Harrisburg Hoedown - March Of The Shakesperean Soldiers

The partisan angst over Speaker Dennis O'Briens election is not only not over, it is roiling and boiling in the ego-centers of both (?) parties. The party of the right agrees with the party of the left that Mo Money Blues is a tune they can't hear, especially when a taxpayer is humming it, because making money while spending money on the taxpayer's needs is a good thing, at least to the Harrisburg crowd. To stop making money while spending money smacks of honesty which implies reform. YUCK.


Big Ed keeps finding new ways to spend our money and he demands that any increase be "paid" for first. [Ed. note, if you are looking for the bridge classifieds (sale/purchase), please visit our new site www.rendellsuckersales/legisdivision/Rep/Dem/etal.gov] The Old Bulls in the House and the Senate have fired the cleaning project crew hired last November though the House keeps it at least part-time to humor the Speaker and others truly interested in reform. The Old Bulls want reform like Mary wants a little wolf, its fleece right under your nose.


Sometimes the barn just ain't big enough for all the Old Bulls at once. Especially when an Old Bull wanna-be tries to break down the door.


Enter Prince Keith R. McCall, Democrat, Carbon County, aka, the man who inherited his heralded legislative seat and is a minor machiavel hoping to be a major machiavel.


Of the ruling families, Prince Perzel had the power and squandered it through hamfisted stupidity and greed while seemingly patient and magnanimous twin, Prince DeWeese, attempted lemonade out of the lemons Duke Caltagirone gave him in the name of compromise, but the twin's public smile masked their anger. Without fully understanding the Court, their duplicitous ethics coincidently benefitted the common people in the emergence of a minor Prince O'Brien who truly loved the law and the people.


As all the Princes of the Court had done before them, the Princes before O'rien had sought favor with the realm through stability, albeit the stability of favors doled by power that rested in the hands of the few, but the new Prince disgruntled the very bowels of those who "deserved" the power with ideals of reform.


Ever since childhood Johnny and Billy shared, traded and fought over the spoils of their world and now Sir John and Sir William schemed and planned to make the new Prince and all of his lofty ideas disappear. Laughing with one side of their face while a haunting scowl disfigured the other the Princes plotted against the interloper in their world and against each other for one to regain power over the other. They never saw the darkness growing in the hinterlands. It grew as a gray becoming a carbon black cloud just under the horizon.


Every Prince should know the currents of the wind in the lofty towers of power as well as the dark unpleasant currents of the sewers down below. They should, if for no other reason, know in case the winds of misfortune blow them off the tower because their knowledge will tell them which way to swim. A prince who ignores his wind vane will no longer be major domo of his House.


A machiavel character is the most predictable character of any stage of state. There have been those well played and there have been those hardly played at all, but all seek the staring role for themselves. A well played machiavel will read the winds, look for weakness, seek to turn a strength against and sense opportunity to better themself. The true machiavel wants as much of a perfect storm combining his prey's weakness and trouble with his own opportunity to gain.


The Machivellian Harrisburg Hoedown has begun.


The cast:
Prince John Perzel: Former Lord of Fishtown
Prince William DeWeese: Former Knave of Mendacious
Duke Keith McCall: Former Lord of Lansford