If this guy were a Republican...

...every stage of the case would be on the evening news. I'm guessing this will be the only story about it. Of course what can we expect from the same liberal mainstream media that ignored the corrupt Democratic Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick story.

Once-powerful Pa. senator faces long fraud trial

A longtime power broker in Pennsylvania politics earned nearly $100,000 a year as a state senator, up to $1 million a year as a rainmaking lawyer and millions more from the sale of a family bank.

However, prosecutors say freewheeling Philadelphia Democrat Vincent Fumo used little of his own money as he took yachting vacations with friends, spent lavishly on a 33-room city brownstone and hired operatives to spy on ex-wives and political foes.

Fumo faces trial Monday in federal court on charges alleging he used $3.5 million in what he called "OPM" — other people's money — to keep his political machine well oiled and fund a lifestyle that included three vacation homes and heated sidewalks outside his mansion. The trial is expected to last a full three months, after a week of jury selection.

Fumo is accused of misusing nearly $2 million in Senate funds and of raiding the coffers of a neighborhood charity after using his political clout to steer $27 million in corporate donations to the charity.