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Interesting item in The Inquirer Thursday on defeat of state Representative Josh Shapiro’s (D-Montgomery) proposed cellphone ban. According to the paper, “Republicans said the bill was poorly worded and would impose steep fines … amounting to a sneak tax increase.” The article further said that the bill got “bogged down in heated debate,” as Republicans questioned the definition of “operating a motor vehicle” (no kidding), whether the bill might lead to racial or other profiling, and so forth.

I agree with Dan Hirschhorn, who suggests on his blog that this is hardly a career-ending defeat for the MontCo Boy Wonder. But I don’t think it’s wholly insignificant, either.

When you rise as fast and as high as Josh Shapiro has, people start to take aim. The kind of blindsiding he was subjected to on the bill—describing a fine as a tax increase or making a racial issue out of cellphone usage—is exactly the kind of thing people do in hardball politics. Think of Arlen Specter in 1992, raising the issue of Lynn Yeakel’s father having been a segregationist in 1950s Virginia. Somebody on Specter’s staff is probably checking now into everything Shapiro’s second cousin said about Israel, Wall Street bonuses, you name it . . . just as somebody in Harrisburg was obviously ready when the cellphone bill came up.

None of this means Shapiro couldn’t win in a race against Specter or anyone else. It just means that things get a lot tougher when you move into the “A” league. Nobody gets a free ride forever.

April 23, 2009 at 8:46 pm

--Michael Livingston

Tags: Arlen Specter, cellphones, Josh Shapiro

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