Fire Marino

Lift him up and carry him along
Fire Marino right away
And lay him down where he belongs
Fire Marino right away
[adapted from "Fire Maringo" shanty]

The latest Times Leader article about Tom Marino features his unwillingness to address the fact that a source in the US Justice Dept. claims no letter was issued granting Marino permission to serve as a character reference for Louis DeNaples. Indeed, it seems that along with Scranton Republican Ernie Preate, Marino has an unnatural affity for DeNaples--a casion mogul whom many NEPA residents hold with contempt.

As predicted, Chris Carney has begun to assert most tendentiously that Marino is horribly corrupt for allegedly having lied. If Carney chides Marino for a lack of transparency, however, Carney reveals himself to be a hypocrite, because he, along with Pelosi, "passed the healthcare bill in order to see it." Moreover, Carney never made any inquiry into President Obama's refusal to produce a copy of his original long-form birth certificate; I'm not equivocating Marino's lack of a document with Obama's; I'm merely illustrating that Carney is no better when it comes to transparency than Marino.

Steve Corbett claimed on air yesterday that he twice telephoned Tom Marino, with Marino answering and each time acting like he couldn't hear Corbett by saying "hello? hello? hello?" when Corbett identified himself as the caller.

Although Corbett doesn't like Obama (because Obama defeated Hillary), he has endorsed Paul Kanjorski and seems to be fond of Joe Sestak. Moreover, Corbett has a blind-eye for statist agression, and is a big-government liberal. So he may be a little biased in his thoughts about Tom Marino; but nonetheless, it does seem disturbing that Marino may have lied about the letter and then pretended not to hear Corbett in order to dodge answering questions about it.

Tom Marino has been a successful lawyer, and I believe the success has went to his head. He should have known his relations with DeNaples would cause him serious problems in the fall. (How smart it was for Carney to wait until Marino won the primary to begin hollering about his DeNaples relationship.) I believe Madeira or Derk would have been much better suited for reclaiming the 10th District for the GOP. Madeira, in particular, would have schooled Carney on the Healthcare issue. I believe it best for Marino to resign from his campaign and for the GOP to put in his place David Madeira, the primary runner-up. But this seems highly unlikely.

At the Issues & Eggs breakfast held by the Luzerne GOP last spring, Marino's short speech seemed rather hackneyed. He lauded his past as a factory worker and restaurant employee. But anyone who has worked in either industry knows that there are plenty jerks in both. Having a history of working in them would only appeal to a weak-minded populist. What I was looking for in Marino was a commitment to principles of liberty and conservatism, and in that regard he seemed to come up a little short of what I was looking for.

A certain dilema for conservatives in the Wyoming Valley is whether they'd rather put up with another two years of Carney and then possibly get a better candidate than Marino in 2012, or elect Marino now and be stuck with him until he either gets caught in corruption or becomes too old to serve. Because I don't know the extent of Marino's relationship with DeNaples & Co. and how sincerely liberty-minded he is, I cannot say which I prefer.