Vince Fumo, Dark Lord

Today, the Inquirer ran a story about Vince Fumo and the “dark arts of politics.” It turns out — gasp — Fumo attempted to secretly oppose Ed Rendell in the 2002 gubernatorial primary. Yes, shocking. A man who was forced to resign from a state job in 1973 because the Inquirer reported he had a Nixon-like spy team did something underhanded. A politician did something underhanded. Gasp!

Anyway, the idea didn’t work (as Rendell won). Perhaps he should have hired a better copywriter!

Fumo even plotted exactly how to word the attack. “Rendell is just another Philadelphia Mayor/Lawyer who won’t make US his top priority,” he suggested the advertisement say, according to a Fumo e-mail.

Just another Philadelphia mayor/lawyer. That catchphrase didn’t help Bob Casey win the primary? Gasp! Are we sure Fumo wasn’t actually a double agent for Ed Rendell?

Fumo is also accused of planning a Section 8 housing database, so he could show it to residents of Mayfair or wherever and tell them not to vote for Ed Rendell. What dastardly deeds! (He used a non-profit’s money to compile this list, so I suppose that’s the malfeasance here.)

But, uhm, anyway, can we get that list? I bet it’d be really interesting. The story’s pretty good, by the way, especially the part about Fumo being a dark lord who runs Pennsylvania politics with his wizard hat and his ancient magic. Or maybe I just imagined that part.

Trial sheds new light on how Fumo plied dark arts of politics [Inquirer]