America's political Chernobyl

From the Times Leader Web site (note the time stamp):

Updated: 5:38 PM

Thomas Cooney chosen to fill Skrepenak's seat

Luzerne County judges have selected Thomas Cooney to fill the seat of commissioner Greg Skrepenak.

The decision came after over a half hour of discussions behind closed doors. Cooney received four of seven votes.

Cooney was chosen from a panel of 14 candidates. Over 60 were interviewed for the position throughout the day.

Cooney is the director of development for the A & E Group. He resides in Jenkins Township.

Who?

A few precursory Google searches using a few differing phrases and the like proves that none of the well-connected, the politicos or the party apparatchiks are asking who this guy is. He’s well-known in their circles of rarified air.

The thing that throws me for a loop is the interviewing process used to arrive at this decision, or should I say, the lack thereof.

Sure, the Times Leader reported some no-shows from among the ranks of the 68 commissioner applicants. There were challenges and disqualifications and all of that predictable sort of stuff. One prospective candidate even withdrew for medical reasons.

But in all honesty, with the sheer volume of applicants to be waded through, I really thought the judges would convene the process and announce that they’d pick up where they left off tomorrow, or in the very, very near future. My thinking was, nobody could interview dozens of applicants, name the new commissioner, and all before dinnertime. Right?

But this Times Leader update did appear…

Interviews of the 14 finalists finished up shortly before 5 p.m. and the judges have begun closed-door deliberations to select a replacement for former commissioner Greg Skrepenak.

So, in review, they interviewed dozens of prospective candidates, and all of this interviewing was accomplished in less than seven hours. Wait. All of this was accomplished in less than seven hours?

Here’s how that must have gone:

Name?

Address?

Favorite color?

Party affiliation?

Thank you for coming.

Budget crisis or no budget crisis, this is a joke. Assuming you have any, this has to be yet another insult to your intelligence.

But hey, this is Luzerne County. This is probably the only place across these fruity plains of ours where you could conduct dozens of interviews starting mid-morning, ending before supper and having a clear winner.

Yeah, this is Luzerne County...America’s political Chernobyl. Why not continue on with the meltdown? Containment? Cooling waters? Screw it.

The back room, closed door plot thickens, the outstanding debts mount, the taxes will surely rise yet again and the populace will no doubt be sickened all over again.

Welcome aboard, Commissioner Who.

Later