Friday deluge -- politicians installment

• Apparently strategists agree that Lynn Swann needs to leach Rendell votes in the Philadelphia suburbs to have a fighting chance. So he's off and working his famed charisma...
  
  
• Apparently Sen. Rick Santorum has adopted Pres. Bush's approach of having only boosters at his events, at least if the ejection of two college students waiting in line at a book-signing is any evidence. Those kids and their tough questions!
  
  
• More discussion of State Sen. Fumo's troubles with federal investigators, including a recap of this week's arrests and a closer look at the lengthy affadavit. The Daily News notes that the document also covers real estate deals involving a local contractor also under investigation. The DN editorial page wonders whether it might be better to prevent politicians from overseeing foundations. And DN columnist Gar Josephs wonders whether Fumo would have attracted less scrutiny if he'd just been less secretive. [Other notes at the bottom of this link include speculations about what names in the news might have City Council aspirations.]
  
  
• Another DN columnist, Elmer Smith, looks at the power of Philadelphia's individual district Council members to hold up projects, a power wielded well by Street and Blackwell, to the detriment of city projects.
  
  
• In more City Council gamesmanship, Mayor Street got his plan to restructure the city's housing agencies introduced by DeCicco when Blackwell appeared to be holding things up -- then she turned around and introduced her copy as well. Their feud will carry over into the budget negotiations...
  
  
• Finally, local voices on a national politician, two letters to the Daily News catch a point that bothered me yesterday as well, the conflation of legal actions of Harry Reid with the widespread corruption scandals in the national GOP. The record gets set a bit straighter here.