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Despite the banner headlines that the Legislature repealed their pay grab, now that the smoke has cleared it is evident that they have done nothing of the sort. The House bill that was passed last week said that the pay grab for legislators would be restored in the 100% certain case that it would be restored to judges. The House Reps knew that once a pay raise is given to judges, the judges' raise cannot be rolled back. Thus, the House inserted the offending clause tying their pay raise to the judges' pay raise. If they wanted to repeal the pay raise, there would be no reason to insert this clause into the bill. There was no debate and no reason publicly given why they felt they must get the pay raise if the judges got it. The public is not outraged about the judges' raise. They are outraged by the legislators' raise. But last week's banner headlines show that our greedy, lying, thieving legislators fooled everyone. HEADLINE: "LEGISLATORS REPEAL PAY RAISE". FINE PRINT: "no they don't." Meanwhile, while the House and Senate sort out this little House trick, our thieving legislators continue to claim FRAUDULENT "unvouchered" expenses, which are not expenses at all, and which clearly violate the State Constitution. Where is an honest legislator? Why did no one submit an amendment to strip the judge-link provision? Why did no one stand up and say "I can not vote for this bill because it does not actually repeal the raise, and haven't we learned yet that the public does not want to be lied to on this matter?" Or maybe a rational legislator might have said, "Can we vote for an honest repeal and put this behind us so that we can get to the people's business?" Of course, John Fichter was nowhere to be found when it comes to providing moral leadership on this, or any other, issue.
Meanwhile, hats off to Pennsylvania Clean Sweep for their absolutely incredible victory on Tuesday in booting PA Supreme Court Justice Nigro from the bench. They achieved the impossible, against incredible odds, by convincing the electorate to make Judges Newman and Nigro a symbol to demonstrate the public's outrage against the pay raise, and other anti-Constitutional actions, and their enablers on the state bench. Nigro complains that this anger was misplaced, and that the vote against his retention on the bench was a "misguided missile" (great phrase!). Unfortunately for Mr. Nigro, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he happened to find out that judicial appointments are not the free lunch he expected them to be. Tough luck , Mr. Nigro! You have been sacrificed for a cause much larger than yourself. Be grateful that you have played a pivotal role in demonstrating the power of voting, and democracy. Using you as an example, whether you feel it was fair or not, Pennsylvania voters have successfully sent a message across the Commonwealth that the people will hold its legislators accountable and the power of the people should not be underestimated. Take note, Mr. Fichter- you could be next!
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