Senator Bob Mellow

The latest foible in the Senator's political career is linked here.

Unrepentant, unmitigated, unashamed GREED, unchecked lust for POWER, ARROGANCE.

I should leave the entire blog entry with just the above, because I think it says it all. Now in all fairness, you can't completely blame Senator Mellow, in the same sense that you can't completely blame a drug-addict for his/her condition; after all, in the case of an addict, someone had to supply him/her with the narcotics. In the case of Senator Mellow there is also blame to go around:

FIRST, to the voting population of Senator Mellow's district, who have given this gentlemen a free pass at the voting booth all these years. That's the problem with con-men: they can only apply their craft if there are those gullible enough to be conned in the first place.

SECOND, to the local newspapers who have given the Senator a pass all these years up until now. While I'm glad that some of these issues are coming to light, some have existed for years without much scrutiny from the folks at The Scranton Times.

THIRD, to a political system in Harrisburg designed around perpetuating abuse through "tough as tissue paper" ethics standards, a classic case of the fox being allowed to watch the hen-house.


Bottom Line: Senator Mellow has abused the trust of these he is elected to serve through blatant conflicts of interest (serving on boards of organizations he in turn has a say in regulating). He has enriched himself with taxpayer dollars (through having the state pay rent to a company partially owned family members). He has inflated his ego at taxpayer expense by using taxpayer money for things that end up getting named after him. He has engaged in the worst kinds of political maneuvering (being a proponent of late night pay raises for legislators).

Senator Mellow should resign, period.