Liberal Democrats have waged war on Pennsylvania, it's time to fight back

Op-ed

In all, Attorney General Tom Corbett has charged 26 legislators and staffers with felonies for using public resources for campaigns. Among House Democrats, 10 of 12 people charged have been convicted. Two were acquitted.

The typically mild-mannered Judge Richard Lewis took on a stern demeanor at sentencing. He bent over backward to be fair to the defense during the seven-week trial of Cott, Veon and another aide, Annamarie Perretta-Rosepink.

But at Cott's sentencing he talked about how "taxpayers' money was played with like Monopoly" at the state Capitol.

To understand the Cott and Veon mindsets, one needs to realize that to them, this is an all-out political war. The trial itself was run like a campaign. It was attack-oriented and there was no defense to speak of.

It was about taking down Attorney General Tom Corbett, a Republican candidate for governor, or at least not submitting to him. So far, no one has been taken down except Veon, Cott and Rosepink.

Cott no doubt views himself as a political prisoner, battling the state's "evil" top Republican. But Cott stole $50,000 from taxpayers, showed no remorse and didn't bother to apologize to the people who paid him $262,561 in salary and bonuses from 2004-06.

Cott's thinking was on display in the courtroom on the so-called Jumbotron, where one of his e-mails was shown. In an e-mail on the House Democrats' system as he awaited trial, Cott wrote to Barbara Grill, a House Democrat PR official and a likely witness at his trial. She did eventually testify.

In the e-mail Cott complained about that "rat (expletive)" Michael Manzo, who had flipped and was providing the grand jury with evidence.

Prosecutors at Cott's sentencing suggested it was an attempt to intimidate a potential witnes.

Brett Cott, an aide to Veon, was one of the authors on Casablancapa.blogspot.com. Michael Veon is suspected of being SignorFerrari on the same blog. Tom Corbett made headlines when he requested the IDs of some related Twitter accounts, but later withdrew the subpoena.