As reported in the Delco Times, Rep. Mike Carroll (PA-118) is sponsoring a bill to outlaw all non-wood bats for youth baseball and softball in the Commonwealth.

Even though I’m a loving and protective father with a son who participates in youth baseball, I’m still skeptical about this bill on several grounds:

1. Although there are catastrophic injuries from batted balls, they hardly seem frequent enough to demand a governmental response. The number of annual injuries from batted balls has been going down dramatically over time. And injuries still occur in places that use wood bats. This is one of those cases where the fear of shark attack seems inversely proportional to the risk of shark attacks. Resorting to legislation seems like governmental overreaching, even to a confirmed liberal weenie such as myself. Perhaps we should investigate a ban on swimming pools before we ban metal bats. Or cars, guns, and junk food.
2. Even if one agrees that some coordinated response is required, an outright ban of aluminum seems unnecessary. The biggest factor in generating ball speed is bat speed. An aluminum bat can, and often is, manufactured to increase bat speed by manipulating its weight. But the performance characteristics of aluminum bats can be regulated within the sport. The National Federation of State High School Associations seems to have come up with a perfectly reasonable solution of mandating limits on length-to-weight ratio. (In high school competition, bats cannot be more than three ounces lighter than their length in inches.) If you simply stop the arms race in bat engineering, you’ll probably accomplish just as much good. The length-to-weight ratio is a nice solution, because it is easily managed by umpires and coaches on the field of play.
3. The durability of aluminum bats is a boon to youth baseball.

It doesn’t sound like this legislation is going anywhere. (The Delco Times article leads me to believe that our legislator, Bryan Lentz, is dubious too.) Still, this issue pops up in states and municipalities all the time. I don’t understand why this pet issue has so much staying power.

Of course, we grow a lot of the Northern white ash used in wooden baseball bats here in PA. Maybe some industry lobbyists are behind the scheme.

For red-meat Republicans, he still seems to be seen as a technical guru on electioneering. To Democrats, he’s a demon. Possibly because he rarely appeared in public interviews, or because he’s part of an intensely secretive administration, we have only vague impressions of what the truth might be about Karl Rove. All we know for sure is that he’s a damn poor rapper.

Yesterday’s postmortem in the Post-Gazette on the Rove era is typical of the shallow tripe we’ve been fed by much of the press for years. “Rove’s political acumen was evident in PA,” is the title of the piece. The premise is that Rove focused feverishly on Pennsylvania, and figured out how to turn out the Republican base in PA like nobody ever had before in the 2004 election.

Of course, Bush didn’t carry PA in 2000 or 2004. In 2006, a wave of anti-Bush sentiment allowed four Democratic congressional challengers and one senatorial challenger to defeat incumbent Republicans. Whatever Rove has been peddling, Pennsylvania wasn’t buying it.

Rove’s touted strategy of narrowly holding power via an energized base is at odds with his other claimed interest in creating a permanent Republican majority. A base-only focus seems to be a strategy without contingency, otherwise known as a poor strategy. It is not unlike winning a decisive military battle with a post-war strategy of “we’ll be greeted in the streets with flowers, and oil revenue will pay for everything.”

On this point I will agree with ex-Bush speech writer David Frum in his NY Times editorial:

Building coalitions is essential to political success. But it is not the same thing as political success. The point of politics is to elect governments, and political organizations are ultimately judged by the quality of government they deliver.

Now that we can see his final portfolio, Rove looks to be, at best, a skilled tactician. As a strategist, he seems to have failed almost completely. And if election results in Pennsylvania are any evidence, his tactical dominance is probably overrated too. If Rove’s GOtV operation couldn’t beat the squads of rag-tag MoveOn volunteers, how good could he have been?

Labor Day is approaching. In addition to the start of a new school year, Labor Day is also when local campaigns will start to heat up in anticipation of the November elections.

The Keystone Campaigns blog is a useful sourcebook for ideas if you’re a municipal or regional candidate running in your first election. As an example, see the recent post “Five Rules for Candidates.” I especially endorse the second section about making use of the local party. As an active committeeman and a former campaign manager for a local candidate, I know how essential the network of these local experts is for managing your ground game.

Candidates in our ward don’t need to circulate their own petitions. They don’t have to recruit poll staffing or figure out how to collect election night results. I can place a big stack of yard signs in local yards in one afternoon, or organize a letter stuffing party or lit drop. If you’re walking the ward, I can speed your door-to-door efforts by a considerable amount.

Ornery Delco Times pundit Gil Spencer has never missed an opportunity to tweak freshman Congressman Joe Sestak (PA-7). In his most recent column, he performed a useful journalistic service while dishing out his usual critique of all things Sestak.

Gil got the goods on who Sestak’s opponent might be in 2008. Delco GOP candidates don’t run in primaries. They obtain blessings from machine power brokers like Upper Darby’s John McNichol. According to Spencer, two men are currently courting the approval of the war boarders–attorney Steve Elliott and wealthy real estate developer Tim Pulte. McNichol pulled no punches in explaining to the Times columnist how his party sizes up its potential candidates:

It was Pulte, Upper Darby GOP leader John McNichol mentioned first.

“He’s an attractive candidate, but his family is a little reluctant.”

Which is to say, he’s “interested,” but his wife is less so.

While not dismissive of Elliott, who is a state department lawyer with excellent national security credentials, McNichol looks at all the money Pulte could bring into the race with him.

“The family has a ton of money,” McNichol says, and the candidate would have his own “personal fortune” from which to draw.

“He’s never been in the political arena,” McNichol said of Pulte, but …

“He knew a lot about Sestak. He’s done his research and if he became the candidate, he’d get in there with both feet.”

McNichol was less enthusiastic about Elliott, but only because of his lack of dough.

“He’s well spoken and knows the issues,” said McNichol. “He’s a credible looking candidate.” But, he said, “We’re a ways from making any decisions.” That won’t happen until after Labor Day.

Sestak already has over $1M cash-on-hand saved up for 2008. He can also count on the DCCC defending him like Fort Knox if his race gets even remotely close. The GOP has no choice but to consider fundraising prowess in choosing a candidate to back.

Rep. Bryan Lentz, (D, PA-161) annouced on Friday that he’ll introduce legislation to strengthen the Commonwealth’s Sunshine Act. The measure reportedly has the support of the Local Government Committee Chairman Robert Freeman, (D, PA-136).

Sunshine laws (or open meeting laws) enhance the public’s ability to monitor their government by carefully limiting the topics that may be discussed by a government council or board in private meetings. Despite the law, many such bodies do not adhere to the law’s requirements.

Unfortunately, the Pennsylvania law is effectively toothless. According to 65 Pa.C.S.A. § 714:

Any member of any agency who participates in a meeting with the intent and purpose by that member of violating this chapter commits a summary offense and shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding $100 plus costs of prosecution.

So the penalty is a mere slap on the wrist, and that only if a brave citizen takes legal action, and the officials can be demonstrated to have participated with the intent to subvert the law.

Recent alleged misconduct in Haverford has brought the issue of the Sunshine Act back to the fore. The Governor has indicated that he’s in favor of toughening the law. Lentz, a reform-oriented freshman from Delaware County who sits on the Local Government Committee, is the right person to get the ball rolling.

Because Delaware County has lived under one-party rule for thirty years, this is an issue on which I’m unusually sensitive. In fact, the only time I have marched into a public meeting and griped at my municipal commissioners was when allegations arose that they’d been discussing out-of-bounds topics in executive session.

Daddy Democrat endorses the efforts of any legislators, regardless of party, to strengthen the Sunshine Act. My gratitude goes out, yet again, to Bryan Lentz. Politically, everybody knows I’m a big supporter of his, but so far, he’s done everything to deserve my continued trust.

Congressman Joe Sestak (PA-07) made a recess visit to speak with the Swarthmore College Democrats Monday afternoon. He gave a brief report on how he has been fulfilling his campaign pledges since taking office in January. Then he took questions for most of an hour from the audience of 40-50 students and other members of the College community.

Sestak fielded questions from the audience on topics as diverse as extraordinary rendition, foreign aid, and libraries. A number of the questions focused on energy policy, global warming and the environment. (On those matters, Sestak notes that he’s co-sponsoring bills to raise the CAFE standard, and two different bills on global warming that are supported by the Sierra Club. He’d also spent time today talking with local experts on issues relating to improved management of our troubled Delaware County watersheds.) Sestak also discussed Iraq, and his view of Congress’ constitutional role in oversight and management of the war. He referenced the need to fix and extend No Child Left Behind before it is reauthorized this year. And, of course, he was asked about his recent controversial appearance at a CAIR banquet. (On that front, Joe encourages those with concerns about his appearance to at least judge him on his full remarks.)

My personal observations about Joe are that he is more at ease and less programmed than he was as a candidate. He gave answers that were more off the cuff, and he told a few light anecdotes and jokes. He’s still prone to long, meandering explanations on some topics where a simple statement of conviction is all that’s required. (His answer on the role of Congress in oversight of the war included a story of George Washington, Tom Delay’s questioning of his patriotism on Meet the Press, and a listing of the specific war power in the Constitution.) Were I able to bend his ear, I would keep encouraging him that his answers will be more powerful and direct if he can keep them short and from the heart.

Nevertheless, we have to recognize that this is no ordinary freshman legislator. He has thrown himself into the fray with a great deal of vigor and dedication. He’s sticking to his guns on tough issues and staking out his claim to influence processes in the House and the Democratic Caucus. He’s bringing high-ranking officials to the district to hear from our citizens. He’s following through with votes that match campaign pledges. I’m most impressed that he’s assumed the Vice Chairmanship of the Small Business Committee as a freshman, which is a tremendous platform for working on economic development–something that Delaware County seriously needs to stave off the slow drain of jobs and workers.

After decades of one-party representation, it’s also simply refreshing to have a Democrat in Congress to come talk to the loyal progressives at ol’ Swarthmore. (We were liberal when liberal wasn’t cool.)

Truth in our House brings news that the Pay Raise Pigs are back, this time to harass the board and senior administrators of PHEAA. There are even pics.

I sense that what was once a political publicity stunt may develop into something of a Pennsylvania tradition.