Two Pennsylvania Republican legislators - one federal and one state - are in the hot seat because of their actions or comments, and calls for their resignations or censure are growing.

In this highly partisan environment, however, it’s unlikely either will happen in Washington or Harrisburg.

The more serious allegation involves U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, who represents the 10th District located in south-central Pennsylvania. The New York Times exposed Perry as a key player in a surreptitious move to have a senior U.S. Department of Justice attorney write a letter to Georgia state legislators notifying them that there was an investigation into voter fraud in the state’s presidential election that would have given former President Donald Trump a narrow win in the state. Not true.

In reality, President Joe Biden carried the state, and these results were verified by a hand count and two recounts.

Perry, a Trump loyalist, had introduced the attorney, Jeffrey Clark, to Trump. According to the Times, Clark and Trump, with Perry’s encouragement, were looking for a way to end run the Justice Department’s acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen so Clark could ultimately move into the position after Trump fired Rosen, who refused to pursue Trump’s baseless claims of a stolen election.

If this had happened, there could be more official weight thrown behind Trump’s claims of a rigged election. Remember, however, that the Justice Department had conducted its own investigation of the 2020 presidential election and found that there was no widespread fraud. This conclusion was presented by ex-Attorney General William Barr, a former Trump loyalist who split with Trump on this issue. Barr subsequently resigned just before Christmas.

Historically, the Justice Department has been considered an independent agency even though it is part of the executive branch of government. During the Trump administration, however, critics contend that it became politicized to the point that Barr had turned into more of a personal attorney for Trump rather than a representative of the people.

Perry, one of eight Pennsylvania Republican members of the House of Representatives to challenge the legitimacy of the 2020 election outcome, was sworn in on Jan. 5 to begin his fifth two-year term. The following day, despite a riot by Trump supporters who ransacked the Capitol, Perry and his Republican colleagues voted to invalidate the Pennsylvania Electoral College vote that favored Biden. These results had withstood judicial appeals and were confirmed by the Republican-leaning General Assembly and Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat.

Perry has denied that there was some kind of collusion between him and Clark to overturn the election results in Georgia. Perry admitted that he worked with Clark on “various legislative matters.” He also said that Trump asked him to introduce him to Clark, which Perry said he did.

Perry also said that any conversation he had with Clark or Trump had to do with their mutual concern about the integrity of the election process and a desire to investigate these concerns to “ease the minds of the voters that they had participated in a free and fair election.”

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General last week opened an investigation into “whether any former or current DOJ official engaged in an improper attempt to seek to alter the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.”

The other controversy involves state Rep. Jeff Pyle, whose district includes Indiana and Armstrong counties in western Pennsylvania. He had posted a mocking Facebook image of Dr. Rachel Levine, the outgoing Pennsylvania Secretary of Health, comparing her appearance to that of Founding Father Benjamin Franklin.

Levine has been tapped as assistant secretary of health in the Biden administration and becomes the first openly transgender person to hold such a key position in any administration.

Levine became prominent because of the frequent news conferences where she and Gov. Wolf gave information and updates on the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, there were frequent social media posts attacking Levine’s appearance and life choices.

For the most part, Levine ignored the attacks, but at one point spoke out: “While these individuals may think they are only expressing their displeasure with me, they are in fact hurting the thousands of LGBTQ Pennsylvanians who suffer directly from these current demonstrations of harassment,” Levine said. “Your actions perpetuate a spirit of intolerance and discrimination. I have no room in my heart for hatred, and, frankly, I do not have time for intolerance. My heart is full with a burning desire to help people.”

The backlash prompted Pyle to issue an apology. “From this situation I have learned to not poke fun at people different than me and to hold my tongue. Be a bigger man,” he wrote.

He said that he had no idea that the post mocking Levine would be received in the way that it was, but he said that the fact that he received tens of thousands of “heated emails” assured him that it was.

As Levine so aptly observed: “It doesn’t make any difference what my gender identity is; all that matters is my professional work.”

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com