Speaker O'Brien

Real Republicans should not forget that the new state House speaker, Dennis M. O'Brien, R-Philadelphia, was and is a pay-jacker. That's an application of tar and feathers no legislator ever should be able to scrape and pluck entirely.

Mr. O'Brien was nominated by Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Greene County, the latter once presumed the new speaker after Democrats took a House majority of 102-101 in the November election.

Dethroned Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, might have thought he had a Democrat crossover vote to win the race -- Rep. Thomas Caltagirone, D-Berks County -- but that sure didn't work out. With Democrat help, O'Brien won 105-97 over Mr. Perzel.

We hope the door on the speaker's office gives Perzel, a pay-jacking ringleader and a force against legislative reform, a cracking slap in the rump as he exits.

In O'Brien we have pay-jacker Mr. DeWeese's assurance that he is "a fine-hearted idealistic Republican." That means DeWeese thinks him a fine Democrat in GOP clothing, malleable and unprincipled. There's a lot of that in the Philadelphia area.

The fact that the pay-jacking largely led to 50 new members in the House caused O'Brien, who entered the House in 1977, to position himself as a breath of fresh air.

"You have my pledge. I will move reform issues forward and I will try to be as fair as I possibly can," he said.

As long as Bill DeWeese and Ed Rendell let him?