"I fundamentally disagree with F. Scott Fitzgerald that there are no second acts," DeWeese, 61, said Thursday in an interview.
So far, so good. Last fall, in an election all about dumping incumbent Democrats, DeWeese won an 18th term representing his southwestern Pennsylvania district. He overcame a blitz of negative ads (some depicting handcuffs and jail cells to remind voters of his legal straits) to edge out his Republican opponent by 800 votes.
DeWeese wields none of the power of the old days - the days when he'd yank a committee post from a rank-and-file member who didn't vote his way; when he'd think nothing of dropping $6,000 in state funds on monthly travel; when lobbyists were always ready to dine with him.
And the man who as attorney general prosecuted DeWeese now occupies the governor's office.
But DeWeese hasn't lost his rhetorical fire. Nor is he afraid to let Gov. Corbett know he's still around.
He made a point of showing up at the December news conference where Corbett announced his transition team.
With the governor-elect running late, DeWeese briefly appropriated the limelight. Reporters mobbed him to ask what he was doing at his accuser's event.
He explained later that he had many old friends on Corbett's team and would have shown up at any new governor's event.
"He has a certain bravado," says G. Terry Madonna, political analyst at Franklin and Marshall College. "He's not taking a stage exit."
"This nightmare"
On Dec. 15, 2009, DeWeese was charged with four counts of theft and one each of conspiracy and conflict of interest. He was accused of having a state employee do campaign work on state time.
Citing the aide's testimony and that of another former staffer, the grand jury said the aide's "primary function was to be DeWeese's campaign fund-raiser."
