The surprise selection of Republican state Rep. Dennis M. O'Brien as speaker of the House by Demo-crats, who have a one-person majority, can be applauded as a long-overdue change in House leadership, but it also raises questions — and serves as a reminder of the popularity of political intrigue and back-room deals in Harrisburg.

Clearly, previous House leaders, including Republican Rep. John Perzel, who had hoped to be re-elected to the post with the aisle-crossing support of a Democrat, was a questionable choice at a time when voters have said they want to see legislative reform. It was hard to picture Perzel as a reformer and someone wanting to make changes in the secretive and arrogant way in which Harrisburg has done business, given the fact that he was a primary architect of the controversial pay-raise vote of 2005. And Perzel's arrogance in the wake of the pay-raise scandal revealed his disregard and disrespect for the concerns of average citizens.

O'Brien, at least, is someone new. However, people in Western Pennsylvania might be wondering if O'Brien is part of a Philadelphia-area clique in the legislature where vote-trading routinely crosses party lines whenever goodies can be brought home to the City of Brotherly Love and the rest of the eastern part of the state.

O'Brien is characterized as honest, open, sincere and a champion for children with disabilities, particularly autism.

His political independence and passion for real legislative reform will become apparent in the next few months.

But the curious circumstance of seeing Rep. H. William DeWeese as O'Brien's chief sponsor and supporter in winning the speaker's post raises legitmate questions about the liklihood for meaningful change in how Harrisburg politicians conduct business.

DeWeese, like Perzel, was a central player in the 2005 pay-raise fiasco and he made headlines by demoting a handful of Democrats heading up various committees as retaliation for their failure to support the party line on the pay raise.

The political cartoon that appears today on this page raises the issue of the potential for DeWeese to control O'Brien. It will be up to O'Brien to demonstrate that he is his own man — and that he really wants to bring change to the General Assembly — so that the focus shifts to helping the people of Pennsylvania rather than the lawmakers themselves.

This week's Harrisburg machinations have been entertaining. But as compelling as they might be to policital insiders, they don't mean much to most Pennsylvanians.

Power plays and backroom deals look like more of the same to citizens eager for lawmakers to do their busines in the open and provide for citizen input.

Some of the names have changed in Harrisburg, but voters can only wait and keep watching to see if anything else changes.