It's becoming evident that a major reason Democrats were able to recapture the majority in the House after 12 years of GOP control was because they cheated.
A grand jury is investigating whether tax dollars were used to pay legislative staffers who did campaign work for House Democrats. That's against the law. The growing scandal has been dubbed "Bonusgate" by bloggers and newspapers and could bring down the current House leadership.
While the grand jury's work is secret, information is filtering out about the investigation. We know for sure that investigators raided the offices to top House Democrats in Harrisburg last week looking for a paper trail that would tie Democratic leaders to wrongdoing.
Today's edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a story by Tracie Mauriello saying there is evidence showing "Campaign work tied to House bonuses." That would prove Democrats broke the law.
"All together, Democrats handed out $1.9 million in bonuses last year, four times as much as they did in 2005, a non-election year," Mauriello writes.
She also names names of Democratic staffers who received large payments in the form of bonuses despite taking most of the year away from their normal jobs to work on campaigns.The Post-Gazette also has more background on "Bonusgate" on its Web site.
Keep in mind that the Post-Gazette is the liberal newspaper in Pittsburgh so it's going to be hard for Democrats to weasel out of this one.
Indictments of current or former Democratic House leaders would not only place the current 102-101 majority in jeopardy, but would hand Republicans a terrific campaign issue for 2008 (Democrats are corrupt) when the GOP tries to retake the House.
Tony Phyrillas
Tony Phyrillas is a columnist for The Mercury in Pottstown, Pa. He received a first place award for Best Opinion Column in 2007 by Suburban Newspapers of America. He was also honored for column writing in 2006 by the Society of Professional Journalists.
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