The Trial

Let's talk Fumo.

by Brian Howard

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Published: Sep 10, 2008

I'm done trying to figure out Sarah Palin. Let's talk about some real political intrigue.

Let's talk Fumo.

Specifically Vincent J. Fumo, the 30-year state senator who withdrew earlier this year from his re-election attempt following a heart attack and whose corruption trial started this week.

To say that The Trial has been highly anticipated would be an understatement. Love him or hate him (and those do appear to be, by and large, the only two options), the man is a lightning rod: a favorite South Philly son or a beacon of what's wrong with politics.

There will be juicy elements to the trial, and tedious ones. There are, after all, 139 counts of wrongdoing to cover during a process expected to take at least two months.

It's why we're dedicating a blog, Fumogation (citypaper.net/fumo), and a reporter, Tom Namako, a South Philly boy himself, to coverage of The Trial. As Namako explained on CP's staff blog earlier this week, "People's eyes roll over when they hear phrases like 'wire fraud' and 'obstruction of justice.' I'd like to try to make this all more interesting than that, and help people understand the context (and occasional humor) around such a complex case like this."

Namako's been reporting and (aren't we very fancy?) Twittering (OK, tweeting) updates from the courthouse all this week as jury selection got under way on Monday.

"I'll also be out reporting in the first senatorial district," says Namako, "asking all the Italians (like my family) their thoughts about The Vince's current predicament." Tom breaks down the case here.

City Paper, of course, has a rather long history with the state senator. In the late 1990s, then-news editor Howard Altman and reporters Scott Farmelant and Noel Weyrich dug into his dealings — the shrouded-in-secrecy renovations of his Green Street residence, his connections to nonprofits, his use of a heliport on Penn's Landing, his opposition to new stadiums (in his backyard). You can read the 50 articles written about the senator at citypaper.net/ongoing/fumo.shtml. Of course, in 1997 Fumo sued us for libel (a suit this paper eventually settled out of court).

How does Altman, now courts and cops team leader for The Tampa Tribune, feel seeing the subject of so much of his investigative efforts going to trial?

"I wish I could be there," says Altman via e-mail. "Like nearly everything else associated with Vincent J. Fumo, the Mensa-worthy, helicopter-flying prince of Philadelphia, this will be a Circus Maximus and I would see a lot of old friends. And my old nemesis."

Like the hunter who respects his prey, Altman's feeling a bit misty.

"It was a great time and a great place to be a journalist. ... Fumo, with all his power and all his wheeling and dealing, good and bad, is a journalist's dream. And a nightmare. He came at me with lawyers. Private investigators. Threats of lawsuits and, of course, a lawsuit."

What drove Altman and his team to dig in?

"The senator was arguably the most influential politician in Philadelphia at the time and there were a lot of questions raised about the extent of that influence," says Altman. "I felt it was our job to investigate and find the truth. And to speak truth to power."

Picture Book

Today we launch — over there on the other page — our new crowd-sourced photo feature, Photostream. The debut image, "Nothing to See," comes from a guy known on flickr.com as Philly Penn and in the outside world as Michael Penn (michaelpennphotography.com). The billboard had been blank for about a month when Penn shot it. The image, shot at 7:30 in the evening, plays with light gorgeously. It's also the metaphorical blank slate with which we launch a feature we hope will provide myriad fresh angles on the city. For more images, and to submit your own, hit citypaper.net/photostream. Fans of Time Machine, however, fret not. We're turning our joint venture with phillyhistory.org into an online feature that will provide a bit more context to that archival wonderland.

(bhoward@citypaper.net)

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