From the Morning Call:

Either Pennsylvania House Majority Leader H. William DeWeese doesn’t get it, or he won’t face it. He is a failed leader. The Bonusgate indictments make that painfully apparent. Yet, he hangs on, maintaining his innocence, refusing the growing call for him to step down from his leadership position.

It isn’t as if both his constituents and colleagues haven’t been giving him clear signals. An unheralded Republican challenger gave the 12-term House member a much tougher, though not particularly close, race in the last legislative election, one in which his party managed to regain control of the chamber by the narrowest of majorities — one seat.

That opened the door to Mr. DeWeese becoming speaker of the House again after a long exile as minority leader. But, his hardball tactic of disciplining wayward caucus members, his role in the 2005 pay grab, and perhaps the whiff of impending trouble denied him the honor. Instead, young Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-Montgomery, engineered the elevation of Philadelphia Republican Dennis O’Brien to speaker. Rep. DeWeese kept smiling, knowing he still would be the backstage puppeteer.

When Attorney General Tom Corbett handed down the first round of Bonusgate indictments two weeks ago, Pennsylvanians got some insight into what Democratic leaders paid to win back control of the state House. It cost the taxpayers more than $2 million in bonuses to House staff members who ”volunteered” to work on election campaigns and other partisan activity throughout the state. The public tab is even higher when you consider that House Democrats also used $1.7 million in taxpayer money for campaign Web sites and campaign ”blast e-mails.” The first use of this was the 2005 special election in Lehigh County’s 131st District between Republican Rep. Karen Beyer and Democrat Linda Minger. The grand jury presentment makes it clear: Democratic leaders wanted to fund political campaigns at the public’s expense.

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