Tales of city politicos

Three stories today of The Good, The Bad, and mostly The Ugly:

1. State House Speaker John Perzel is one of the politicians most closely associated with the tempest over the summer's pay-hike. Now a possible rival for the next election is banging on his neighbor's doors in Northeast Philadelphia and offering an alternative.
   
   
2. Mayor John Street's "top integrity officer," the Inspector General, quit yesterday over questions about whether he was meeting residency requirements for the post. Earlier in the year the Deputy Controller left under a similar cloud. Doesn't anybody read the regulations? not even the enforcers??
   
   
3. Meanwhile, a Democratic Ward leader in West Philly has been A.W.O.L. for the last six months but appeared just in time to disappear again with the Ward's money. The committeefolks thought they had ousted him already, but he's holding on by a technicality, while making no pretense of actually doing the job.

Also, not a politico but somehow related in spirit as well as in genes, Mayor Street's brother Milton, once controversial for getting rich off city-related consultancy and vending deals, is now filing for bankruptcy, perhaps trying to escape a bunch of unpaid storage costs for equipment at Penn's Landing. Very pretty.