Many Pennsylvania lawmakers, including some of the most low-key in the General Assembly, are voicing anger over the selection of the new speaker of the House of Representatives.

They are upset about the legislator selected, Republican Dennis O'Brien of Philadelphia, who now is being regarded by many GOP legislators as a traitor, and about the behind-the-scenes deal making — some of which might never be clear-cut to anyone outside the state House — that led to O'Brien's election.

O'Brien became the favorite of Democrats after Democratic Rep. Tom Caltagirone of Berks County refused to support Democratic Rep. H. William DeWeese of Greene County for the top position in the lower legislative chamber, which Demo-crats now control by a 102-101 majority.

With Democrats having retaken control of the House by virtue of November's election, DeWeese had, until Caltagirone's announcement, been regarded as the heir apparent to the speaker role.

Instead of giving his support to DeWeese, Caltagirone said he would support incumbent Speaker John Perzel, a Republican who has lost favor among many Democrats. However, a flurry of behind-the-scenes activity over New Year's by Demo-crats and Republicans resulted in O'Brien being elected speaker by a 105-97 vote on Tuesday.

That set the stage for even mild-tempered lawmakers, among them state Rep. Dick Stevenson of Butler County, to speak out strongly about O'Brien and about the behind-the-scenes negotiating that took place prior to the speaker election.

Stevenson used words and phrases such as "untrustworthy," "turncoat," "beyond disappointing" and "disloyal and deceitful" in regard to O'Brien's being elected and the behind-the-scenes wheeling-dealing that kept Perzel from winning re-election.

Another Butler County House member, Rep. Brian Ellis, generally not as low key as Stevenson but not among the most vocal either, called the events leading up to O'Brien's election as "backroom politics at its worst."

But for Stevenson and some of the other lawmakers who usually are seen but not heard, but who now are speaking out because they're angry about the result of the speaker election, some questions need to be asked. Among them are why they weren't equally vocal over the July 2005 legislative pay-raise vote and some colleagues' acceptance of "unvouchered expenses" in defiance of the state constitution, which prohibits lawmakers from receiving a raise in the term it was approved.

It can be asked why the House's "quiet ones" haven't criticized the General Assembly's crafting of legislation outside the procedures and timetables stipulated by the state constitution.

The pay-raise vote was one well-documented instance. Some people also have questioned whether the big pension boost for lawmakers and educators, which will burden taxpayers for years to come, also was approved without lawmakers sticking to those constitutionally mandated procedures and timetables.

Why didn't Stevenson and others voice outrage when state Supreme Court justices eventually ruled that they were entitled to keep the raise they were granted as part of that July 2005 middle-of-the-night assault on state taxpayers' wallets and pocketbooks?

Why weren't Stevenson and his generally low-key colleagues who now are so vocal about O'Brien more visible regarding some of the questionable decisions regarding slot-machine gambling, like when the plan for unneeded slot machine distributorships was launched?

The current anger over O'Brien's selection would seem to suggest that the speakership election is one of the most important — indeed, crucial — issues that has come before the commonwealth and its citizens.

That's laughable. It is just a new twist in the unrelenting political fighting and partisanship that sidetrack genuine accomplishments under the state capitol dome.

Stevenson and those colleagues who now have shed their penchant for silence should use those newfound voices to make a positive difference in Harrisburg during the next two years by advocating reforms, effective government and legislative harmony.

Pennsylvania residents neither need nor want a politically stymied, do-nothing legislature.

The Senate should join the House in taking note of that fact.