Now THAT'S A Switch!

This weekend, in its "Whispers" column, the Tribune-Review reported some embarrassing divorce news about a prominent Pittsburgher - Attorney Edgar Snyder.

For the record, I've never met Attorney Snyder (though his commercials are on TV often enough that I feel as though I do!) and I have no interest in the outcome of whatever divorce proceedings may or may not be taking place.  I just wish the two of them well whatever happens.

On the other hand, he's a public figure and so it's at the very least borderline as to whether news of his private life is newsworthy.

The Trib has decided that it is.

And that's the switch for the Scaife camp, isn't it?  A HUGE switch.

From Dietch at the City Paper in 2007:

Thanks to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, you no longer have to wonder why Pittsburgh Tribune-Review publisher Richard Mellon Scaife worked so hard to have his ongoing divorce proceedings sealed.

Earnings of $3.9 million per month; annual loses at his downtown paper totaling $20 million to $30 million a year; an alleged affair; and a whopping, record-setting temporary alimony payment of $725,000 per month.

Despite his best efforts, some of the most sensitive documents filed in the case of pre-nupless, billionaire Scaife's divorce are now a matter of public record. But Scaife is fighting to have those documents hidden again -- with a legal petition that is itself sealed.

On Sept. 16, the Tribune-Review's rival, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, published a story by reporter Dennis Roddy revealing some of the allegations contained in legal filings. The papers alleged that Scaife was underwriting his wife's living expenses, and the Tribune-Review's business losses, to the tune of millions of dollars a year.

On Friday Sept. 21, Roddy and the paper were served with summons to appear at 4 p.m. Sept. 26 in front of Judge Alan Hertzberg: Scaife was demanding that the paper return published documents to the court.

Ah...so the details of a divorce of a prominent Pittsburgh were to be sealed and hidden away from the public.

So I have to I wonder why the Scaife's Trib decided to out Snyder's divorce but his lawyers fought to keep his own embarrassing secrets hidden.

I guess I have an answer - and now you do, too.

Roddy Relocates

From the City Paper:

Dennis Roddy, a fixture of Pittsburgh journalism for nearly four decades, is leaving the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and taking a job in the fledgling Corbett Administration.

"It was time for me, at age 57, to find out if I possess any transferable skills," says Roddy.

Roddy's job will be in communications. And while he says his exact duties have yet to be defined, he won't be a spokesman: "Let's face it -- no one would believe anything a reporter has to say."

Well, let's take a look at what this reporter HAS said.

It was Roddy who wrote about the Richard Mellon Scaife divorce:

The divorce case titled Scaife v. Scaife has wound its way through the courts under a blanket of secrecy as both sides struggle over a storied Pittsburgh fortune surpassing $1.4 billion and a temporary monthly alimony payment bigger than the life savings of most people.

Margaret Ritchie Battle Scaife, 60, and her husband, Mellon banking and oil heir Richard Mellon Scaife, 75, have been unable to agree on support payments, whether one of his newspapers is a hobby or a business investment, and even the date of their separation. She says they split in December 2005, after she caught him in an affair. He says they separated 10 months earlier.

Details of the dispute have remained out of the public eye for more than a year. Lawyers for Mr. Scaife, a reclusive financier of the political right who underwrote much of the campaign against the Clinton administration in the 1990s, asked Allegheny County Judge Alan Hertzberg to seal the record of his divorce. The judge complied.

Yea, I led with Scaife. Deal with it. By the way, the temporary alimony payments Roddy mentioned? $725,000 per month.

And it was Dennis Roddy who wrote so lovingly about everyone's favorite County Council man Chuck McCullough:

The single largest donor to Allegheny County candidates this year is a 90-year-old Upper St. Clair widow who hasn't voted for seven years and says she never agreed to give $10,000 each to four Republican candidates, including one for Superior Court and three for Allegheny County Council.

Shirley H. Jordan, whose late husband, attorney Fred Jordan, pioneered workers' compensation law and invested widely, is on record with contributions of $10,000 each to Cheryl Allen, who is seeking the GOP nomination for Superior Court, and County Council candidates Vince Gastgeb, Jan Rea and Susan Caldwell. The checks were drawn from the Shirley Jordan Trust, housed at Northwest Savings Bank, and signed by a bank trustee.

And:

She blamed the donation on her attorney, Charles McCullough, himself a candidate for County Council. Mr. McCullough took control of Mrs. Jordan's affairs following a court dispute that began after she was taken in 2005 to St. Clair Hospital, where a doctor diagnosed her with moderate dementia. A Common Pleas Court judge later declared her incapacitated.

McCullough's still on County Council - even after being indicted. And although his trial is scheduled to begin in May, he's showing he's got some humongous cojones. From Jim O'Toole at the P-G:

The next few days could clarify the murky Republican picture on the race to succeed Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato.

So far, no one has declared for the GOP nomination, but three potential candidates -- each of them surprising in different ways -- are reported to be considering the race.

Perhaps most startling is the possibility that county Councilman Chuck McCullough could flout his criminal court indictment by running for the GOP nomination for the county's top job.

It's amazing that the Allegheny County GOP can include BOTH Mark DeSantis (who's a good guy) and Chuck McCullough (who, if all this reporting is to be believed, just isn't).

Roddy even became part of the McCullough story. From June of '09, we was reported (quoting the criminal indictment) that McCullough was being charged with:

Two counts of making false reports to law enforcement. McCullough is charged with falsely reporting to Upper St. Clair police that P-G reporter Dennis Roddy had harassed Jordan when no harassment occurred.

Did I say that Chuck's still on County Council?

And let's not forget Dennis being on the receiving end of Mayor Luke's more memorable examples of public safety largess. At G20 time, Dennis was among those gassed by the Luke's police in Oakland.

Bon Voyage, my friend. Knock 'em dead in Harrisburg.

A Couple of P-G Notes

I got a chance to see Dennis Roddy's latest music video posted at PG+. If you have a chance to see it, please do. Dennis is a very funny guy and the video is a very funny video.

ALSO I learned from my brief sojourn at PG+ that Jack Kelly is a bit under the weather. In today's chat between Reg Henry and Ruth Ann Dailey (who was filling in for Jack), Reg says that it's a gall bladder thing.

Honestly - as much as I detest Kelly's politics and as much as I rake him over the coals at this blog, I wish him nothing but good health.

Good Health to you, Jack!

Clever Dennis Roddy, Very Clever

An astute reader posted a comment today that I had to (just had to) expand into a full fledged blog posting of it's own.

I'm ususally a big fan of Dennis Roddy. He's usually spot on - factwise.

Not today - not really. Take a look at this article. Specifically, this passage:

A pro-life Casey Democrat talks rapturously of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose husband Bill kept the city's standard-bearer, Gov. Robert Casey Sr., off the platform at two conventions.

And this one:

Scranton has for 35 years been the epicenter of Pennsylvania's anti-abortion movement. Its most famous hometown boy was Gov. Robert P. Casey Sr., an ardent liberal who found himself on the outside of his own party because of his ardent pro-life stand. It was the Clinton forces in 1992, and again in 1996, who denied Mr. Casey the right to speak at his own party's national convention where he wanted to deliver a pro-life speech.

And this:

"I'm a Catholic and I'm still a Roman Catholic," Mrs. Vancosky said. "I'm older and I have older views. And I was for Clinton, even though he didn't let Casey have the podium. I am definitely a Hillary girl."

Take a look at he says (and more importantly, what he doesn't say). Our astute reader pointed out that Roddy was repeating the "tired old lie" that Casey, Sr was denied a spot at the Democratic Convention because of his pro-life views.

Our astute reader, though, is wrong. Take a look again, very closely, at what Roddy wrote. He never gives a reason for Casey being denied a spot at either convention does he?

The story about the '92 convention has been around for a long long time. I am hoping that Roddy isn't looking to his readers will "fill in the blanks" of what he didn't write with enough bits and pieces of the false story to continue it's lifespan. That way he can say still he never said what everyone thinks he said.

We even wrote about this "story" almost a year ago. We quoted:

According to those who actually doled out the 1992 convention speaking slots, Casey was denied a turn for one simple reason: his refusal to endorse the Clinton-Gore ticket. "It's just not factual!" stammers James Carville, apoplectic over Casey's claims. "You'd have to be idiotic to give a speaking role to a person who hadn't even endorsed you."

There's more. Digby dug up the original New Republic article (it's behind a subscription wall) and typed out this:

The man best able to explain the decision was the late Ron Brown. He addressed the topic during a roundtable discussion of Clinton campaign veterans (published as Campaign for President: The Managers Look at '92). He explained:

We decided the convention would be totally geared towards the general election campaign, towards promoting our nominee and that everybody who had the microphone would have endorsed our nominee. That was a rule, everybody understood it, from Jesse Jackson to Jerry Brown.... The press reported incorrectly that Casey was denied access to the microphone because he was not pro-choice. He was denied access to the microphone because he had not endorsed Bill Clinton. I believe that Governor Casey knew that. I had made it clear to everybody. And yet it still got played as if it had to do with some ideological split. It had nothing to do with that.

And then there's this:

Besides, Casey repeatedly bashed Clinton during the primaries, calling Clinton's success "very tragic." Less than three months before the '92 convention, he urged, "Convention rules provide for the selection of an alternative candidate. Let's pick a winner." Why would Clinton invite him to speak?

Sorry Dennis, your tellytubby impression was sublime, but you got this one wrong.