Curt Weldon transfers $70K to legal defense fund

There's a couple in interesting tidbits Yahoo News.

The really new piece of news is that Weldon has a legal defense fund called the "Weldon Legal Expense Trust". I would call it the "Expenses Because Weldon Couldn't Trusted" fund.

The $70,000 was transfered from his misnamed "Weldon Victory Committee". I would have called the "Weldon Long Overdue Defeat Committee", because Sestak beat Weldon by a huge margin.

This $70,000 ($50,000 2/29/08 and $20,000 3/31/08) is accompanied by a $5,000 payment to Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP.

This brings Weldon's total to over $244,000 for his criminal defense AND HE HASN'T EVEN BEEN TO TRIAL YET. Two years and a lot of money to defend against whatever the grand jury is investigating. Besides all the documents the FBI retrieved from Sexton, Weldon, Weldon's daughter and elsewhere, the wiretaps must have a lot in them as well. If the FBI taped months of Weldon and Sexton, in all their GOP glory, it could take quite a while to read all the charges and counts against them (let alone document them).

I was blogging quite a bit against the Weldon drones back then and some were obvious campaign personnel. I doubt any of the blog-o-sphere aspect of the campaign will have made the tapes or the transcripts, as I doubt either of those two dinosaurs could find their asses a blog in the dark with both hands, a flashlight, and a mirror. It would be interesting to hear what the campaign's thinking behind the scenes about the Internet vs Old School. However, even if they did discuss such topics, they'd be redacted from the transcripts (unless they talked about knee-capping bloggers).

Not So Sage Advice

In today's Delco Times, Gina "not so" Sage's Letter to the Editor repeats various Delco GOP talking points, many of which have been debunked here and elsewhere.

However, a little deconstruction should show how desperate they are becoming and how little they have to offer.

• Gina Sage's letter lacked the disclaimer than she is a Republican on the ALL REPUBLICAN Springfield Planning Commission. Springfield is the home base of Charlie Sexton and GOP Council Candidate Stooge Tom McGarrigle. Gee, no bias there folks!
  
• Gina falsely tries to imply that Ann O'Keefe doesn't either live here or pay her taxes by claiming there is no record.... This is a classic political deception. First of all, any of the thousands of Delco residents living in an apartment or renting a house would not have a record of paying property taxes (even though it is part of their rent). Ann O'Keefe lives in a house and shares in the taxes/bills/etc., however the deed to the house is not in her name. So, of course Ann would not be listed in the County records that Gina Sage is misusing to mislead the voters. (Can anyone explain how/why a Springfield Planning Commission can supposedly "search" every property tax record looking for a name, particularly for a Haverford resident? Is this information freely available to the public?)
  
• The attacks on David Landau are trite. Landau did some work for the ACLU when he was just out of school. Gina says that Landau opposed mandatory sentencing guidelines. Considering that GOP shills like Gina want to impose a life-sentence on people that support civil rights, Delco voters should be wary of GOP candidates opposed to civil rights, due process and Judges actually using their judgment. The point of a guideline is that is it not mandatory (otherwise it would be called a rule, not a guideline).
  
• Landau must really have the GOP worried, because Gina repeats the already debunked claim that: Landau has also received no bid legal work from Nether Providence, where he is a Democrat leader, and the Democrats control the government. The fact of the matter is that Landau won the legal work from a 3-Dem + 3-GOP board, did the work at half his standard rate at the time, the work was paid for by Insurance (not the township) and it was a case on behalf of the township against a GOP developer. Gina deceptively tries to confuse Landau's and the Democrats' current leadership in Nether Providence, with their role in the 1990's.
  
• Gina (through the Republican dis-information machine) keeps referring to John Innelli as solicitor in Darby Township. John is NOT the solicitor but rather the "assistant" solicitor (a position specifically recognized and permitted in the Borough Code).
  Gina disengenuously claims that John Innelli has received extensive legal work as a result of a no bid contract. Well, not only did John work at only 1/5 his normal rate, but his bills to Darby Borough averaged $3,000/year, which is less than the minimum dollar amount for any contract bid process in the county. Seems like the only extensive thing here is Gina's exaggerated claims.
  
• Finally, Gina claims that The candidates being put forth by the Democratic Party simply do not match the ideals and priorities of Delaware County voters.
  This is simply absurd, because 3 of 5 Delco voters picked Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Rendell, Casey and Sestak. Voters can rest assured that Ann O'Keefe, David Landau and John Innelli support those same candidates and beliefs. Those 3 out of 5 voters deserve 3 out of 5 Council members that will look out for the voters' values and priorities, for a change.
  

Nowhere is Gina's letter does she actually list a single specific Democratic proposal, but rather makes false/misleading attacks on the Dem Candidates' background or character. As far as the GOP, the attitude seems to be "stay the course", "all is well" and "nothing to see here folks".
Gina did make one statement with which I do agree: an examination of the facts will not allow voters to be misled [misled by the GOP that is]

BTW, a note to my GOP mortal enemies adversaries friends: This is some pretty weak tea you are brewing. You guys are putting me to sleep with these lame/same attacks. I guess if you have no record to run on, it must be hard to come up with topics.

Sexton's Man, Reilly's Girl and Daddy's Little Boy

The Delco GOP Candidates (aka The Three Stooges) represent the weakest field of GOP candidates in recent memory. They have no message other than to pretend things are fine and to carry on business as usual. What little change they do mention is merely hollow rhetoric about increasing openness in government.

With Andrew Reilly running the campaign, the GOP machine hopes to extend its time on life-support and hold onto the cash-cow that monopoly rule as brought to the GOP, its patrons and its cronies (at the expense of the voters).

Weak Candidates:
The GOP candidates are suffering from a lack of broad support.
Tom McGarrigle is from Springfield (power base of Charlie "County Prison Board Deal" Sexton), and his campaign appears to have little appeal or funding outside of Springfield. Christine Cannon is Reilly's protege and represents what the voters want to change. Andy Lewis peaked when he became a Ward Commissioner in Haverford. Without "Daddy's name and/or money", he wouldn't even be in the race.

The Delco GOP machine is suffering some major breakdowns. This latest set of spare parts might as well have been made in China.

No Message, No Fiscal Responsibility:
More of the same is not a message. It is the absence of a message. From their campaign site: The candidates are committed to the same common sense approach to county government that has resulted in no tax increases for three straight years. The REAL REASON for no tax increases is that we are already taxed over 50% more than neighboring Montgomery County. See my previous Blog Post for details and a budget comparison.

Hollow Rhetoric:
On their site, the GOP candidate claim to want to increase transparency and openness in government through continued investment in new technologies.
New technologies? Since when does holding well-publicized public meetings at a convenient times require "new technology"? They can already publish a budget online, but making it clear where the money goes is another matter.
Besides, Andy Reilly is running their campaigns and already controls the council. If the GOP was really interested in open government or transparency we would already have it.