Abscam

JUDGE DEMPSEY SHOULD KNOW THE CONSTITUTION Several years ago, in one of the Abscam cases, former City Councilman Harry Jannotti was found guilty of conspiring to violate the federal Hobbs Act, which condemns official extortion affecting interstate commerce, and was sentenced to a fine and six months in jail. However, in 1987, he decided to run for Council again and filed his nominating petition. That was challenged. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the essence of the federal crime of which Jannotti had been convicted was bribery, and that his crime was "infamous" within the meaning of the Constitution.

Gutsy, tireless, State Rep. Connie McHugh asks a darn good question in her slugfest against the Democratic machine that has owned - and soiled - the City Council seat in the First District: Aren't you tired of seeing your councilmen wearing prison stripes? Indeed, Leland Beloff and Jimmy Tayoun, the last two councilmen from the First, which snakes along Philadelphia's southeastern edge, have been convicted and sent up the river for crude, money-grubbing, office-selling schemes.

During the gubernatorial campaign in New Jersey some cynics expressed the fear that James J. Florio, if elected, would put an unhealthy number of good ol' boys from his Camden County organization into key state jobs. Mr. Florio was elected, and he has announced his initial cabinet appointments, and it seems that the cynics were mistaken. So far, at least, Mr. Florio appears to be opting for competence over cronyism. He has named one Camdenite, three-term Mayor Randy Primas.

Gov.-elect James J. Florio yesterday announced the first of his cabinet appointments, nominating former U.S. Attorney Robert J. Del Tufo as state attorney general. Florio said Del Tufo's qualifications to become what he called the state's "top cop" were unmatched. "He knows the law and he knows law enforcement," Florio said at a news conference in the Senate chambers. Del Tufo, 56, of Morristown, said he wanted to return to government to carry on the public service legacy of his brother, former U.S. Attorney Raymond Del Tufo, who died of multiple sclerosis.

A judge yesterday sentenced John W. Jenrette Jr., a former South Carolina congressman, to 30 days in jail and fined him $2,000 for stealing a necktie and shoes from a department store in Virginia. Jenrette, 53, served 13 months in prison after he was convicted in 1980 of bribery in the Abscam affair, a sting operation in which FBI agents posing as Arab sheiks and businessmen offered bribes to lawmakers. Jenrette was found guilty in June of stealing a pair of shoes and a tie and altering the price tags on a shirt and a pair of pants at a Marshall's department store on Dec. 7. The jury recommended two six-month jail sentences and fines totaling $2,000 for two counts of petty larceny.

Alexander Feinberg, 81, a former Camden County lawyer who was caught in the web of the FBI's Abscam investigation of political corruption, died Thursday at his home in Haddonfield. Mr. Feinberg, who began his career as an assistant District U.S. Attorney from 1950 to 1952, held numerous jobs inside and outside government in a career that spanned 54 years. A graduate of Dickinson Law School, he was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1934. He was a lawyer for Evoy & Feinberg for more than 30 years.

A mayor and the wife of a mayor from opposite sides of the state are asking voters for the Democratic nomination in the Fourth Congressional District. "That's been my label for 25 years," said Betty Holland, the wife of longtime Trenton Mayor Arthur Holland. "I've been trying to convince people I'm something other than that. " Holland, 53, a former congressional aide and Democratic committeewoman, is making her first bid for public office. But Saul G. Hornik, the mayor of Marlboro Township, Monmouth County, does not plan to let Holland step out from her husband's shadow.

Former Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas N. Shiomos was convicted on two counts of extortion and was acquitted of a third count last night by a jury in U.S. District Court. Shiomos, 67, was convicted of accepting $300 from Center City lawyer Barry H. Denker in 1986 as the two men were walking down Sansom Street, and of taking $300 from the Roofers Union in December 1985 as part of the Christmas payments distributed by the union's leader at the time, Stephen J. Traitz Jr. The jury, which deliberated for seven hours before returning its verdict at 9:30 p.m., acquitted Shiomos of accepting a total of $1,000 from Denker in 1984 and 1985 to fix a criminal case.

John W. Jenrette Jr., one of seven members of Congress snared in the FBI's Abscam undercover operation eight years ago, is planning a comeback that he hopes will put him back in his old congressional seat next year. The 51-year-old South Carolinian said Wednesday that, barring a dramatic turnaround in his thinking, he will formally declare his candidacy for Congress next week. "That's certainly my intention," he said in a telephone interview. Jenrette, on probation after spending 13 months in federal prison, acknowledged that he would be the underdog in a Democratic primary against incumbent Robin Tallon, a 41-year-old clothing store operator elected in 1982.