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From Democracy Rising PA:

The PA Bar Association today will announce that it has formed a 30-member Constitutional Review Commission. The commission will take 18 months to "review the state Constitution with a focus on the areas of legislative reapportionment, local government, public education, the structure of the General Assembly, and taxation and the uniformity clause." (quoting a media advisory issued last week)

Regardless of the PBA's motives, which are not at all clear given its recent history on the issue (below), the PBA commission has two fundamental problems:

First, if a convention must await the commission's study, the earliest a convention can occur is 2013. That's because the 18-month period ends in August 2011, which is too late for a referendum to appear on that year's November ballot. That means a referendum in 2012 at the earliest and a convention in 2013 at the earliest. Citizens, who already have been waiting years for improvements in their government, should not have to wait for yet another special interest group to study the obvious.

Second, like every special interest group, the PBA intends for its commission to set the agenda for a convention. What our Commonwealth manifestly needs, however, is an end to special-interest control of our government. This is why DR's petition asks lawmakers to let citizens make the decisions about whether to have a convention and, if so, what to debate there.

There is no reason to believe that this PBA effort will be any more successful than its last one, which crashed and burned just last October. That's when a PBA "study group" recommended a Constitution convention to look at all aspects of the Constitution except Article V, The Judiciary, which also happens to govern the legal profession. Even that was too much for PBA's rank and file, who voted against both the proposal and the plea of PBA President Clifford E. Haines to lead reform. Click here for the Philadelphia Inquirer's story.

One notable person leading the opposition to a convention was former Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer, R-Blair. An architect of the Pay Raise of 2005, Jubelirer felt the effects of that lapse of judgment when he was among the first lawmakers to be voted out of office in the primary of 2006. You'll see him quoted in the story.