Perhaps a silver lining?

They keep saying at the state Capitol that the "reform" era has dawned.

Yeah, right.

Despite all the talk about making state government more open and accountable, one need only to look around:

• Caucus leaders in the House and Senate paid out $3.6 million worth of secret bonuses to legislative staffers over the past two years

• Three of the top legislative leaders who concocted the outrageous 2005 pay grab -- and were booted out of office last year by voters -- registered as lobbyists. Mike Veon, Chip Brightbill and Bob Jubelirer now will be prowling Capitol hallways on behalf of special interest groups. Among their clients, Veon will be representing big tobacco and Jubelirer, the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers

• One of the most powerful members of the state legislature, Sen. Vincent Fumo, D-Philadelphia, stands accused in a 139-count federal indictment of misusing a nonprofit that he steered millions of dollars in state grants to over the years and alleged contractor abuses. That would include an allegation of paying a private detective with state tax dollars to spy on ex-wives and -girlfriends and giving no-show contracts to his pals, including Mitchell Rubin, chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

This is the "new day" they keep talking about?

It's almost as if the Legislature, as it tries to do a few good things, continues to be haunted by its past. If such behavior really is in the past, that is.

And as the problems such as Bonusgate unravel -- there's now an investigation by Attorney General Tom Corbett -- the way legislative leaders handled it was reminiscent of the pay raise. Were the bonuses in some cases payback for political/campaign work? Or were they relatively benign, just part of the secretive underbelly of the state Legislature?

House Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Greene County, was explaining it away as a $400,000 problem in his caucus. While trying to respond in a timely fashion to the news media (which was admirable), he came on center stage ill-prepared and without the most basic facts. Turns out the $400,000 was more than four times higher -- a $1.8 million problem for the House Democrats.

Then, last week, Tom Andrews, DeWeese's spokesman, said the House Democrats would not produce the dates when the bonuses were awarded.

Were they all after the May primary and the November General Election?

Or were they spread out through the year?

Are they given the same time every year?

It might help answer some key questions.

The House Republicans' bonuses were all given on Dec. 6.

You can't come clean part of the way.

The indictment against Fumo -- and even if he's found not guilty of the charges -- raises questions about glaring lack of controls over Senate expenditures. Why, as the indictment alleges, were continued payments allowed to Senate contractors when there were no reports or evidence of the work they did for the Senate?

What kind of system is that?

However bad the Senate is, you can bet the House is a lot worse.

Sure, a tougher legislative audit, as is now finally proposed, and applying the Open Records Law to the Legislature would shed more light. But this has more to do with the chambers not being run in an accountable fashion.

Do you think your boss would approve invoices that merely say "services rendered," as the Senate did?

There is a silver lining: Changing the way the Legislature does business had an outside shot starting the session. Bonusgate and the Fumo affair are a double-barreled blast that might just increase the odds that lawmakers will enact substantive reforms.

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