In a move that demonstrates the ever-resilient nature of John Perzel, Republican leaders in the State House have voted to name him Speaker Emeritus, and give him extra staff and leadership office space.
This means that Perzel has, depending on his wishes, either a graceful position from which to exit the Pennsylvania House for a much more lucrative private sector career, or a platform from which to launch another bid for a third term as Speaker.
This should be an easy agreement to sell to rank and file Republican members, because it does not require any incumbent Republican leader to be bumped out of his position, nor does it require any Republican caucus committee chair to be removed.
It is also a sign that the opposition to him in the House Republican Caucus, which goes far deeper than the six Republicans willing to join Dennis O'Brien and the Democrats, has limits in scope and intensity.
Perzel, like George Bush, epitomizes big government Republicanism. He used state grants for local projects to win the support of many Democrats for key pieces of the Republican agenda, and played a key role in getting six legislators elected on the Democratic ticket to switch to the Republican Party, and three other Democrats to vote for him for re-election as Speaker. It was the Democratic countermove of backing an available Dennis O'Brien, a Republican social services advocate who has long been distanced from Perzel, for Speaker that drove him out of power. Earlier diaries of mine have discussed this in great detail.
The Perzel era brought new power to the Republican Party, as his dealmaking as Majority Leader and Speaker disempowered the Democratic Party under Republican Governors Tom Ridge and Mark Schweiker. Under Governor Ed Rendell, who took office in 2003, Perzel worked to make Rendell pay the highest possible price for support of his initiatives. Rendell was a key player in the recruitment of O'Brien as the Democratic Speaker candidate for Speaker.
A fearsome fundraiser, a master manipulator,a successful strategic takeover specialist for ailing Philadelphia governmental functions, a European style Social Democrat of sorts seeking more governmental funds for the middle class, a quintessential improvisational post-modern politician, John Perzel has already left quite a legacy in Harrisburg and Philadelphia with his innovation and cunning during 18 years as an elected Republican leader.
Until recently, Perzel was given the lion's share of the credit for restoring the Republicans to majority status after twelve years in the minority, and then keeping them in the majority for another twelve years.
But more recently, conservatives have started looking askance at the fiscal costs of his maneuvers, and have used Perzel's lack of articulateness as a weapon against him, blaming him for the Democrats' 2006 resurgence.
While Perzel's strengths and weaknesses obviously have had an impact, the fact remains that Perzel gained majority power in a national period of Republican legislative dominance, and lost majority power in a year of nationwide Democratic gains. National political trends play a lot bigger role in Pennsylvania politics than Pennsylvania politicians like to admit.
In the Fall of 1994, my fellow Democratic leaders and I had lunch with Lieutenant Governor Mark Singel, then the Democratic candidate for Governor. Singel had previously served about a year as Acting Governor due to Governor Robert P. Casey's serious medical conditions, and would later serve as Chairman of the Democratic State Committee.
Singel reviewed his own campaign polls, which showed that he and running mate U.S. Senator Harris Wofford were decisively beating Congressmen Tom Ridge and Rick Santorum at the same time as national polls were showing Democrats going down to defeat in virtually every state.
Singel said he hoped the polls were right, but added "It's hard for me to believe we are strong enough to withstand a national landslide." He and Wofford ultimately were not, and Ridge and Santorum won.
Whatever blame Perzel deserves for losing the state house to the Democrats, and whatever credit the Democrats deserve for our campaign skills and strategies and excellent roster of qualified and overqualified candidates, we must not forget to credit the man who I believe is the single most important reason for our success: George W. Bush.