Kathleen Kane achieved two firsts in her Pennsylvania attorney general election victory:
- First woman to be elected attorney general
- First Democrat to win the top prosecutor's post
She defeated Republican David Freed 56 to 41 percent in unofficial results from Tuesday's voting.
Kane won the support of Lehigh Valley voters on her way to statewide success:
Lehigh County
- Kane: 74,854
- Freed: 55,440
Northampton County
- Kane: 66,772
- Freed: 52,675
Kane, 46, is a former Lackawanna County prosecutor who will now oversee an office with a staff of about 700 and subject to legislative battles over a budget that now stands at $81 million, according to a Philly.com report.
Kane had a slight fundraising edge in the race.
Both candidates pledged a review of the Jerry Sandusky child rape case and its handling by former Attorney General Tom Corbett, now the state's governor.
"Both candidates pledged a review of the Jerry Sandusky child rape case and its handling by former Attorney General Tom Corbett, now the state's governor."
How about addressing current matters? Why not devote effort to that which is in front of PA citizens? Far too much time has been given to some of the matters of long ago, at the expense of keeping the current workload front-center. While many talk about unity, about non-partisanship, and working together, others use any opportunity to continue to drag up old stuff that is primarily driven by revenge.
Why has this case continued to see so much coverage and have so much interest? The answer is pretty simple: We (including myself) like to see the demise of others so that we can show ourselves and others how we are better. Not to minimize the actions of Sandusky, or dismiss them, we are all of the same stripe of wrongdoing. Just because my wrongdoing, and yours, isn't public and so obvious, we are guilty nevertheless. Not one of us meet the standard of perfection.
It's popular to say enough is enough in big public cases like this, but it always seems to get said right before the involvement of the highest level of those involved starts to come in question. Sandusky was allowed to continue to work with children for years after it was well known what he had done. For the attorney general at the time (Corbett) to allow him to continue his heinous actions while he plodded along in his investigation needs to be looked at. How many kids were molested while Corbett played politics with the republican guard at Penn State? Sorry if you're bored by the whole thing, I'd like the investigation to be completed, no matter what office the offenders hold.
Thank you for proving my point. Your statement is exactly the kind of thinking that makes my assertion correct, "... yea, I may be bad, but not as bad as him .... now I feel better about myself." The penalty for wrongdoing is uncoupled from public, and nonpublic. What does the nature of the wrongdoing have to do with the matter? Wrong is wrong. Who do we delude if we think the wrongs we do in private are OK? I see you have not refuted my assertion about why we enjoy seeing the demise of others. What will define "finished" for you?
What does "PSU" grad have to do with anything?
To rephrase your original logic - Why did we give so much attention to Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma bombing. We just like to see the demise of others, right, to make ourselves feel better about ourselves. We've all done things that are wrong, none of us are perfect, we're all the same when it comes to wrongdoing. Why investigate McVeigh any further to see if others are involved, it just takes time and money. Oh, and I'm not trying to minimize the actions of McVeigh.
Finished, to me, is not when the news cycle is done and we need to direct our limited attention to something else, or we've already spent enough money and time. Finished is when we know that everyone who committed a crime or allowed a crime to happen has been punished. Kids were hurt and scarred for life, I think it's the least we can do.
Timothy McVeigh has zero to do with this case. Bringing in something like this is to obfuscate the matter. The Sandusky case had all the things that made it work for huge public consumption: sex, abuse of boys, high-profile athletic department and brand name coach, divisive perception of the college. With the many, many cases of sexual abuse of children, the media had a high-yielding field. It was the media dream case, and promoted as such. No other case received this kind of coverage. I contend, and nobody chooses to refute the argument, that the news consumers sucked up all the nectar of the stories. Of all the news stories, this one sopped up much of the oxygen in the room. People like to follow stories in which the villain is a scumbag in their view. Again, why? Because it makes them feel so much better about themselves. Your comment proved my point, "... I've done bad, but nothing like Sandusky....," as if your wrong-doing was better. Ha, ha, ... Kidding yourself, huh? Relativism has seeped into the thinking on many fronts, and this is one of them. What sets your moral compass that says, "I am OK because I don't sexually abuse boys like Sandusky?" The reason people want more investigation is keep Sandusky's name in the news. I'm sorry, but your idea of "finished" lacks definition. There will always be one more rock to overturn.
I agree, Janis. Would they have been satisfied that the hijackers of 9-11 all died and that a lot of the key players were captured/killed, and say let's just let Osama binLaden go, and let's just "address current matters"? Same thing here, if there are still guilty parties out there, they ALL should be brought to justice.
"Both candidates pledged a review of the Jerry Sandusky child rape case and its handling by former Attorney General Tom Corbett, now the state's governor."
One - We all do wrong and people just want to continue this to make themselves feel better about our own crimes and misdemeanors. I still find this argument attempts to trivialize the serious damage that was done to children in this case by comparing it to minor trangressions that we all have in our closet. Two - The media has oversaturated us with this story because of the people involved, the college it occured at and the type of crime committed. Therefore we should just put this to bed because it could be neverending and too expensive. I don't refute the oversaturation of this story, I just reject it as a reason to stop investigating those that may have allowed the crimes to go on and create more victims of this monster. I understand your points, I just reject them. Good luck against Nebraska today.