Portraits Of Four Former PA Legislative Leaders Get Unflattering Post-Scripts
By Tony Romeo
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) - Leaders of the state House and Senate have arrived at an interesting compromise about what to do with the portraits of four former leaders who've served prison time for corruption-related crimes – portraits that still hang in the halls of the capitol.
The compromise is to allow the four portraits to remain – with inscriptions added to the name plates explaining how the careers of those pictured ended. The inscriptions were added to the portraits of three former House speakers – Republican John Perzel and Democrat Herbert Fineman, both of Philadelphia – and Democrat William DeWeese of Greene County. An inscription was also added to the portrait of former Senate leader Robert Mellow, a Lackawanna County Democrat.
Steve Miskin, spokesman for House majority Republican leaders, says it's a compromise that preserves history.
"These were speakers of the House," Miskin said. "We also need to know this part of the end of their career that might not have been good as the previous part."
Miskin says this gives the whole story.
"Right or wrong, history is history."
