I mean, there were actual votes - even from a few senators actually present (proxy voting is pretty big here) - to reform legislative redistricting and curb lobbyists' gifts to lawmakers.

This was bipartisan with no arguments, just a little discussion, and both measures passed, one unanimously.

WHAT?

IN PENNSYLVANIA?

Relax.

As an earthling born and raised in the state, and as a journalist covering its politics for decades, I know better.

Yeah, the committee sent to the full Senate two bills that could go a long way to curing the culture of self-serving incumbency that our Legislature has honed to an ugly art.

But I put chances of their success somewhere around, well, nonexistent.

The first measure changes how legislative districts are drawn every 10 years after each census.

This is the bread and butter of politics.

It's a system controlled by the very lawmakers who benefit from it, long used to draw district lines to protect incumbents, punish enemies and reduce competitive democracy.

This November more than half the House and Senate seats have no opposition.

Both parties conspire to carve up the state so that both can be all but guaranteed certain electoral numbers.

They basically share.

This year 55 Republican incumbents or candidates and 65 Democrats face no opponents in the fall.

Since changing the system means amending the constitution (which requires passage in two legislative sessions and a voter referendum), action has to happen soon, like within two weeks, to affect the next redistricting after the 2010 census.

So, Gov. Rendell urges fast passage:

"This issue is neither arcane nor academic," he says. "How we draw legislative boundaries impacts the daily lives of Pennsylvanians because competitive elections in rationally drawn districts are the only way that voters can make their voices heard on the issues that matter to them."

Nice. Though you might be surprised how little his urgings matter.

Lehigh Valley Democratic Sen. Lisa Boscola's bill, approved by the committee yesterday, takes redistricting out of the hands of the Legislature and gives it to a nonpartisan civil-service bureau.

(A dozen states already exclude their legislatures from the process.)

Philly Rep. Babette Josephs, who heads the House State Government Committee, is sitting on a similar measure.

While the clock ticks.

And even though good-government groups such as Common Cause and the League of Women Voters seem happy and even a little hopeful after yesterday's vote, I think they're dreaming.

After the meeting, I chat with the committee chairman, Harrisburg Republican Sen. Jeff Piccola.

He's been around: elected to the Legislature in '76; briefly ran for governor in '06; unsuccessfully sought to be Senate leader.

What's your gut tell you about this getting to the Senate floor, I ask?

"Oh, it's not," he says, "My gut, my head, my heart, everything tells me it's not."

Ah.

Well, then, what about your bill banning gifts from lobbyists that exceed $10, which passed the committee, 11-0?

(Piccola isn't all that popular with other senators.)

That, he says, has a chance since it's easy to understand.

I'd suggest it has no chance since it's easy to understand.

It could end free booze and meals, overseas trips, golf outings, Penn State tickets and more.

It could end the Legislature's sometime image as a brothel that produces bills.

But don't hold your breath.

I see yesterday as little more than a legislative tease, a shy show of stocking to reformers and maybe constituents in an election year, an effort to convince the masses the lady's not a tramp. *

Send e-mail to baerj@phillynews.com.

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