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We told you the Nader angle would keep this story in the news in fresh and exciting ways. From Phoenixville News:

A subplot to the Bonusgate scandal is the ongoing drama of what state Democrats did to prevent Ralph Nader and his Green Party from gaining a spot on the 2004 Presidential Election ballot. Attorney General Tom Corbett’s investigation has uncovered a systemic effort by House Democratic employees to frustrate Nader’s ballot drive — all allegedly at taxpayer expense.

Keeping Nader off the ballot was a top priority for state Democrats in 2004. President Bush and the Democratic Party nominee U.S. Senator John Kerry were running neck-and-neck in the polls. Nader posed a threat to Kerry by virtue of his appeal to ultra-left wing Democrats who might have voted in sufficient numbers for Nader to deny Kerry a win in Pennsylvania.

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This is exactly the kind of information Democrats want out there on the Democrat dominated taxpayer abuse scandal of 2008.  Why does it take $1.4 million paid to high priced Washington, D.C. lawyer to have these folks tell the truth?   Is the $1.4 million truth that much better than the free truth?  Or is the free truth not really the truth at all?  This is all very confusing.   From the Timesleader.com:

Attorney Bill Chadwick, of Chadwick Associates Inc., a D.C. firm that has sopped up some $800,000 in Pennsylvania taxpayer bucks while advising folks in the state House Democratic Caucus how to respond to the “Bonusgate” investigation by Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett’s office.

According to an Associated Press article in our paper Friday, Chadwick and other lawyers and consultants have already garnered more than $1.4 million for help in dealing with allegations that legislative employees were paid bonuses for campaign work, often on state time, using public equipment.

And what did that $1.4 million buy us? This really merits the full quote from Chadwick:

“We understand that this is a substantial expenditure of public funds, but we believe strongly that it was entirely appropriate under the circumstances to facilitate the truthful cooperation of the caucus staff with the attorney general’s investigation.”

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Now this is just absurd.  According to this article, this guy was working more than 24 hours a day – that’s just crazy.  Nobody in their right mind could possibly work 27 hours a day!  Maybe this guy has figured out how to squeeze more into a day than anybody else.  This type of outside the box thinking could truly jump start America’s economy.  When does he sleep?  When does he eat?  Has he no social life?  If he can work 27 hours a week he’s more manly than Chuck Norris! From The Morning Call:

Around House Democratic Whip Mike Veon’s office, they had a nickname for Jeff Foreman — ”The Grim Reaper.”

During campaign season, Foreman would work his way through his boss’ offices on the Capitol’s fourth floor, court documents show. Stopping at each desk, he’d ask each employee if they wouldn’t mind ”volunteering” to help elect Democrats.

Then Veon’s chief of staff, Foreman rarely took no for an answer, the documents show, and he once reduced a reluctant employee to tears because she knew she’d have to miss trick-or-treating with her young son to comply with his request.

When he wasn’t pressing staffers into service to boost the Democrats’ political fortunes on the public dime, Foreman was doing work for his private law practice (at a rate of $200 an hour) from his state office, the documents show.

For these efforts, Foreman, of Harrisburg, was paid a state salary of $126,204 in 2006, plus a taxpayer bonus of $14,815.

Now Foreman, a lawyer on the staff of Whip Keith McCall, D-Carbon, is without his state job, at least temporarily.

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For some aides with first-hand knowledge of the inner workings of the House Democratic caucus, the truth will apparently keep them free.

As Attorney General Tom Corbett pursues the investigation into bonuses paid for campaign work against 12 House Democrats — including former House Minority Whip Mike Veon — several staffers have been granted immunity to tell their stories about campaigning with public resources. Chief among them is Eric Webb, former director of member services for House Democrats and a driving force behind the bonus scheme that sparked the case.

A grand jury report states Webb was granted immunity and provided “extensive and detailed” testimony about a list of staffers who did campaign work for House Democrats and were rewarded with taxpayer-funded bonuses.

The 72-page report also details Webb’s testimony about opposition research conducted during state time by Democratic aides and increased efforts by aides who helped Democratic lawmakers in the 2006 elections after the hated 2005 pay raise.

At least four other Democratic staffers were given immunity, according to the grand jury report. They testified before the grand jury about being assigned to work on the campaign trail with bogus leave time and receiving state-funded contracts for campaign work, among other things.

Attorney general spokesman Kevin Harley declined to say if more people have been offered immunity, but he said “cooperating witnesses are important in this investigation

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From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

HARRISBURG – They cost only a dime each, but it added up quickly.

Over more than two years, as they toiled in the minority, Democrats in the state House allegedly purchased millions of e-mail addresses to send campaign-related propaganda to Pennsylvania voters who were stuck paying the political tab – $1.2 million.

And that’s not including several hundred thousand more in public funds that went to a tech consultant – the son of a state representative – who allegedly made it all look like a legitimate legislative endeavor.

Details of the conspiracy were laid out recently in the 74-page grand-jury indictments against a dozen Harrisburg insiders in what has become known as Bonusgate.

They are charged with carrying out a massive conspiracy to use public funds and staff to underwrite political campaigns.

But lost in the sensationalism of the charges, which included allegations of a sex-for-state-job swap involving a former beauty queen, was the e-mail scam that authorities say ended up costing taxpayers, in total, more than $1.7 million over five years.

State Attorney General’s Office prosecutors dubbed the scam the LCOMM EFFORT – short for Leader’s Communications Office. A leader of one government watchdog group called it “a theft of democracy.”

The Leader’s Communications Office, prosecutors allege, was the brainchild of Rep. Michael Veon, then the No. 2 House Democrat, and Michael Manzo, the former chief of staff to Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese.

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It’s amazing how seemingly innocuous behavior becomes sinister when viewed through a different lens.

But it was a false alarm. The documents were merely House Republican legislative records being moved before construction work.Agents left empty-handed.

Still, the incident illustrates how paranoia has spread through the statehouse as Attorney General Tom Corbett probes whether legislative staffers received government bonuses for political campaign work.

“What does it say when a routine action prompts the attorney general to come on over?” asked Steve Miskin, a spokesman for House Republicans.

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