Ed Rendell goes ballistic on "60 Minutes"

KYW-3 gave a preview on Jan. 6 of the Rendell interview with Lesley Stahl to be broadcast on Jan. 9. People with gambling problems don't get any sympathy from the soon-to-be ex-PA guv. The troubling image was Rendell expressing the viewpoint that people with gambling problems are going to gamble anyway and Pennsylvania ought to get a piece of this action and Lesley Stahl didn't get it. This was a classic "60 Minutes" gotcha and Rendell got caught in the bear trap. Not that Stahl is the sharpest tack in the box [see
Fool born every minute? Lesley Stahl's shameful piece on Kanzius. ]

Text of the disturbing segment is posted at Philly.com, the key portion being:

RENDELL: "Those people play the lottery. They bet on football. How much money is bet on the Super Bowl."

STAHL: "People are losing money for the state to get its revenue. They're losing money."

RENDELL: "Let me answer this. You . . . you've . . . I've always . . . I've known, uh, for two or three decades, you're a very smart person."

STAHL: "But not now."

RENDELL: "But you're not getting it."

STAHL: "I'm dumb now."

RENDELL: "You're not getting it. Those people would lose that money anyway. Don't you understand? You guys don't get that. You're simpletons. You're idiots if you don't get that . . . That's the answer and it's the right answer."

**
Channel 10 had earlier reported a rather gross bed bug infestation in Reading High School (Berks County).
From a story titled Bedbugs Found Inside High School at WFMZ:

A third floor faculty lounge at Reading High School was found Tuesday [Jan. 4, 2011] to be infested with bedbugs, according to district officials.

The lounge has since been fumigated. The furniture was thrown out.

There's lots of space at Reading High:

The school, known as "The Castle on the Hill," is one of the largest school buildings on the East Coast, with nearly a half-million square feet of space and about four miles of hallways.