– After some time off and then being too busy to blog while covering indictments after we came back, the always inconsistently posting Borys Blog returns today. We’ll try to do better.
– Monroe County hedge fund manager Chris Paige’s decision to drop out of the 11th Congressional District race is a big boost for the only remaining candidate, Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta.
If Mr. Paige was serious about spending $300,000, he would have forced Mr. Barletta to spend a fair amount of money on the primary election campaign. That would have reduced his kitty for the fall contest against either U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien or Marywood professor Brian Kelly.
In two previous elections, Mr. Barletta has been unable to match Mr. Kanjorski’s spending, head to head anyway because the mayor got a fair amount of help from outside sources. He lost to the congressman in 2002 and 2008.
– Former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum has written a column about the Republican opposition to the health care reform bill and it is not complimentary.
Democratic governor candidate Joe Hoeffel today ripped state Attorney General Tom Corbett for joining other state attorneys general in planning a court challenge to the new health care reform bill.
He also called on fellow Democratic candidates Dan Onorato, Jack Wagner and Anthony Williams to also oppose Mr. Corbett’s “wrongheaded and quixotic” move to “negate the most important federal legislation since the 1964 Civil Rights bill.”
“Mr. Corbett’s reported decision to join a small group of attorneys general from mostly conservative states to challenge this historic legislation is stupefying,” Mr. Hoeffel said. “The health care bill passed this weekend and about to be signed by the President is landmark legislation that will provide health insurance to tens of millions of Americans, end many insurance company abuses and over time reduce our national debt.”
In his news release, Mr. Hoeffel also said Mr. Corbett has more important things to tend to in Pennsylvania than joining a lawsuit from a fringe group of partisan conservatives.
“Is Mr. Corbett going to tell the husband and father who just lost his job that he doesn’t have health insurance?,” Mr. Hoeffel asked. “Is he going to tell the woman who has breast cancer that it’s okay her insurance company dropped her? Is he going to tell the 24-year-old college graduate who is having trouble finding a job that he can’t stay on his parent’s health care plan for a couple of more years until he get his feet under him?”
– BORYS KRAWCZENIUK
