Quick hits: Who's Joe Conti, and A Response to my Letter

If any of you who came to the party a bit later are wondering who Joe "CEO" Conti is and where he came from, here's a great bit of catch-up for you from The Illadelph. Great capsule of the "WTF!" anger that was blowing around that week.

If you remember the big legislative midnight pay raise scandal from a few years ago, Conti is the guy who gained...notoriety, I guess, for refusing to give back money from unvouchered expenses because he'd used it to buy a new water heater. The only way he would return the payments would be "if the [Pennsylvania state] treasurer came to pick up the new hot-water heater." Ballsy, defiant...but then he gave in, paid it back, and decided to retire at the end of November 2006. Two weeks later he got the PLCB CEO job. A job Governor Rendell said he had been considering for months. How interesting!

And I got a response to my letter from Senator Wonderling:

Lewis,

I agree 110 percent!

Rob

That guy can write my new version of The Almighty Liquor Code any day!