When pigs fly

Lt. Governor candidate Gene Stilp brought his traveling inflatable porkers to Luzerne County yesterday. They made an appearance outside the office of retiring State Sen. Charlie Lemmond who surprisingly enough was nowhere to be found.

DALLAS - Gene Stilp's pension piglet was listing a little to the left. But the big pay-raise pig was standing tall. Stilp, a Wilkes-Barre native and longtime political activist, was on his "Squeal or No Squeal" statewide tour, where he parks his inflatable pigs near the office of legislators who haven't returned the money from last year's aborted pay raise......The pig is sort of old hat for Stilp, but his race for lieutenant governor isn't. The Democrat is running to unseat Catherine Baker Knoll in the primary May 16. He's out to change what he calls a "culture of greed" in Harrisburg, but he's also out to replace a 75-year-old lieutenant governor he says is incapable of filling the role of governor if need be.

"She's one cheese steak away from the governorship," Stilp said ..... before pumping up the pigs in the Back Mountain. "She's incapable of stepping into the shoes of Ed Rendell. It's that serious. The judgment is not there."

The other challengers, Valerie McDonald Roberts and William A.Hall, III, were interviewed by WNEP recently. You can see the video here. All 3 are due in Scranton Monday for a League of Women Voters forum. CBK said she can't make it.