With a former colleague indicted and seven of his top aides thrown over the side last week, state House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese would seem to have roughly the survival odds of General Custer.

But Mr. DeWeese mentioned another wartime leader when I reached him Friday and opened with a "How ya' doin?"

"Like Churchill in '39,'' Rep. DeWeese answered.

The Greene County Democrat, a member of the House since 1976 and the leader of its Democrats since 1993, is a survivor. He has kept his power by treating his fellow legislators well, taking them to dinner or having a lobbyist pick up the tab, even going out on a limb for an unconstitutional midterm pay raise, and using the sundry tools of leadership to freeze out any who crossed him. Now, in a political transformation a chameleon might envy, Mr. DeWeese is recasting himself as a reformer.

The only thing that hasn't changed is his big laugh, still at the ready even as his old world crumbles around him.

It's hard to see how Mr. DeWeese survives "Bonusgate.'' As this newspaper reported nine months ago, 80 of the 100 Democratic House staffers who were awarded big state bonuses last year either donated money to or worked on the campaigns of Mr. DeWeese or his right-hand man, former Rep. Mike Veon. Mr. Veon's Beaver County constituents booted him in the November 2006 election, before the $1.9 million tab for all these election-year bonuses even came to light.

But Mr. DeWeese does not intend to be buried by an avalanche of bad press. He characterizes himself as cooperating with Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett "since Day One'' of his investigation. After he felt misled by staff on the bonuses, Mr. DeWeese said, he hired William G. Chadwick, a former Philadelphia prosecutor and inspector general for Gov. Robert P. Casey, "to assess our operations and improve our internal controls.''

Mr. Chadwick's findings led to the sacking of the top aides, Mr. DeWeese said, and his office provided the evidence that led to Thursday's arraignment of former Rep. Frank LaGrotta. An Ellwood City Democrat who had been a reliable DeWeese ally for 20 years before his defeat in 2006, Mr. LaGrotta has been charged with two felony counts for hiring his sister and niece as "ghost employees.''

Mr. DeWeese pointed out that he fired Mr. LaGrotta from doing legislative research four months before charges were brought.

"Part of being a leader is making tough decisions, sometimes gut-wrenching decisions,'' Mr. DeWeese said. "My decisive actions thus far prove that I am a leader.''

Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland of Delaware County, chairman of the Black Caucus, said Friday his caucus stands beside Mr. DeWeese. Rep. Lisa Bennington, a freshman from the city's Morningside neighborhood, wrote a letter to the editor describing Mr. DeWeese as "respectful and honorable.''

But "Bonusgate'' is no resume builder. The 19 Allegheny County Democratic representatives plan to meet Monday in Harrisburg, and I'm guessing Mr. DeWeese's leadership will be discussed.

If you thought lawmakers were scared last year, when their pay grab led to election upsets and hasty retirements that turned over a fifth of the statehouse, imagine some of them now.

"This is the kind of scared that threatens their pensions,'' said Tim Potts, DeWeese's aide a decade ago who now heads a reform group, Democracy Rising Pennsylvania. "This is the kind of scared that says they'll never have, as long as they live, the kind of job that pays as well as this one does.''

The most compelling evidence against Mr. LaGrotta appears to be an e-mail exchange with his niece about "the paycheck thing." That has to have some thinking about their own e-mail, Mr. Potts noted. He also said Mr. DeWeese has cards to play.

"He has the goods on every single member of that [Democratic] caucus, and right now they are scared,'' Mr. Potts said. "He knows what everybody is afraid of and could tell tales if he wanted to and everybody knows it. It's every man for himself.''

I told Mr. DeWeese that, and he said Mr. Potts' analysis "has no basis in reality. We will cooperate fully with the attorney general.''

Mr. DeWeese promises to push through a stronger open records law by the end of the year, too. It had better include e-mail. That's where the best stuff is.