Haddad Plea Devastating to Pawlowski

Though lawyers are busy doing damage control, Ramzi Haddad's guilty plea on Thursday to bribery is devastating to Allentown Mayor Edwin "Fed Ed" Pawlowski. The Feds call him Public Official #3, although I personally prefer "Fed Ed." It puts him, and not Miked Fleck, at the center of a scheme to defraud both Allentown and its citizens of their right to expect the Mayor's honest services. This is completely contrary to the picture that Pawlowski apologists, and to some extent, The Morning Call, have painted. The plea also demonstrates guilty knowledge, as evidenced by Fed Ed's counter-surveillance measures and instructions that Haddad delete text messages. More than anything, as Dillios noted of Xerxes in The 300, "The god-king has betrayed a fatal flaw: Hubris."

According to the federal government, the sitting Mayor of Allentown did the following:

* He directed certain municipal staff to identify for him individuals and entities who had profited from their dealings with the City of Allentown and who sought favorable treatment from the City of Allentown.

* He directly and through campaign staff, made clear to certain vendors, including that providing him with items of value, including food, drinks, and campaign contributions, was a necessary condition for receiving certain favorable treatment from the City of Allentown.

* He directed municipal staff to take official action favorable to certain actual and potential campaign donors.

* He directed city workers and campaign staff to interact with these vendors, but to avoid creating any records showing the favoritism.

* He insulated himself from exposure by having vendors work through intermediaries.

* He ordered Haddad to pay for his meal expenses.

* He went so far as to conduct sweeps for electronic bugs and periodically purchased "burner phones" to throw off law enforcement, very much like a drug dealer or gang banger.

* He had city staffers instruct Haddad at how to succeed on a zoning appeal.

* He intervened in Haddad's municipal inspections and even promised to "get on" an inspector who was troubling Haddad.

* He had Haddad delete text messages.

Haddad is just one entrepreneur. It's safe to conclude that others will follow. It's quite clear, for example, that the deal to purchase land for nearly three times what it was worth from Abe Atiyeh was very much a part of his scheme to defraud taxpayers of their right to honest services. He knew he could get that deal past his puppets on Council. He knew that there would be no media scrutiny, save for a few activists like Richard Fegley, blogger Michael Molovinsky and Allentown's Iron Lady, Jeanette Eichenwald.. In short, Fed Ed knew that democracy is dead in Allentown.

That's why this federal scrutiny is so important. City Council is far from reform-minded, and actually worked against a proposal to increase transparency at a meeting on Thursday afternoon. But this investigation might inspire citizens to exercise their right to good government by voting.

Pawlowski should resign, but will hold out as long as possible. Once the money for his D.C. lawyers runs out, he'll try to get the best deal he can.