The other shoe has dropped. This time state Attorney General Tom Corbett's investigation of nefarious political activities in Harrisburg has led to criminal charges against Republicans, most sensationally former House Speaker John Perzel of Philadelphia, who is still a state representative.

As announced Thursday, a statewide grand jury has indicted Mr. Perzel and nine aides and associates in a scheme that allegedly diverted $10 million in state funds to political purposes and then had its accomplices try to obstruct justice as the investigation proceeded.

The spectacle of handcuffs on Mr. Perzel, once one of Pennsylvania's most powerful politicians, is not the biggest shock. That would be the charges themselves, the catalogue of sweeping, audacious actions making the case that the people's business was reduced to shameless partisan maneuvering.

The use of state resources during the Perzel era of leadership was such, according to the grand jurors, that it extended even to taxpayer money paying for a get-out-the-vote effort on behalf of a Republican candidate who had sought to replace the disgraced local Rep. Jeff Habay, a Republican himself ousted in a scandal over the misuse of state resources, in a 2006 special election.

Of course, charges are easier to file than judges and juries are to persuade, and until these cases are adjudicated the presumption of innocence must be honored. But taken together with the charges lodged against a dozen Democrats 16 months ago when "Bonusgate" became a household word, the people of Pennsylvania have a lot to be worried about.

If the charges are sustained, it will be the final proof that corruption is an equal opportunity employer in the state Capitol and God help the people if they do not rise up and demand a sweeping, top-to-bottom cleansing of this latter-day Augean stables.

Mr. Corbett's methodical and now demonstrably even-handed investigation should earn the thanks of all Pennsylvanians -- but good luck with that one.

Just as happened when Democrats were indicted and complained of Mr. Corbett's political ambitions, it is now Mr. Perzel's turn to cite "political opportunism," the thoroughly political response of a cornered political animal. Even two candidates, Republican Jim Gerlach and Democrat Tom Knox who, like Mr. Corbett, are running for governor, have asked him to resign for his supposed conflict of interest.

Nonsense. Mr. Corbett is doing the job he was elected to do -- and thank goodness he is.

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