To overturn the Legislature's pay raise, an angry public had to muster scores of votes for repeal. To get a vote in the House on lobbyist disclosure, which has been blocked for years, all the people need to do is change the mind of one man: Speaker John Perzel.

The Philadelphia Republican, who miscalculated on the pay raise, big time, and who generally holds the will of the people in low regard, is about to make another grave misstep -- maintaining his deep-set opposition to a vote on a lobbyist reporting bill.

Anyone paying attention to the investigations and indictments unfolding in Washington knows there is no greater poison in government than the free-flowing cash and gifts of lobbyists. It has reached toxic levels in some congressional offices and is a constant threat in state capitals, too. However, any normal state has laws that -- far from banning lobbyists -- simply require that they report on their spending to influence government officials.

Not Pennsylvania.

In John Perzel's state there is no need for listing the millions of dollars spent by corporations, unions, religious groups, doctors, the PSEA, insurance firms, the NRA, lawyers, builders, farmers, highway promoters, life PACs, choice PACs or anyone else looking for help from lawmakers.

In John Perzel's state there is no need to keep track of who is wining, dining and golfing with legislators for votes because our House and Senate members, unlike others in the country, vote strictly on what their conscience or constituents tell them.

In John Perzel's state no one except the media, according to him, wants a lobbyist disclosure law -- assuming you overlook the 87 percent polled in Pennsylvania this year who said they wanted a law requiring all lobbyists to outline their spending.

That is the state of unreality that our House speaker inhabits, but no one else lives there.

Fortunately, many of the same groups that rebelled against a leader like John Perzel -- for holding a pre-dawn, no-hearing, no-debate vote on a 16 to 34 percent pay raise that thumbed its nose at the state constitution -- are saying the same thing to his obstructionism on lobbyist disclosure: We're not going to take this.

Common Cause, Democracy Rising, the Commonwealth Foundation, the League of Women Voters and others want action. Moreover, seven members of John Perzel's Republican House caucus have issued a reform agenda, in the aftermath of the pay-raise fiasco, that deserves the attention of the speaker, the majority whip and the other leaders of the House and Senate. The need to report lobbyist spending is high on the list.

The way we see it, Rep. Perzel has five months between now and the May primary to let reform bills come to a vote. Unless, of course, he'd rather seek job-hunting tips from his fellow Philadelphian, Justice Russell Nigro.