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All politics is local...and corrupt

In a few minutes, Barack Obama is showing up in Philly to talk about race, religion, and all those other fun dinner-table topics. That's all fine and good, but I'd be happy if someone could just come here and get rid of the cesspool known as the Philadelphia Parking Authority.

    by Will Bunch | Columnist
    Published 

In a few minutes, Barack Obama is showing up in Philly to talk about race, religion, and all those other fun dinner-table topics. That's all fine and good, but I'd be happy if someone could just come here and get rid of the cesspool known as the Philadelphia Parking Authority:

It has also led to thousands of dollars in campaign contributions for GOP organizations and candidates.
More than anyone else, the contributions have flowed to state Rep. John Perzel, the Northeast Philadelphia Republican who engineered a GOP takeover of the Parking Authority in mid-2001.
Although the installation, equipment, ticketing and collections for the red-light program are handled by outside contractors, the Parking Authority has established a red-light unit with five employees. It's run by a Republican ward leader, Christopher Vogler, who has two GOP committeemen among his four staff members.

Let's not pretend this thing wasn't also a pathetic hack-filled outfit under the Democratic machine, because it was. That said, the Republicans had a golden opportunity here to show Philadelphia that they were the ones with a new way of doing things.

I think our president said it best:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again."

OK, maybe he didn't say it best, but shame on you, Philadelphia Parking Authority.