The PA Green Party Withers and Turns Brown

It became clear recently that the Green Party candidates in Pennsylvania only managed to collect the 67,000 signatures necessary (they got more than that, but's the minimum needed) to get on the fall ballot because they got help from...their competition. Published reports now show that Senator Rick Santorum, his staffers and many other top GOP lobbyists and corporate interests were at the forefront of helping with the massive job of getting the signatures.

Why? Because Santorum and his money-buds want to split the ticket, in an effort to upset Bob Casey, who has been running far out ahead of the incumbent for months. It was an act of desperation, though, from a purely political viewpoint, a smart move.

Or was it? The Green Party candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor have withdrawn, claiming they can't afford to fight a lawsuit brought by Democrats who are challenging the petitions, which apparently include untold number of fake names.

Carl Romanelli has not yet done the same, but that time is nigh. Romanelli and his cohorts have severely and perhaps unalterably disgraced the Green Party in Pennsylvania. They have been snookered into making a deal with the Devil, and were drawn, by money or ego or desire for power, into the nest of vipers that is the GOP circle of hell, composed of Senator Santorum, influential lobbyists and big money corporate interests. In one foul swoop, they managed to get Romanelli on the ballot AND destroy any credibility he may have had. By accepting the "help" of his enemies, Romanelli became one of them.

It is a perverse and sad event for a third party to fall prey so easiliy to this sort of manipulation and coercion.

But does it help Santorum? Doubtful. Even if Romanelli remains on the ballot, he can at best be called spoiled goods. His fellow Greens, who must be steaming with anger and disappointment, will undoubtedly either stay home or vote for Casey in protest of this unbelieveable act of betrayal.