is looking into the Republican
caucus's allegedly illegal use of a state-of-the art
computer system for partisan political campaign purposes.
The fraudulent use of at least $1.8 million of taxpayer monies
is alleged.

Half a dozen of the House's Republican staffers have been
interviewed by the grand jury in the course of the investigation,
the Post-Gazette reported. The Post-Gazette has obtained a copy
of a contract between a former House majority leader and a company
which provided the computer services.

So far eight Democrat House members and two staff persons
have been indicted in the attorney general's on-going
investigation into what has come to be known as "bonusgate."

These ten Democrats have been charged with fraud
for rediredcting taxpayer funds into partisan political
campaigns, and paying certain staff persons
more than $1 million in bonuses for their allegedly illegal
campaign activities while on the state payroll.

While he has not been indicted, the House majority leader,
Bud DeWeese of Greene County, is under fire by some of his
own party members who have publicly called for him to step
down because of his failure of leadership.

So far, ten Democrat legislators have asked for DeWeese's
resignation as majority leader. DeWeese is up for reelection
to his House seat this year.

Two of the Erie area's five state legislators have remained
mum on what role, if any, they played in the bonusgate
scandal, viewed as the biggest ever to hit Pennsylvania.
They are Flo Fabrizio and John Hornaman.

The Times-News has been consistently behind the curve
on this scandal, and has never bothered to ask the area
delegation what they may know about it, and
has never published an article on what
the local tie-in may be.

Democrat Governor Ed Rendell has also remained curiously
silent on bonusgate, presumably because until recently,
only Democrats have been indicted. Will he maintain his silence
once Republicans are implicated?