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What's the difference between a rainmaker and a crook?
Kemp, a certified crook, has served a third of a 10-year prison term. That's about twice as long as he served as city treasurer.
Kemp used his position to steer city business to the late Ron White, a friend and fundraiser for former mayor John Street. This earned Kemp $10,000 in cash, a new back porch, two Super Bowl tickets, a ride on a private jet, a weekend in a ritzy hotel and the aforementioned decade in the slammer.
When he wasn't harvesting perks or off on junkets, Kemp found time to defraud his church, his pastor and the IRS. How's that for multitasking?
So, I'm not on the committee to free Corey Kemp. He earned that 10-by-12-foot room and bath that he and a cellie are sharing in a federal facility.
But 10 years seems like a lot for a little when compared with the millions in public and private funds that real rainmakers like former state Sen. Vince Fumo toss around like poker chips.
Fumo, who is fighting for his freedom in federal court, is not yet a certified crook.
But he is a rainmaker who parlayed his position and prestige into millions of dollars in "donations." Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods banked $28 million in "donations" from friends of Fumo.
You could build a better neighborhood than Beverly Hills for that kind of money.
About $17 million came from Peco. The Delaware River Port Authority, which Fumo "served" as a board member, kicked in $10 million for Citizens Alliance and $1.1 million for Spring Garden Community Development Corporation, Fumo's neighborhood charity.
You'd think charity of this magnitude would be a source of pride. But Peco hid its donations for years. The DRPA, which recently raised its bridge tolls by 33 percent, tends to downplay the $375 million it has donated to its favorite charitable projects.
So, if their charity didn't even give them a good feeling, what did they get for our money?
Dan Whelan, former president of Verizon Pennsylvania, offers a clue. He claims Fumo tried to shake him down for $50 million in various donations and business deals in return for backing off legislation that would have broken Verizon Pennsylvania into smaller companies.
But neither this alleged quid pro quo nor any other alleged "this-for-that" arrangement that may help explain all that charity is before a jury.
Because rainmaking, even when it's acid rain, is legal. Judging by the responses of the two well-placed Democratic lawyers Whelan consulted, it may even be ethical.
Whelan claims Arthur Makadon, managing partner of Ballard, Spahr, Andrews and Ingersoll, and David L. Cohen, a top executive with Comcast Corp. who was Mayor Ed Rendell's top aide when he wasn't working for Ballard, both shrugged it off when Whelan reported Fumo's alleged shakedown to them.
They urged him to "work something out" with Fumo, Whelan testified. Makadon tells me that he doesn't remember it quite that way. Cohen observes a strict policy of not talking about the Fumo trial.
But Whelan's claim illustrates the difference between crooks and rainmakers.
Rainmakers are connected.
When you have every mover and shaker in town on speed dial, you're a rainmaker. Kemp was from Reading. He was 36 years old and everybody he called got busy rearranging their sock drawers.
Rainmakers get things done. We may never know if Fumo did anything illegal or unethical for all that largesse - but he could have.
Kemp didn't even have the authority to award a contract. He could recommend a lawyer as a bond counsel. But he couldn't make it happen.
Corey Kemp was just a freelance felon. He started stealing before he had cultivated the kind of influential associations that can provide a cloak of respectability for the better-connected.
You can't just blow in from Reading and hang out your shingle.
Pay-to-play is a team sport in this town. *
Send e-mail to smithel@phillynews.com or call 215-854-2512. For recent columns: http://go.philly.com/smith
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