Clout: Senate colleague appropriates Fumo roost

WHILE state Sen.

Vince Fumo

watches his life being dissected in federal court, the power he wielded in Harrisburg is slipping away - and with it, the clout of Philadelphia's delegation in Harrisburg.

Fumo's potent perch as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee was snagged yesterday by state Sen. Jay Costa Jr. of Allegheny County, as the Senate Democrats voted on their leadership for the two-year session starting in January.

State Sen. Shirley Kitchen, who chairs Philadelphia's seven-member Senate delegation, called them together at her North Philadelphia office Friday and again on Monday, seeking to unite behind a single candidate.

But Robert J. Mellow of Scranton, the Senate's Democratic floor leader for the past 20 years, outmaneuvered her. He put out word last week that he was supporting Costa and offered consolation prizes to two Philadelphia senators: Vincent J. Hughes, who takes over Costa's old job as caucus chair, and Michael Stack III, for whom Mellow created a new position as "vice chairman" of Appropriations.

Sen. Anthony Williams had more support within the city delegation than anyone else, but he never won over Hughes or Stack. One problem was Williams' support for electricians leader John Dougherty in last spring's bitter primary to succeed Fumo, when Fumo organized widespread support among his Senate colleagues for Larry Farnese, the surprise winner.

This week, Williams offered to withdraw in favor of Sen. Leanna Washington, and the rest of the delegation agreed to support her. But it was too late: Washington needed at least four more votes from outside Philadelphia, and she decided yesterday that she couldn't get them. She withdrew before the vote, making Costa's selection unanimous.

"Obviously it's a disappointment," Hughes said yesterday. "But after Senator Mellow indicated he was going to support Jay Costa . . . it was clear in my eyes, nobody from Philadelphia could win. You have to have 11 votes and nobody could get there."

Stack saw it the same way. "When Vince Fumo was the chairman, he was always a force of nature," Stack said. "But no one had it engraved in stone that this belonged to Philadelphia. . . . We just couldn't achieve the 11 votes necessary."

Hail to the chief (if he's GOP)

His approval ratings may be stuck around 25 percent, with the economy enduring its most severe decline in 75 years and soldiers mired in combat overseas. But none of that will stop the Union League from bestowing its venerable Gold Medal on President Bush, who is scheduled to visit Philadelphia in two weeks to watch the Army-Navy football game.

The White House announced this week that Bush would attend the annual contest between the service academies on Dec. 6, and stop by the Union League headquarters, at Broad and Sansom streets, to see his portrait unveiled.

But there has been no official word of a decision having been reached by the Union League's board to honor the outgoing president with the medal - bestowed on a series of Republican presidents and other statesmen, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, George H.W. Bush, Supreme Court Justices William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O'Connor, and Gen. John Pershing.

League spokeswoman Erica Weissmann refused to answer any questions about the Gold Medal, even to identify past recipients.

"As a private club, we're just not going to give out any information," she said.

Why the secrecy? Rank-and-file league members speculated that the club's leadership hopes to avoid the controversy and public protests that attended their last award ceremonies, two years ago, when they gave the medal to recently ousted Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Bush's portrait will join those of his father and every other Republican president since Abraham Lincoln. While the club's Web site describes the league as nonpartisan, the only Democrat whose likeness graces the presidential gallery is Andrew Jackson.

So long, Matt

He weighed about 280 pounds, spoke in a gravelly voice and could point to a block of rowhouses and tell you many votes he could get out of them.

In a neighborhood full of colorful, smart political operators, South Philly's Matt Cianciulli was one of the best.

Cianciulli learned at the sides of legends Buddy Cianfrani and Jimmy Tayoun.

Unfortunately, just like the legends, Cianciulli wound up working for a time out of the 70th Ward - federal prison.

When he was a state representative in the late 1970s, he had more than a dozen people voting out of an apartment upstairs from his family's grocery. These were real voters, by the way, not ghosts. But they lived in Jersey.

The feds frowned on this technicality. So, off he went.

When he returned, he was accepted with open arms in the neighborhood.

"You can do anything in South Philadelphia except steal money," Cianciulli told us not long after he got out. "They know I didn't take any money."

Cianciulli was a Tayoun ally, but his true mentor was Cianfrani, the handsome, charming, charismatic rogue and skilled politico.

When someone compared ward leader John Sabatina to Buddy, Cianciulli called us up to make sure we put this is the paper: "I was with Buddy for years," he growled, "and John Sabatina's not a hair on Buddy Cianfrani's bald head, God rest his soul."

Matt Cianciulli died last weekend. We'd love to think he's cooking something up with Buddy right now.

God rest his soul. *

Staff writers Bob Warner and Gar Joseph contributed to this report.