The Times-Tribune from Scranton, Pennsylvania • A13

SCTIMESTRIBTIMESPAGES A13 022412 19:31 SUPERIMPSC MAGENTA BLACK OP-ED THE TIMES-TRIBUNE A13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2012 DOORS WINDOWS MORE INSULATED DOUBLE HUNG REPLACEMENT WINDOWS Resignation Hatch(es) race Iff mm WITH L0W-EARG0N GAS INSTALLED $250 UP TO 101 UNITED INCHES RANDOM NOTES of federal detainees (prisoners)" held at the prison. "Thus, you have duties in connection with federally funded activities. Therefore, of Mr. Shimkus' nomination petitions. Mr.

Shimkus won a Republican write-in campaign and got back on the ballot, but 2008 was a banner year for Democrats, and Mr. Murphy defeated Mr. Shimkus. In 2010, LARGEST SELECTION OF DOORS AT FACTORY PRICES IN NORTHEAST PA! Installation of All Types of Doors! OPEN SATURDAYS! rip 1 123 CAPOUSE AVE SCRANTON, PA FLYNN MURPHY you are covered by the Hatch Act, and the Act prohibits your candidacy in the partisan election for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives," Ms. Lefeber wrote.

She told him he was in violation Mr. Murphy successfully challenged the validity of enough signatures on Scranton School Director Kathleen McGuigan's petitions to knock her off the Democratic ballot as a challenger to his Health Network LABORATORIES Patient Blood Testing When Results HI McGUIGAN SHIMKUS choice. This guy doesn't want anybody to run against him. He doesn't want people to choose," Mr. Flynn said.

"That's not what it's about." Mr. Flynn pretty much accuses Mr. Murphy andor his campaign of filing the Hatch Act challenge, though he acknowledges he doesn't know for sure. "Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's usually a duck," Mr. Flynn said.

"Personally I think it's pathetic I just quit my job, a job, to represent the constituents. That's how strongly I feel, that's how important this is to me. This is a minor victory for me so far to even be on the ballot. I'm the first guy to make it this far. Everybody is like, 'He's an incumbent, he's an He's an incumbent that's never run against anybody" Repeated efforts to reach Mr.

Murphy were unsuccessful. Attorney Christopher Cul-len, who handled the 2008 and 2010 ballot challenges for Mr. Murphy denied the representative or his campaign had anything to do with the Hatch Act challenge and denied Mr. Murphy fears Mr. Flynn's candidacy He said Mr.

Flynn should have known about the possible conflict before he became a candidate. The failure casts doubts about Mr. Flynn's seriousness as a candidate, he said. "State Rep. Murphy is running on a record of service in the 113th District and his record of leadership on many issues in Harrisburg," Mr.

Cullen said. "I don't know what Mr. Flynn is running on." Sounds like this campaign couldbeadoozy BORYS KRAWCZENIUK. The Times-Tribune's politics reporter, writes Random Notes. Flynn says choosing candidacy over his government job, as required by Hatch Act, is a measure of his commitment.

BY RODERICK RANDOM Marty Flynn wants to be a state representative as badly as Kevin Murphy dreamed of being one. Mr. Flynn wants to replace Mr. Murphy as the 113th House District representative so badly he quit his job at the Lackawanna County Prison this week so he could legally run for the job against Mr. Murphy You see, someone wanted to force Mr.

Flynn out of the race, or at least force him to choose between running and his job. So someone filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which ruled Mr. Flynn was in violation of the federal Hatch Act. The act prohibits federal employees from most political activity, including running for office, and does the same for people whose job duties are connected to federally funded activities.

The law exists so there could never be a suggestion that a decision by a federal employee is made for partisan reasons. The general theory behind the law is sound, though critics complain it is sometimes too strictly loosely or inconsistently enforced. Mr. Flynn, 36, was inmate educationprogram coordinator and chairman of the prison's misconduct board. In a Feb.

17 letter to Mr. Flynn, Office of Special Counsel Hatch Act Unit attorney Kathryn Lefeber concluded Mr. Flynn was "contributing to the secure custody safekeeping and care OTHER AREA LOCATIONS Ice Box Electric City Plaza 3 West Olive Street Scranton (570) 909-9085 M-F: Agram Building 318 Davis Street Clarks Summit (570) 587-2989 M-F: (1st and 3rd only) nomination. In a heavily Democratic district like the 113th, that left Mr. Murphy with only a Republican challenger, Mike LaPolla, whom he defeated by an almost exactly 2 to 1 margin.

"My turn comes, I know they're going to try to get me off the ballot. of the Hatch Act and had to either quit the race or leave the job. Mr. Flynn quit the job. He said the law is the law, but questions its fairness.

"I still don't feel like I'm (in violation)," he said. "It's not a federal prison. There's federal inmates there, but I don't control any of Joseph Paz, do. and Avner R. Griver, m.d.

formerly of Advanced Pain Management Opened their own practice at a new location. To continue your care with these physicians call us. Now accepting new patients. Call today! TOMORROW'S COLUMNISTS Robert Swift Capitol Matters Paul Krugman Kathleen Parker Timothy Potts on multiple campaigns Maura Casey on contraception Rep. Steve Santarsiero on Marcellus Shale tax the monies.

I have nothing to do with that. I don't write policy; I don't write procedure." Now, the question is who complained. Ms. Lefeber wouldn't tell him. It's common knowledge," Mr.

Flynn said. "They don't want anybody to run against them. So I come with 635 signatures." You need 300 to run for Having I Comprehensive Pain Management Specialists, LLC PLAINS KINGSTON DUNMORE twice that many makes it much harder to successfully challenge enough signatures to reduce the number of valid signatures below 300. No one challenged his petitions. "Democracy is all about "It's not too hard to figure out," he said.

Mr. Flynn points out that Mr. Murphy succeeded in 2008 in knocking former Rep. Frank Andrews Shimkus off the Democratic ballot by challenging the truthfulness 'Dignity' won't rise from farce THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Commentary THE COLONNADE EVENT SPACE AND BOUTIQUE HOTEL A POSH LIFE L.L.C.

PROPERTY St. Patrick's Traditional Irish Dinner Saturday, March 17th $19.95 per person Reserved Seating at 6:00, 6:30 401 Jefferson Avenue Scranton, PA 18510 570-342-61 14 THECOLONNADE40 1 not keep Abul Naga up at night. What is her priority? Is it to end illiteracy? Is it to articulate a new vision about how Egypt can engage with the world and thrive in the 21st century? Is it to create a positive climate for foreign investors to create jobs desperately needed by young Egyptians? No, it's to fall back on that golden oldie that all of Egypt's problems are the fault of outsiders who want to destabilize Egypt. So let's jail some Western democracy consultants. That will restore Egypt's dignity.

The Times reported from Cairo that the prosecutor's dossier assembled against the democracy workers bolstered by Abul Naga's testimony accused these Abul Naga personifies the worst tendency in Egypt over the last 50 years the tendency that helps to explain why Egypt has fallen so far behind its peers: South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brazil, India and China. It is the tendency to look for dignity in all the wrong places to look for dignity not by building up the capacity of Egypt's talented young people so they can thrive in the 21st century with better schools, better institutions, export industries and more accountable government. Not surprisingly some members of the U.S. Congress are talking about cutting off the $1.3 billion in aid the U.S. gives Egypt's army if these Americans are actually thrown in prison.

Hold off on that. We have to be patient and see this for what, one hopes, it really is: Fayza's last dance. It is elements of the old regime playing the last cards they have to undermine the true democratic forces in Egypt and to save themselves by posing as protectors of Egypt's honor. Egyptians deserve better than this crowd, which is squandering Egypt's dwindling resources at a critical time and diverting attention from the real challenge facing the country: giving Egypt's young people what they so clearly hunger for a real voice in their own future and the educational tools they need to succeed in the modern world. That's where lasting dignity comes from.

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN writes for The New York Times. If you are age 40 or older, have no insurance, we can help. Call 1.877.626.6648 to qualify for a free mammogram. No, it is the tendency to go for dignity on the cheap "by standing up to Egyptians and aid susan c.

iwmen Early Detection Saves Schedule your Mammogram Now! FoKTHEcure NORTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA How Egyptians feel about economic aid from other countries and agencies: Do you favor U.S. economic aid to Egypt? Favor 26 Sadly the transitional government in Egypt appears determined to shoot itself in both feet. Sunday, it will put on trial 43 people, including at least 16 U.S. citizens, for allegedly bringing unregistered funds into Egypt to promote democracy without a license. Egypt has every right to control international organizations operating within its borders.

But the truth is that when these democracy groups filed their registration papers years ago under the autocracy of Hosni Mubarak, they were informed that the papers were in order and that approval was pending. The fact that now after Mubarak has been deposed by a revolution these groups are being threatened with jail terms for promoting democracy without a license is a very disturbing sign. It all tells you how incomplete the "revolution" in Egypt has been and how vigorously the counter-revolutionary forces are fighting back. This sordid business makes one weep and wonder how Egypt will ever turn the corner. Egypt is running out of foreign reserves, its currency is falling, inflation is rising and unemployment is rampant.

Yet the priority of a few retrograde Mubarak holdovers is to put on trial staffers from the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, which are allied with the two main U.S. political parties, as well as from Freedom House and some European groups. Their crime was trying to teach Egypt's young democrats how to monitor elections and start parties to engage in the very democratic processes that the Egyptian Army set up after Mubarak's fall. Thousands of Egyptians had participated in their seminars in recent years. What is this really about? This case has been trumped up by Egypt's minister of planning and international cooperation, Fayza Abul Naga, an old Mubarak crony Oppose Maybe you can't shake democracy groups of working "in coordination with the CIA," serving "U.S.

and Israeli interests" and inciting "religious tensions between Mus-1 i and Copts." Their goal, according to the dossier, was: "Bringing down the ruling regime in Egypt, no matter what it is," while "pandering to the U.S. Congress, Jewish lobby-i and American public opin the foreigners." That is Abul Naga's game. As a former Mubarak adviser put it to me: "Abul Naga is where she is today because for six years she was resisting the economic and political reforms" in alliance with the military. "Both she and the military were against opening up the Egyptian economy" that Do you favor the U.S. giving direct aid to Egyptian civil society groups? Favor 20 Oppose 74 Do you favor aid to Egypt from international groups Favor 50 Oppose 42 Do you favor aid to Egypt from other Arab countries 68 Favor Oppose I SOURCE: GALLUP POLL OF 1,077 EGYPTIAN ADULTS, DEC.

16-23, 2011. MARGIN OF ERROR: -3A PERCENTAGE POINTS PAT CARR MCT because it's not really a cold. Allergies are often mistaken for the common cold, and can actually mimic many of its symptoms. Our physicians can help you Both she and the military, having opposed the revolution, are now looking to save themselves by playing the nationalist card. Egypt today has only two predators: poverty and illiteracy.

After 30 years of Mubarak rule and some $50 billion in U.S. aid, 33 percent of men and 56 percent of women in Egypt still can't read or write. That is a travesty But that apparently does ion." Amazing. What Abul Naga is saying to all those young Egyptians who marched, protested and died in Tahrir Square in order to gain a voice in their own future is: "You were just the instruments of the CIA, the U.S. Congress, Israel and the Jewish lobby They are the real forces behind the Egyptian revolution not brave Egyptians with a will of their own." prevent the endless discomfort, congestion and misery brought on by indoor and seasonal and winter is the safest and most effective time of the year to be tested for allergies.

Call the ear, nose and throat doctors at Delta Medix now and ask for an appointment to find out how you may be able to end your "common cold" symptoms. (570) 346-7900 THE ALLERGY CENTER of Delta Medix.