Former Pennsylvania lawmaker gets five years in prison, his party remains a mystery

This is an ugly, ugly story of corruption in – would you believe it – New Jersey. And an even uglier story of the media burying that politician’s political party.

A former Pennsylvania lawmaker who prosecutors said became “drunk with power” in his many years in the state Senate was sentenced Tuesday to less than five years in prison, a steep departure down from what the judge was asked to impose for the corruption conviction.

Former Sen. Vincent Fumo misappropriated millions from the state and two nonprofits. A jury found he used their coffers to clean his mansion, charter yachts, and spy on an ex-girlfriend and political foes.

“Maybe I should not have asked my staff to do the favors I did,” an ashen-faced Fumo said before he was sentenced. “Judge, I never intended to steal. The last thing on my mind was taking money from anybody. I’ve never done that.”

Remarkably, we don’t learn which political party Fumo was affiliated until the 17th paragraph of this story and even then it’s only mentioned peripherally:

Gov. Ed Rendell, a spying target and sometime rival, called his fellow Democrat “ruthless” but told the judge in a letter that Fumo nonetheless “has a deep sense of social responsibility.”

Which news source buried Fumo’s Democrat affiliation? If you guessed CBS, you’d be wrong. If you guessed NBC, you’d be wrong. If you guessed Associated Press, you’d be wrong. If you guessed MSNBC, you’d be wrong.

The offending news organization turns out to be those dastardly conservatives at Fox News.

Don’t look now, Keith Olbermann, but this looks suspiciously fair and balanced.

Source: FoxNews.com