New Book Is A Primer On PA Political Corruption
By Tony Romeo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A new book just published chronicles more than 100 years of corruption in Pennsylvania politics.
Over the last few years, Pennsylvania has seen the corruption trials of numerous legislative leaders and a state Supreme Court justice, with charges pending in an alleged pay to play scheme at the Turnpike Commission.
As bad as all that sounds, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review capitol reporter Brad Bumsted says it's actually been worse:
"There was a worse period in the 1970s during the Shapp administration. There were up to 70 officials charged with crimes during that period. And Richard Thornburgh, who became governor, was a prosecutor who prosecuted a lot of those people."
There was even a scandal involving overcharges for furnishings in the construction of Pennsylvania's current capitol building -- a structure the author calls a "monument to graft."
Bumsted chronicles it all in his new book "Keystone Corruption" available through Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
