Corbett's no-good, very-bad week: the lonely quacking of a lame duck

[Divernan]

It's sing along time: "Oh, it's a long, long time . . . . from July to November" but that quacking sound out of the governor's mansion is only going to get louder!
The whole article is worth a read - relishes detailing how clueless Corbett is when it comes to dealing with a legislature controlled by his own party!

http://blog.pennlive.com/capitol-notebook/2014/07/tom_corbetts_no-good_very-bad.html#incart_most-comments

That "Holy Cow" moment came on Tuesday -- when a House of Representatives controlled by the governor's own party -- voted to send Corbett's favored pension proposal to the House Human Services Committee, chaired by Rep. Gene DiGirolamo, R-Bucks. The suburban Philly Republican has opposed Corbett on most everything, but notably on Medicaid expansion and a controversial county human services block grant program.

It was the functional equivalent of strapping the bill to a rocket and shooting it directly into a black hole. It will never escape. And you could practically hear the peals of Democratic laughter when it happened.

"It was pretty spectacular — what happened," Rep. Patty Kim, D-Dauphin, said in an interview just outside the House chamber on a long, slow Tuesday afternoon. "The bill was 100 pages. It wasn't fully vetted. I applaud Gene DiGirolamo for having it recommitted to his committee."

Then, with some relish, Kim added, "If I know [DiGirolamo], he loves hearings," she said, foreshadowing the long, slow death of the hybrid plan authored by Rep. Mike Tobash, R-Schuylkill, that would have allowed existing state employees to stay in the current pension program and shifted new hires into a 401(k)-style retirement program. And when it came to Corbett, events Tuesday were "a real black eye for [him]," Kim said. "He got into the boxing ring ... and he got hit. It's kind of sad

."