Pennsylvania Attorney General, Critic of Sandusky Probe, To Be Indicted for Perjury

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane
(Image: philly.com)

Kathleen Kane, the first Democrat elected to Pennsylvania's attorney general office, faces a perjury rap. It's an interesting cautionary tale into power politics and the muscle certain institutions wield to defend what they consider their turf.

A few years ago, Ms. Kane took on some of the Keystone State's most formidable and entrenched forces. According to a New York Times article on her current legal troubles, she "criticized her Republican predecessors in the state's attorney general office of stalling during their investigation of Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State University (PSU) assistant football coach, who was eventually convicted of sexually abusing children." The investigation took "about three years before charges were filed," the Times noted.

The Sandusky-Joe Paterno scandal did more than simply rock Pennsylvania's political apparatus. Penn State, as an institution, has tremendous influence. Its research programs and other university initiatives generate hundreds of millions in revenue. What became evident during the investigation of Sandusky was the PSU administration's moral bankruptcy. Only when the US Department of Education hinted that Penn State's federal millions would be in jeopardy did the Penn State Board of Trustees and shameless top U execs surrender to decency.

Joe Paterno

Kane's crime in the eyes of many connected to Penn State was her hostility toward the Joe Paterno cult. The late football coach's backers, who remain a potent juggernaut in Pennsylvania, continue to attempt to rehabilitate Paterno's reputation to its once saintly status. They have succeeded in part, thanks to the NCAA's recent, shameful retreat regarding PSU football program's punishment for the Sandusky affair. (The litigation against the NCAA ruling was spearheaded by Pennsylvania's Republican Senate majority leader and the Republican state treasurer.) However, the NCAA knows Penn State is a big bucks football program, with an extensive alum network and political clout.

The current Pennsylvania AG, according to the Times,  also smoked out state employees who thought it appropriate to send unwanted, sexually explicit e-mails to others in state government. A state Supreme Court justice was among those who left their jobs in disgrace.

Whether Kane is innocent or guilty of perjury is almost a sideshow. How the Empire -- the Paterno cult and Keystone State poo-bahs -- strikes back is the more intriguing story.

What If Mitt Romney Were President Now?

Attorney General Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder's recent announcement that he intends to resign reminds me that he remains the AG until his replacement receives Senate confirmation. Had Mitt Romney won the 2012 presidential election, such a thought would not have corresponded with reality. Then again, little about Romney's failed candidacy resonated with reality. A Romney presidency would have wrought a domestic disaster. 45 (in keeping with Romney's stature in the historical sequence of presidents) would have invited anti-abortion legislation that effectively would have turned every child-bearing woman into a potential felon. Voter rights, eroded by bogus "voter fraud" claims and very real anti-minority voter ID laws, would have returned the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave to the bad old days of Jim Crow. Given that Mitt won the majority of white male votes in the 2012 election, the Man from Bain would have been pleased with voting rights evisceration. Romney would have eliminated even the pretense of tax fairness, and through that action told those who are less than prosperous to go fuck themselves. Federal enforcement of securities law would have been reduced to a sham, and blatant financial corruption would have received the "wink and nod" legal treatment that has defined America's new millenium.

Romney would have confused military muscle with diplomatic wisdom. He would have rehabilitated the careers and reputations of intellectual gangsters such as Iraq War architects John Bolton and Paul Wolfowitz. Romney would have lionized extreme right-wing Israelis and empty suits such as Bibi Netanyahu. The idea that Mitt would have a clue about international economics would have been quickly dispelled, as his concept of "free enterprise" consists of the legalized looting of "assets" while adding to unemployment for the 99 percent.

There are plenty of reasons to dislike and mistrust Barack Obama's policy directions. However, he has tried to preserve a nation that was nearly ruined by financial fecklessness, ideologically-driven war, and religiously-inspired social repression. Those three pillars of Republican Party policy have been entirely discredited; we should be appreciative of Eric Holder's work as Obama's right-hand man in that accomplishment.