Politician of Unknown Party Sentenced

Here's a little game we conservatives like to play. You read an article about a politician who screwed up big time -- usually some kind of corruption scandal, stuffing bribes in freezers, or trolling for sex in bathrooms, for example -- and you try to guess to which party they belong.

The trick to the game is this: if the perp is a Republican, odds are 10:1 that the AP article will put an (R) after the name. If the perp is a Dem, 10:1 odds it will not show up in the article, or if it does, it will be buried toward the end. Don Surber has made an art form of following this game. You can play it too. This morning, we have a contestant from Pennsylvania. Can you name that party?

Here's the clue, the first three paragraphs of the article:

HARRISBURG, Pa.: A former state lawmaker was sentenced to six months of house arrest Monday after admitting he placed his sister and niece in state jobs that reaped them thousands of dollars for little or no work.

Former Rep. Frank LaGrotta also was sentenced to probation and community service, was fined $5,000 and ordered to pay $27,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to two felony conflict-of-interest charges. He will be on electronic monitoring during his house arrest.

LaGrotta, 49, apologized to his family, former constituents and state residents "for the trauma that this has caused."

Give up? This was a round of only moderate difficulty, because in the sixth paragraph of an eight graph article, the AP finally slips in that the perp "worked for the House Democratic Caucus" after he left office, a good indicator that he might be a Democrat.

But if he had been a Republican, odds are very high that info is fronted in the first instance of the name.

Are we paranoid? Maybe. But as they say: just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.