Democrats appear to be trying to pump the brakes on the efforts to impeach Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
House Minority Leader Frank Dermody is leading the charge.
“I have doubts as to whether it’s necessary,” Dermody told Kevin Zwick of Capitolwire concerning possible impeachment. “There’s a reason it happens every 150 years…It needs to be reserved for the most extreme cases.”
It first became apparent that the Party was slowing beginning to rally around Kane when the vote to remove her failed to reach a two-thirds majority in the State Senate.
Now that she has officially announced that she won’t run for a second term, momentum seems to be building to allow her to just finish her time in office and leave her fate to the judiciary.
Republicans, however, are definitely not on board with this trend.
Subcommittee Chair, and one-time AG candidate, State Rep. Todd Stephens told Brad Bumsted of the Tribune-Review that the hearings will continue.
“Until we have the facts, we don’t know whether it makes sense to proceed,” Stephens stated.
For now, Kane’s fate remains very much up in the air.
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63 Responses
Wait — what R word are we talking about?
Of course, the term “Repervlican” is much more clever than the term “Dumbocrat”
“Dumbocrats” > “Hypocrats”
So someone finally stopped the hateful language from the Hypocrats?
Ha3 – Don’t worry about using “Repervlican.” They use “Dumbocrat” all the time. They are just a bunch of TEA-guzzling crybabies and Trumpanzees.
I’m sorry for using the R-word. Won’t happen again. You taught me a lesson.
I agree it looks a little two-faced that she only released emails that seemed to serve her at the time.
The journalists disagree with you Ms.
“Kathleen Kane Says Her Sister’s Emails Aren’t That Bad — Here’s Why She’s Wrong”
http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/12/18/kathleen-kane-sister-emails-porngate/
All of the offensive e-mails have been sent to the Special Prosecutor. Including Ms. Granahan’s. I believe that the criminals will be held accountable. And people who mis-used grand juries will be exposed.
Memo to Dem Stsre Party Chair Marcel Groen: please identify, fund and support a qualified candidate to take Stephens out once and for all and end his nonsense. This moron wants to more fully develop facts? What facts is he going to develop that the MontCo DA can’t or won’t? Stephens is a party hack and a tool. Next up he will subpoena Kane to testify so he can grandstand some more and than whine when she invokes her 5th and refuses to testify before the criminal trial. Please-someone needs to take Stephens out.
I didn’t send anything like what Fina sent. That guy is a racist creep sicko!!
I understand that people will want and smear me. I created enemies by holding those emails over the judiciary system and trying to play puppetmaster.
Please ignore the smears and judge me only by my actions. My illegal, hypocritical, menacing, and corrupt actions.
Anyone who tries to separate Kane’s problems from the people behind them (Frank Fina included) is being disingenuous.
Kane can be all the things listed in the earlier article: inexperienced, poor temperament, etc. But that doesn’t change the fact that she was targeted by a corrupt bunch of creeps who were motivated by self-preservation.
Kane won an election. In a landslide. She may be stupid. She may be naive. She may have been in over her head. But, what she found when she did what she promised to do while campaigning was a disturbing network of people who seemed to think the rules don’t apply to them. They used their State computers to distribute vile, racist material.
Their attitudes towards minorities, women and homosexuals is very disturbing. The fact that they shared the material with Judges they appeared in front of is even more disturbing. They created a group of people who all had the goods on each other. People that shared the same racist, woman-hating attitudes. And, once you were part of that group, the other members had a hammer they could hold over you.
Frank Fina was one of the prosecutors in this group. He prosecuted people for mis-using their State computers. And then he used his State computer on this:https://www.flickr.com/photos/zadock1/3580634808. That is but one example. There are many others.
When Kane won, but before she took office, Fina finalized his “unjust” plea deal with Tyron Ali. Bruce Beemer called it “unjust.” Fina dropped all the charges. Fina let Ali keep the $430K he stole from a non-profit set up to help children.
Con-man Ali’s lawyer is Bob Levant. Fina negotiated that sweet deal, in the 11th hour (right before Kane was set to take over) with Levant.
And now Fina is suing the AG’s Office for money. And guess who one of his lawyers is? Yep — Bob Levant.
Rumor has it that Levant has helped Seth Williams with the FBI’s criminal investigation into Williams.
Now – Seth Williams has just created a new position at the DA’s Office – “General Counsel and Chief of Staff.” It’s a high paying job. The person he hired just walked off the street into that job. Her name is Kathy Martin and she has zero general counsel experience and hardly any prosecutorial experience.
But – she is Bob Levant’s wife. Huge coincidence, huh?? I think not. It’s no wonder that Williams refuses to fire Fina. They are in bed together. Levant and Martin are on that stinky mattress too.
Something is rotten at the DA’s Office.
We’re up to 14!
Any guess on how many unique individuals actually typed it? Here’s a tricky clue: It’s actually not a prime number.
Oh – and his attempts to do it in the Penn State cad led to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania labeling his conduct “highly improper.”
Elroy – I disagree. Kane can be impeached before her “day in court.” The impeachment trial would provide her her “day[s] in court.”
You are right about Fina’s Playbook. It is posted below. The whole idea is to smear the target. Violate her due process rights so badly that she is destroyed before she ever gets to court.
That’s what he tried to do in the Penn State case and that’s what he tried to do to Kane. But – it didn’t really work. In fact, it blew up in his face. The last two relevant polls have 77% of the respondents calling for Fina to be fired and 68% saying they thing Kane should get a 2nd term.
This is all out of the Frank Fina playbook. The state Senate and state House are contributing to the corruption of a fair trial. How can a sitting elected official be removed from office or impeached prior to her day in court. The future jury pool is being tainted.
Any Democrat to halt the 32-year control of the Office of Attorney General would have faced the same onslaught.
No, Aaorn – that happens Thursday.
Has Eakin resigned yet?
That is really terrible what Granahan did. If she used her State computer to do it, I hope she goes to jail with Frank Fina.
It is said that Fina actually prosecuted a woman for mis-using her State computer when the woman paid her son’s PSU tuition online.
If that is true, expect Fina to get LAUNCHED by his sentencing Judge. Imagine the nerve of a guy who would go to court to call such a woman a “criminal” and then return to his desk and send racist material to his white male buddies … from his State computer … on the taxpayers’ dime.
He better get his orange jump-suit ready!!
Maybe I can get a promotion?
“July 1st: It is reported by Brad Bumsted that an employee who wrote an op-ed defending Kane, Becky Berkebile was promoted to the new created position of Director of Drug Control Programs. The promotion comes with a $11,300 raise.” [Updated Timeline at: https://www.politicspa.com/the-kathleen-kane-saga-a-timeline%5D
This puts the unionization article in perspective.
I’ve seen consistent reports that my emails were of “minorities, immigrants, obese people, anorexics, and domestic violence victims,” but they always forget the ones that mock the LGBT community. These, of course, are just the ones we chose to release. Remember when for months we pretended that they hadn’t existed and someone finally publicly called us out?
Dear Sister, thank you again for giving me NO PUNNISHMENT WHATSOEVER. After all it’s only misogynist if a man sends it, it’s only racist if a republican sends it and it’s only memorable if our enemies receive it.
Long live those who defend these truisms.
Who cares about Kane. She is toast. Time to focus on the corrupt Dem running the Philly Sistrict Attorney’s Office into the ground.
Keep hoping. Kane’s been doing such a good job cleaning house that the jerks are trying to unionize. They should be off the government payroll, but now a union is going to keep those creeps around.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/05/movement_to_organize_gaining_g.html
I can tell you I saw this one:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/zadock1/3580634808
Frank Fina should be ashamed of himself. And for him to think he could get away with using his Stste computer on such vile, racist garbage. He is a criminal.
Please just leave Kathleen Kane alone. You have made her life miserable since the day she was sworn in. You got what you wanted – her not to run. My only hope is that she takes as many people down as she can before she leaves.
Ron, you’re my hero. Even if my family is hypocritical over the silly emails, at least you don’t find them criminal. That is of course maybe because we’ve only released “some” of them? Did you see these?
http://www.pennlive.com/news/2015/12/kathleen_kane_shares_her_siste.html
When it comes to Democrats – the Porngate e-mails are criminal.
When it comes to Eakin and Fina – the Porn-gate e-mails are not criminal.
Hope I cleared that up.
I am so thankful of my family’s double standard for Democrats.
I see I have a groupie imitator, I’m flattered. However, my actions have made my motives clear to all fair-minded, mainstream individuals. Have you seen what Madonna and Young just wrote? https://www.politicspa.com/politically-uncorrected-the-fall-of-kathleen-kane/
As my one petition signer learned, poll’s don’t always mean votes, or even signatures. Their politics may be with me, but their heart can’t give me their vote (or signature).
Kick her when she’s up, kick her when she’s down
Kick her when she’s out so she won’t rebound.
Straight outta the Bazzano-Zappala-Porter mafia’s prosecutor handbook.
Corbett hired Granahan. Not me.
I am glad that the citizens of PA have rallied to my side. I knew I could have won (the polls speak for themselves). But, I decided to put the best interests of the State above my own personal interests. I am partly responsible for the fact that I have become a polarizing figure. I regret that. But I remain dedicated the idea that all who committed crimes be held accountable.
And I am SICK AND TIRED of the paying Frank Fina and Marc Costamzo from the City’s payroll. They are racist scum. They need to go (and Granahan too)!!
And I am also tired of my taxpayer dollars going to Seth Williams’ girlfriends!!!
Tired of Seth Williams protecting white guys and rich people. He must think he is a Republican!!
Really? Who defends this behavior? How much are they paying you?
“As critics decry her sister’s emails, Kane stands firm on no discipline”
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20151218_As_critics_decry_her_sister_s_emails__Kane_stands_firm_on_no_discipline.html
Don’t know how this turned into Seth Williams, but Davies makes 2 apples and oranges comparisons in as many paragraphs.
E-mails? Are we still talking about e-mails?? OK …. Here goes:
http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/08/26/kathleen-kane-frank-fina-porngate-emails/
I can’t believe there are shills out there who defend bad behavior by lying and pretending there’s a difference between the emails her enemies sent and those of her unpunished allies.
“Kathleen Kane Says Her Sister’s Emails Aren’t That Bad — Here’s Why She’s Wrong”
http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/12/18/kathleen-kane-sister-emails-porngate/
A spokesman for Seth Williams, emailed Dave Davies that “the district attorney works to ensure that the investigatory process is fair for all citizens. He has a longstanding professional relationship with Mr. Dougherty that required him to refer the matter to another agency.”
Davies went on:
“Curious. When Williams charged three Philadelphia lawmakers he knew in a political corruption case last year, he said, “There are no free passes when it comes to corruption. I will not and cannot look the other way just because you are my friend or a member of my political party or my race.
I don’t know exactly why we elect our county prosecutors, but if developing political relationships and accepting campaign contributions mean you can’t do your duty, you should avoid those relationships.”
Well said, Dave. Well said.
That’s what I thought too.
Are you all forgetting that the reader’s poll here at PoliticsPA had Kane winning by 70% or so? She’s still popular and obviously most people support her. Too bad she did not run—she’d been re-elected.
Not sure how this conversation turned to e-mails, but I don’t think Granahan sent anything like what Fina sent:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/zadock1/3580634808
Dear sister, our motives are pure and our hypocrisy justified because we are heroes. Sometimes you need to threaten the little people and break the law for the greater good of protecting yourself and surviving to fight the next progressive war.
Hold fast my sister and never forget, it’s only misogynist if a man sends it, it’s only racist if a republican sends it and it’s only memorable if our enemies receive it.
I understand that people will want to smear me. I created enemies by holding those emails over the judiciary system and trying to play puppetmaster.
Please ignore the smears and judge me only by my actions. My illegal, hypocritical, menacing, and corrupt actions.
Here’s a great article to support Pat’s position on what happened to Kane:
The PA Corruption Network’s Playbook
The similarities between the prosecution of Kathleen Kane and of the PSU 3 reveal the “playbook” of Pennsylvania’s corruption network
The cases of current Pennsylvania Attorney General (AG) Kathleen Kane and that of former Penn State University (PSU) officials (i.e., the PSU 3) are connected by a common thread.
A group of the Commonwealth’s attorneys, judges, political operatives, and their media accomplices — hereafter referred to as the “network” — used trumped up charges, purposely misinterpreted laws, and oversold highly dubious evidence to convict these individuals in the court of public opinion.
After examining the timelines and evidence of these cases, it appears that the network has a well defined playbook for taking out its targets and it works like this:
1. Individuals within the network fear their own heinous acts may be exposed and publicly accuse their opponents of crimes as a means of deflecting attention away from themselves.
2. The network next co-opts individuals close to the target(s) –insiders — to assist in setting up the target(s) to be charged with perjury and other crimes.
3. After the insiders have sufficiently undermined the targets (using various means of deception), the network’s attorneys and/or judges leak damaging information about the targets to the media.
4. The media arm of the network uses the information in an attempt to compromise the targets or to promote guilt by association in the press.
5. At the conclusion of this “framing,” that was mislabeled as a criminal investigation, attorneys go public with charging documents that allege crimes based on misinterpretations of the laws and that are chocked full of questionable testimony from unreliable witnesses, completely illogical scenarios, and dubious evidence. Perjury charges are standard in order to publicly smear the defendants as being dishonest individuals while attempting to pump up the veracity of the Commonwealth’s lousy witnesses (who would be eviscerated at an actual trial).
6. The media accomplices ignore the illegal application of relevant laws, that the charging documents are illogical, the lousy witnesses, and the highly questionable evidence in order to continue treating the allegations as facts and even go as far as to allege the target committed crimes for which he or she has not been charged.
7. The public falls for the deception and believes the targets are guilty of everything and are corrupt individuals — whether they have been charged with a crime or not. Citizen activists, public officials, and other groups and individuals — who are beneficiaries of the corrupt network — jump on the media bandwagon to publicly condemn the targets.
8. Witting and/or unwitting employers recommend the targets be relieved of their duties or actually do so through employment actions — before anything is proven and without conducting a legitimate legal review.
9. When legal proceedings in the cases reveal the false and questionable testimony put forth in the charging documents and the dubious evidence used in the case, the network’s media arm ignores the information and continues to slant the reports so the public continues to assume the targets are guilty.
10. The legal issues from the misapplications of the laws result in appeals to the network’s judges, who refused to rule on simple matters and keep the trials on permanent hold. If targets are convicted of lesser crimes, the media will treat them like crimes of the century.
The network’s playbook achieves the goal of protecting its corrupt dealings and/or heinous crimes by never legally proving, but publicly scapegoating the targets in a media firestorm that is high in supposition and light on facts.
To wit: the grand jury and Montgomery County DA Risa Ferman did not find the evidence to charge AG Kane with directly leaking grand grand jury information in the Mondesire case, but you wouldn’t know that if you just read the news headlines.
Instead, they charged her with perjury (part of the playbook), lesser crimes, and for orchestrating the leaks, the latter of which Ferman and others know can’t be proven.
Then again, the network’s playbook doesn’t include actually prosecuting the case.
“Until we have the facts, we don’t know whether it makes sense to proceed,” Stephens stated.
Based on what we know, it would be only political if there were not any hearings. The AG’s behavior demands accountability to the public.
Thank you for changing your tune in accordance with the facts as I have.
You may remember that I tried very hard to smear Corbett’s team. In the end, I was forced to retract all of it because of where the facts led.
Believe me, I charged my investigator to leave no stone unturned. He was so good that he uncovered the porngate emails that family and I were a part of, but, the point is that I wanted so badly to put the abuse of boys on the shoulders of my enemies.
Unfortunately for me it turned out that they were the heroes who probably protected many more victims–even today.
It is Michael Jackson’s death that keeps his hands out of boys pants. It wasn’t his prosecutors. We should all be thankful that Corbett’s team did what California’s rush to arrest couldn’t do and keep a monster off the streets.
Reasonable people have finally figured out what happened to AG Kane. She was certainly in over her head from Day 1. She may not be the smartest person. But, she was the victim of a vicious smear campaign. And the temporary license suspension and the trumped-up criminal charges are just a part of that.
Fina & The Corbett Pervs have now been thoroughly EXPOSED. Their end-around on the Constitution was an EPIC FAIL. And now, Kane will serve her term while the Special Prosecutor finishes his investigation.
And POPCORN will be ready for that trial in MontCo. I can hardly wait!!!
sklaroff …. Oh sklaroff …. Where ARE you???????