Shallow | Center

The Campaign Comes to Pennsylvania's Airwaves

The Barack Obama commercial I heard on the radio yesterday -- the first Pennsylvania primary ad I've encountered this year -- began conventionally enough. A young woman was speaking to her peers, urging them to vote and let their voices be heard. For a campaign that has been heavily recruiting first-time voters, it was a nice, if expected, pitch.

And then, in the last few seconds, there was Senator Obama himself, speaking at a rally of some sort, raising his voice powerfully among the cheering masses, delivering a message of optimism and hope and opportunity, and sweet fancy Moses, was I getting chills?

Yep.

I was too young to vote for Ronald Reagan, but I can only imagine that his message of the possibility of a greater America, rooted in a belief in ourselves and our inherent goodness, resonated much as Senator Obama's is now. It is an incredibly enticing appeal, and one that I find myself increasingly drawn to. S|C

A Very Brady Screw-Up

U.S. CONGRESSMAN Bob Brady wants desperately to be the next mayor of Philadelphia, and he's been a local Democratic kingmaker for so long, he seems to feel it's his divine right. Brady's candidacy has been challenged by a couple of his primary opponents because he failed to note his city pension on financial disclosure documents he was required to file with the rest of his paperwork. He claims it was an honest mistake, and since he had little to gain by withholding the information in the first place, I'm inclined to believe him. But that's not the issue.

You Go, Girls

POLITICALLY, NANCY Pelosi hasn't impressed me much. Maybe I haven't been paying sufficient attention -- a real possibility -- but I have a greater sense of what she's against than what she's for. As a speaker, she delivers her thoughts in a too-deliberate style that makes me feel I'm being lectured at instead of inspired. But as the father of daughters, I couldn't be happier about her ascendancy to the speakership of the U.S. House. I want my girls to grow up knowing that whatever they wish to do, whoever they wish to be, is there for the taking, and having role models  and trailblazers will only help that. Astoundingly, we as a culture are still struggling with how to ensure that all people, regardless of gender, race, or religion, are treated equally. Glass ceilings still exist. Whether Pelosi's tenure is lengthy or short-lived, effective or forgettable, I'm grateful to her and the House for the crack that's been made in the ceiling.

Presenting the Insane Clown Posse

MAYBE THERE'S a reason so many state capitals are located in not-so-major cities. Cities such as Albany and Trenton and Annapolis and Dover, to cite just a few examples, instead of New York and Newark and Baltimore and Wilmington, respectively. And that's just in the Northeast. Hmmm ... Have I left any capital out? Ah, yes, Harrisburg, site of my very own commonwealth's long-running clown show. After the pay-raise fiasco of last year, one can conclude only that Pennsylvania's forefathers wanted to keep prying media eyes out of the state's nefariously run affairs, and so seated the capital not in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, but in the center of nowhere, making government appear remote and insignificant and thus not worth following.

On Message

THEY WERE calling yesterday's mid-term elections "historic," but that's not why I delayed my trip home to hit the polling place. I voted because I wanted to have a say in who's making some of the decisions that most impact my life, my family, and my world. I don't have nearly enough money to buy access to the decision makers, and my causes are not so noteworthy as to garner attention on their own, but, by God, I have the right, the duty, to walk into a voting booth and exercise that most basic of human needs, self-determination. Some of those for whom I voted won, some lost, but by participating in the very essence of American citizenship yesterday, I helped make this country a better place, regardless of the results. Mr. Smith may no longer go to Washington, but he can still tell the government, the parties, the media, and the world that attention must be paid.

Fired Gun

A Former 'Apprentice' Contestant Makes His Political Case ... Kind Of

The tools of politics are a sledgehammer and wrecking ball, not a pair of needle-nose pliers and a Phillips-head screwdriver. Obvious is the watchword, nuance something to be avoided at all cost. Raj Peter Bhatka, running for the U.S. House in Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional district, knows this. Raj, a former contestant on The Apprentice whose claim to fame was firing on anything with even a trace of estrogen in its bloodstream, has posted signs throughout the district that call for securing the borders and then say -- wait for it -- "You're Hired!" Because, you know, he was on The Apprentice! Get it! And Trump's catchphrase is "You're fired!" It's, like, ironic. Not very clever, mind you, but ironic.

Ink Bomb

Once Again, the Speaker of the State House Can't Get Out of His Own Way

JOHN PERZEL, speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, is going to receive deserved flak for his whining, reported today, that state legislators shouldn't earn less than tattoo artists. (It reminds one, of course, of Babe Ruth's classic response when someone observed that he had been paid more than the President: "I had a better year than he did.") I'm not sure that calling your constituents overpaid is the best campaign strategy, but the speaker has a history of this sort of thing, complaining last year about "immigrant" cow milkers in Lancaster County supposedly earning $55,000.

Bank Shot

Treasury Nominee Brings an Interesting Pedigree to the White House

Henry Paulson, nominated by President Bush yesterday to replace John Snow as Secretary of the Treasury, will be taking a massive pay cut once he's confirmed. Serving as CEO of Goldman Sachs, apparently, earns one much more scratch than trying to convince the nation's most gifted economists that huge tax cuts for the upper classes comprise sound policy at a time of burgeoning budget deficits. Anyway, according to an NPR report I heard last night, Paulson is one of Wall Street's most generous philanthropists, having donated more than $100 million to various charitable causes over the years. Among the organizations he supports are those advocating environmental conservation -- Paulson chairs the board of the Nature Conservancy -- and a group that promotes the advancement of women in the workplace. An ace businessman who's going to sacrifice major bucks to take a job in the public sector, and who thinks the environment and businesswomen are causes worth supporting? Maybe you should consider running, Mr. Paulson. And kudos to Mr. Bush for the pick, though of course with this White House you have to wonder whether anybody not named Cheney or Rove even gets his phone calls returned.

Loudburst

Wags Wages War, Arlen Articulates Awfully

BILLY WAGNER HAD 43 MILLION good reasons to take the high road in yesterday's news conference introducing him to the New York media: He should have talked about how excited he was to be a Met, expressed regret that things didn't work out in Philadelphia, shut his pie hole, and moved on. Instead, he pulled the pin on a couple of hand grenades and lobbed them right into the front office at Citizens Bank Park. Likewise, one of my U.S. senators, Arlen Specter, had quite enough on his plate before weighing in on, of all things, the Terrell Owens situation. Perhaps Sen. Specter's staff needs to remind him that he chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has in front of it the little task of conducting hearings on a nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court. Still, it's prudent to examine the content of each man's allegations and determine whether they're true. After all, constructive criticism can come from any source.

Backing Away from the Trough

The State House and Senate Finally Realize Why They're Getting So Many Angry Phone Calls

OUR PORCINE FRIENDS IN THE Pennsylvania legislature yesterday came to a startling conclusions: Your best chance for a pay raise is to go your boss and explain why you deserve it. Having forgotten that rather obvious truism last summer, state senators and representatives were stunned when their bosses called them on the carpet and read them the riot act. Properly chastened, they voted last night to scrap the raise altogether.

Among those changing their mind was my very own state rep, Lawrence H. Curry, who in July had voted in favor of both the raise and the loophole that would allow officials to skirt the state constitution and accept the extra scratch early as so-called "unvouchered expenses." As Representative Curry was silent on the issue, I recently vowed to track him down and ask for an explanation. Other duties have kept me from following up, but I haven't forgotten about that vow. And while I appreciate Mr. Curry seeing the error of his ways, I'd still like to know (a) why he voted the way he did last summer and (b) what led him to change his mind. So once life gets back to normal, I'll be checking in with his office to see what I can find out.