Ed Rendell

Former Gov. Ed Rendell and former Mayor W. Wilson Goode have launched a fund-raising effort to pay the legal bills of U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah's son, who has been under federal investigation for months. Rendell said he agreed to pitch in after Rep. Fattah contacted him for help. Rendell, in an interview, estimated that the Philadelphia congressman and his wife had spent $250,000 to help Chaka "Chip" Fattah Jr., 30, and said the costs had become a "little bit of a struggle" for the family.

Is it just me, or does it feel a little, I don't know, gross that, while we're awash in headlines about a "Doomsday Budget" for our public schools, a cadre of well-coiffed businessmen are sharing grandiose plans for yet another Philadelphia casino? How'd we get here? Seems as if, over the last decade, gaming has become a type of crack cocaine for a whole generation of politicians: With their budgets squeezed by economic downturn and an electorate all too willing to vote out of office anyone who considers a tax hike, our so-called leaders - rather than make the hard choices and right-size their governments - have opted for the quick-fix high of casinos, long-term consequences be damned.

THE Daily News is not the only media outlet assuming that Ed Rendell will win today's gubernatorial race, although it was the only one to say so out loud, which should surprise no one. Two weeks ago, I spoke with a reporter from the nation's leading political magazine. Its upcoming cover story will be on the new governors elected this week. Apparently, this election may yield the biggest crop of new state chief executives in memory. The story revolves around Ed Rendell, because everyone assumes he'll win, and because he's expected to be the best-known of the new governors.

WHEN ED RENDELL took office as only the sixth Democratic governor in Pennsylvania in 100 years, he surely wasn't expecting his path to be strewn with roses. Republicans dominated the Legislature, and they rarely show a soft spot for Philadelphia. Still, it was clear Rendell wasn't prepared for the bruising battle over his first budget. When the budget finally passed after a grinding nine-month standoff, it gave Rendell only a little of the education spending he wanted, and none of the economic stimulus or property-tax relief he had campaigned on. The state deficit was then $2 billion.

KATE Michelman and Leslie Anastasio (OpEd, April 9) are right on Ed Rendell's being the only choice for those who support the rights granted to women under Roe vs. Wade. A woman's right to choose hinges on the precarious 5-4 bloc in the U.S. Supreme Court. Even if that bloc remains intact, who's to say that our conservative state legislature will not attempt to pass further restrictions? Arlene Lee, Holmes, Pa. It is unusual in a primary for Democrats to have such a stark contrast in candidates as Bob Casey Jr. vs. Ed Rendell this year.

AFTER SEVEN YEARS of Tom Ridge and one of Mark Schweiker - and the Republican philosophy of the less government the better - where does the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania stand? Right near the bottom in chart after chart comparing the commonwealth to other big states in the vital areas of jobs, population growth and education. Come the general election in November, Pennsylvania needs at least one gubernatorial candidate who will provide bold, visionary leadership. Someone who sees Pennsylvania not only for what it is, but for what it can be. In the Democratic primary for governor, only one candidate fills the bill: Ed Rendell.

The dreary day after found Edward G. Rendell back in his shabby campaign office, littered with half-empty jugs of white wine, paper cups and tattered Rendell-for-Mayor posters, fielding phone calls and pronouncing the battle well fought. He was discouraged, disappointed, tired, drained, but not, he said, bitter or regretful. "We ran a good campaign, a great campaign, and I wouldn't have done anything differently," Rendell said yesterday. "I don't think that much went wrong.

In little more than seven months, the most effective big-city mayor in America will step down. I ask Ed Rendell and his well-heeled supporters to pave the way for him to take on a more daunting challenge than he confronted eight years ago. Rendell should become point man in a nationwide campaign to enact the strictest gun-control legislation in the free world. Let the movers and shakers of Philadelphia who have contributed tens of millions of dollars to Rendell's campaigns step up one more time and put up the seed money to fund an organization whose goal is to disarm America.

Ed Rendell, the former district attorney who wants to be the next mayor of this woebegone city, keeps saying that nobody cares anymore, that nothing works in Philadelphia, that people have lost faith in City Hall. He said this several times during the televised debate with Wilson Goode, and he said it a half dozen times on the campaign hustings one evening last week. He said it so many times that I think he might really believe it - and not without good reason. He started out a night of campaign appearances the other evening at Messiah Lutheran Church, at Broad and Roosevelt Boulevard.

SUBJECT: The Sam Katz candidacy. It is clear that the city regressed significantly after the era of Ed Rendell. It must have broken his heart to throw support to John Street knowing that he didn't have the stuff to sustain the Rendell momentum. Street sent a clear message in his opposition to tax cuts and his handling of the Convention Center union mess that he is merely a caretaker and not the visionary Philly needs to continue what Rendell started. Had it been Street rather than Rendell facing financial crisis, Philadelphia would certainly have been bankrupt by now. Even though Rendell temporarily staved off the demise of Philly, a second Street term could accelerate the regression begun in his first term.

Is it just me, or does it feel a little, I don't know, gross that, while we're awash in headlines about a "Doomsday Budget" for our public schools, a cadre of well-coiffed businessmen are sharing grandiose plans for yet another Philadelphia casino? How'd we get here? Seems as if, over the last decade, gaming has become a type of crack cocaine for a whole generation of politicians: With their budgets squeezed by economic downturn and an electorate all too willing to vote out of office anyone who considers a tax hike, our so-called leaders - rather than make the hard choices and right-size their governments - have opted for the quick-fix high of casinos, long-term consequences be damned.

Former Gov. Ed Rendell and former Mayor W. Wilson Goode have launched a fund-raising effort to pay the legal bills of U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah's son, who has been under federal investigation for months. Rendell said he agreed to pitch in after Rep. Fattah contacted him for help. Rendell, in an interview, estimated that the Philadelphia congressman and his wife had spent $250,000 to help Chaka "Chip" Fattah Jr., 30, and said the costs had become a "little bit of a struggle" for the family.

HARRISBURG - Former Gov. George M. Leader, 95, who transformed state government in the late 1950s and continued to influence civic life as a businessman and elder statesman for nearly six decades, died Thursday. Two grandchildren were with Mr. Leader when he died at 5 a.m. at a nursing home in Hershey, part of a retirement-community chain he founded, said spokeswoman Kelly S. Kuntz. "Up until two weeks ago he was still going to work," Kuntz said. "Gov. Leader lived a very full, active life.

PROMINENT AREA businessman Marty Judge has been the driving force behind a unique Army-Navy indoor football game for veterans that will be played June 22 after the Soul's game at the Wells Fargo Center. The purpose of the game is to bring attention to the difficulties members of the armed services have trying to re-enter the workforce. Judge also is a part owner of the Soul. Former Navy quarterback Ricky Dobbs already has promised his support. There will be tryouts leading up to the game, including this Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center.

When challenged, Gov. Christie sometimes yells like a Marine gunnery sergeant, calling reporters, citizens, and opponents alike stupid. Judging by his stratospheric poll ratings, voters love that shtick. He's "Jersey Strong. " And how often did former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell say something outrageous, such as opining in 2006 that many old people love casinos because they "lead very gray lives"? After a brief flare, the outrage faded, as it always did; it was just Ed being Ed. Last week, Gov. Corbett mentioned in a radio interview that he had heard some employers say they have trouble finding workers who can pass a drug test - and for that moment of candor, he caught three days of hell, both from Democrats running to replace him in 2014 and from media commentators.

HARRISBURG - Never leave anything unsaid is a lesson former Gov. Ed Rendell may have relearned the hard way this week. Two days ago, the usually loquacious Democrat had an op-ed piece published in the New York Daily News urging New York state to get over its fears and permit hydraulic fracturing - commonly known as fracking - to seek natural gas within its borders. In the piece, headlined "Why [Gov. Andrew] Cuomo Must Seize the Moment on Hydrofracking," Rendell listed the benefits of natural gas for the region's economic development as well as the nation's energy future.

Former Pennsylvania Environmental Secretary Kathleen McGinty said Tuesday that she was considering entering the potentially crowded Democratic race for governor in 2014. "I'm very serious about it," McGinty said during a visit to the state Capitol. "I think having a centrist, pro-jobs, pro-growth, and pro-environment approach is something that Pennsylvania needs and will respond positively to. " A Chester County resident, McGinty, 49, said she would take a leave from her job as an executive with West Chester-based Weston Solutions Inc. to concentrate on the prospective campaign.

In describing the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission as just the kind of contracts-for-contributions flea market it's widely suspected of being, one grand jury witness colorfully compared it to "the Mesopotamia river," adding, "All of the animals come and drink there. If you were an engineering firm or a law firm or a consulting firm or whatever, you go to the turnpike, because that is where the money is. " Mesopotamia is of course not a river, but the ancient land between two rivers (neither one being the Schuylkill)

HARRISBURG - The Corbett administration's fiscal chief, amid a withering, two-hour pummeling by state House Democrats on the final day of budget hearings, accused former Gov. Ed Rendell on Thursday of running "Ponzi schemes" on the citizenry. What is traditionally an opportunity for lawmakers to publicly make a case for funding programs turned into a partisan debate, as Budget Secretary Charles Zogby defended Gov. Corbett's policies and trashed his Democratic predecessor's. Zogby touted Corbett's belt-tightening initiatives, saying the Republican governor "inherited" a $4 billion deficit along with unresolved issues such as pension funding.