My Evening with Dennis O'Brien

I sat waiting, tucked into a corner of the Tap Room, a dark, crowded, mahogany-walled "English Pub" style bar that's itself tucked into a corner of the Omni William Penn. The high-def TVs were all showing the same NCAA game that no one was watching while the sound system played some MOR/AOR corporate music that no one seemed to be listening to.

I wasn't waiting that long. The time let me ponder how I got to the point where I was - sitting in a bar downtown with a half finished cola and not at home talking to my fiance. I'd gotten an e-mail a few days ago offering me this interview - and I took it even though I knew I wasn't exactly an expert in Harrisburg politics.

No big deal, I thought. Anything for the blog, I thought.

It turned out to be one of the oddest interviews I've ever done.

A little after 8, The Speaker of the House Dennis O'Brien, his Communications Director and his Chief-of Staff came into the bar and I immediately realized I was too casually dressed. They were there, professionals in suits and ties, I was there in a blue pullover and khakis. With handshakes all around they joined me at my table. Some drinks were ordered.

For those of you who don't know, we've got a bit of a unique situation with the House in Harrisburg. The Democrats are in the Majority (if only barely) but a Republican (O'Brien) is speaker. This is how Tom Barnes described last January how that came about:

Until the weekend before the Jan. 2 election, he wasn't even on the radar screen. The contest was between Mr. Perzel, who, like Mr. O'Brien, is a Republican from northeast Philadelphia, and Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, the strongly partisan former speaker (1993-94) who'd been House minority leader since 1995.

Mr. DeWeese was aching to wield the House gavel again, but his ambition was frustrated when Rep. Tom Caltagirone, D-Berks, said he would vote for Mr. Perzel as an act of protest over Mr. DeWeese's past leadership. Because Democrats hold only a 102-101 edge in the House, Mr. Perzel seemed destined to become speaker again.

So Democratic leaders furiously huddled over New Year's weekend. Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-Montgomery, had an idea: Let's try Mr. O'Brien, a more moderate Republican than Mr. Perzel and someone who has clashed politically with Mr. Perzel.

So a deal was worked out, Mr. O'Brien said last week. He would remain a Republican, but he wouldn't campaign for or raise campaign cash for legislators of either party. That is starkly different from Mr. Perzel, who is known for his fund-raising prowess for Republican candidates.

To win Democratic votes, Mr. O'Brien pledged to run the office in an even-handed way, seeking to form bipartisan political compromises on difficult issues due to arise this year, such as health care changes and taxes to fund transportation needs. When the speaker election was held Jan. 2, Mr. DeWeese pulled a stunner by nominating Mr. O'Brien, who got 99 of the 102 Democratic votes and six of the 101 GOP votes to defeat Mr. Perzel 105-98.

A unique situation, a minority speaker. It must be a delicate dance he must dance all bipartisan-like. Even his staff, I was told, was bipartisan. O'Brien was in town to discuss a symposium on street violence he's holding at the end of March. First, though I had to get some other business out of the way.

Yesterday, State Senator Vince Fumo suffered a heart attack. Asking whether there were any updates, O'Brien answered that Fumo was recovering - they'd done an emergency angioplasty and he seemed to be doing fine. Whatever else might be on the guy's plate, it's good to know he's recovering.

The symposium, O'Brien said, began last June as a conversation in the House about the rise in gun violence in Philadelphia. In expanding that conversation, O'Brien looked to various experts in fields impacting the study of crime; mental health experts, criminology experts and so on. He visited Pitt's School of Social Policy yesterday as another facet of this. Once the study has been completed, there will be policy recommendations made to stem the tide of violence. Sounded like a good idea - contact the experts and see what they had to say.

We talked a little bit about some of the legislative work he'd been working on; notably the recently signed open records law. The last open records law was 50 years old (or there abouts) since then there've been some remarkable technological changes (you're reading from one right now) not anticipated by the old law. For instance, back then "cutting and pasting" was taken literally - people had to cut and paste government documents into a book for later reference. They described the bill as "very good" and among the best in the country.

That led the conversation to the ethics rule changes instituted by the Speaker. It was his first act as speaker to establish a commission (12 Democrats/12 Republicans) to rework the House rules. While the new rules may have slowed the process down a little, they said it made for a higher level of involvement for each member of the house. For instance it mandated 24 hours between the time a bill is introduced and when it could be voted for - allowing a legislator to digest it, if necessary. The process by which an amendment is added to a bill was curtailed as well. It was harder to add an amendment at the tail end of the process in order to kill a bill (profound apologies to Beatrix Kiddo). No more sessions past 11pm. The salary of House employees are released to the public once a year. Roll call and transcripts are now available on line. All new stuff.

Most importantly, no more scissors or glue to cut and paste.

They're working on Autism insurance and a statewide smoking bill (are you listening Johnny Mac?) that's moving through committee right now. There may be a vote, perhaps in mid April on it.

What made the interview odd were the unscheduled interruptions. We were in there not 10 minutes when someone (I think it was the Communications Director) said "Hey, isn't that the Chief Justice?" O'Brien turned, recognized him and went over for a friendly chat.

"They've known each other for years." I was told.

Turns out the PA Supreme Court was in session in Pittsburgh. In the 90 minutes or so I had with the speaker, O'Brien chatted with two other members of the Court who found themselves at the Tap Room: Justice McCafferty and Justice Eakin. The latter came over to our table for a bit but didn't seem overly impressed with my being a blogger, however.

The big surprise of the evening was meeting House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese. A big burly retired Marine (for there are no ex-Marines, I am told) he punctuated his frequent rhetorical exuberances with big burly shoulder slaps and squeezes. Unfortunately, it was my right shoulder he was slapping and pulverizing.

Ow, ow and ow. Anything for the blog, I thought.

I had no idea the Tap Room was such a political meeting place.