Ed Rendell, King of the "No-brainer"

photo by John Shickel

So everyone knows that outgoing Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell lost it on the nation’s most-watched television program, “60 Minutes” during an interview with Leslie Stahl about state-sponsored casino gambling. He called Leslie and anyone who questions the idea of generating tax revenue through gambling an “idiot , and “simpletons”. Rendell would like us to think him a genius for paving the way for state revenue to be made from the miseries of gambling -- addictive behavior that destroys lives of individuals, families, and communities. The corrosive effects of gambling on individuals, families, communities is well documented, but that doesn’t stop Rendell from pushing it, exactly like a drug pusher might be expected to justify selling drugs.

See Casino-Free Philadelphia’s fact sheets for more information, e.g., Gambling and Bankruptcy, Gambling and Crime, Gambling and Suicide, Gambling and Political Corruption…

Ed Rendell might have looked like an out-of-control jerk on “60 Minutes,” but at least that performance was honest in its way. When he defends another one of his schemes, namely ripping off the art collection of Albert C. Barnes from its historic site in Merion and plowing it into a huge pork barrel project on the Ben Franklin Parkway, Rendell just lies. When interviewed by Fox News reporter James Rosen, Rendell repeated lies about the neighbors and the financial problems of the Barnes Foundation that he claims make the Merion Barnes complex unsustainable. Both statements are untrue.

But the really awesome whoppers from Pennsylvania’s “shoot from the lip” governor came during the documentary about the Barnes controversy, “The Art of the Steal”. Ed Rendell described his generous offer of tax money to officials of Lincoln University, during negotiations to get them to drop their opposition to the Barnes move. What appears to be candor is disarming, as he says, “’You (Lincoln University) tell me what you want to spend the forty million dollars on.” (The actual amount was $80 million, but what’s another $40 million between friends?) and then “They (Lincoln) weren’t blackmailed into agreeing with this at all…I made it abundantly clear…that they were getting this money regardless.” At the New York Film Festival premiere of “The Art of the Steal” at Alice Tully Hall, about 1,000 viewers let out an audible, collective groan at that one.

But even that is not terribly significant any longer. What is significant is that Ed Rendell, old-time pol, teamed up with longtime philanthropy powerhouse Rebecca Rimel of Pew Charitable Trusts to figure out a way to unhinge the fabulous treasure of The Barnes, bring it under new control, and change its address to a Philadelphia zip code. Rendell called the decision “a no-brainer.” No kidding. Their club-fisted approach physically assaults the integrity of one of America’s outstanding integrated cultural sites. But that’s not all. Their power grab puts the Barnes in a far more financially risky scenario, loaded with enormous uncertainty than it has ever faced in Merion. Ed Rendell just doesn’t care about the looming cultural catastrophe, being a short-term goal sort of person, but Miss Rimel should have had her researchers study it more thoroughly.

With all of Ed Rendell’s talk about slots and a Barnes-buster/blockbuster generating revenue, what of the wasteful spending? Making a fake Barnes when the real one is already here and more fabulous than the Parkway could ever be is stupid, period. Casinos are by their nature predatory and cause addictive, destructive behavior. Inviting them in to "fix" the city is also stupid and if the Governor wants to see the idiot, he can go to the nearest mirror.

But let’s not burden soon-to-be-ex Governor Rendell with details. He’s a “whatever” guy. A strip mall of museums on the busy Parkway and a slot machine in every conceivable or even inconceivable place in Pennsylvania sounds real good to him; the more zillions to feed the slimy pork barrel beast.

The crime is, no one seems to be calculating the price of Rendell’s and Rimel’s gambles.

IT’S BARNES DAY!

Today is the 139th anniversary of the birth of a truly visionary Philadelphian, Albert C. Barnes. When is the city of his birth going to honor him with respect? Soon we hope and a what better place to start than by finally embracing the extraordinary cultural and historic site that bears his name: The Barnes Foundation in Merion. There Dr. and Mrs. Barnes bought a 12-acre arboretum as the site for the educational institution they established. The tools for the schools of art appreciation and horticulture were to be an art collection of immense importance and the arboretum first planted in the 1880s. Dr. Barnes described it this way:

“Our Charter calls for a plan for advancement of education…in knowledge of the fine art and the maintenance of an arboretum. These two aspects of one and the same purpose cannot be separated; they are one and indivisible and both are educational in their essence…” “In short, the Foundation as it exists…was the ultimate composite entity which prompted us to establish the Foundation and devote our money and the rest of our individual lives to make the Foundation the servant of educational authorities in advancing the knowledge and happiness of mankind.” (excerpts from Testimony of Albert C. Barnes, 1934)

Those are perfectly clear and noble intentions for what has to be one of the most generous bequests in American history, given the fact that the Barnes art collection now has a value estimated at $35 billion. But there is a threat to this legacy. The collection of Albert Barnes is a target of powerful individuals to exploit it by moving the collection from its serene, historic home to a museum strip mall in Philadelphia. The steps taken to try to convert the Barnes art collection into a cash cow are now well known, thanks to the documentary "The Art of the Steal".

Machinations that link mega non-profit Pew Charitable Trusts’ CEO Rebecca Rimel with unrestrained political maneuvers by Governor Ed Rendell and former Attorney General Mike Fisher are not complicated. Power and money plus ignorance plus opportunity make a sickening stew. And now, the taxpayers of Pennsylvania are foisted with a double price for the Barnes move: they would lose an incomparable, existing cultural and historic asset AND be made to borrow the money needed for an expensive building in Philadelphia to hold a replica of The Barnes that already exists less than 5 miles away. What a sickening stew Rimel, Rendell, and others have cooked up.

Friends of the Barnes Foundation leads the fight to oppose the move and is committed to exposing this for what it is: an arrogant, big-philanthropy, big-city power grab that should be stopped. Rebecca Rimel and Ed Rendell do not have the right to take away The Barnes that was a gift to the people of Philadelphia, the people of Pennsylvania, the American people and the world. On Barnes Day, the Friends affirm the same goal they’ve always had: permanent preservation of The Barnes in Merion as a National Historic Landmark. That can only happen if the site given by Albert and Laura Barnes remains intact, exactly as they intended it to be.