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Kane’s Chief of Staff Resigns

Kane-sadThe Attorney General’s office must have a revolving door.

According to Ben Finley of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kathleen Kane’s Chief of Staff Blake Rutherford is stepping down today.

“While I will miss working alongside each of you, I am excited about what this new chapter holds for me and my family,” Rutherford wrote in an e-mail to friends and colleagues.

“I want to express my appreciation to General Kane for providing me with this opportunity and to all of you for your work on behalf of the people of Pennsylvania. It has been a privilege to serve, and I wish you the very best.”

Rutherford is Kane’s fourth chief of staff and had only been working for the AG for just four months.

Staff departures have been a major issue during Kane’s tenure. In fact, her Press Secretary left just last month.

Rutherford’s departure bookends perhaps the worst week of the Attorney General’s career.

On Tuesday, the State Supreme Court ruled a special prosecutor could pursue a case that may end in her indictment. On Thursday, it was revealed she had killed subpoenas for two powerful and influential Northeast PA figures. This morning, the Inquirer published an op-ed calling on her to resign.

Suffice to say, it’s becoming harder and harder to see how Kathleen Kane can overcome all this.

52 Responses

  1. 1) there was no uncertainty that he lied and was part of a cover-up. The jury wanted the top players. Your analogy fails because Kane is the focus, but Libby was not. Go buy a book about analogies.

    2) the King email and the document release were separated by several months. During that time, you don’t know what changed, or who changed their opinions, or what was discussed.

  2. @ DD:

    Your first recollection reinforces the uncertainty that led the D.C.-jury to convict him unjustly [remembering that Armitage was known to have been the leaker]; your second claim is undocumented, and would best be applied to the lady you are defending instead of to the lady who has an unblemished C.V. [remembering that you can’t shake your Dem-bias].

  3. Robert-

    Put down your Kool-aid. If you read up on the trial, you will see that Libby alternated from remembering to not remembering what he was told inconsistently during a week. Like he knew something on Tuesday, didn’t know it on Thursday, but knew it again on Saturday. The jury really wanted to let him go because they thought he was a fall guy, and wanted to overlook his obvious pattern of lies, but they had to go with the case they had.

    Risa is a hack.

  4. @ DD:

    Scooter didn’t lie; the DC-jury was biased, and the prosecutor needed a conviction [c/w your model]; perhaps you may wish to brush-up on your own set of [skewed] biases.

    Risa is a straight-shooter, so all your political machinations will dissipate after she decides what to do; it would seem that she will have plenty to pursue.

  5. Robert-
    It’s not the slightest bit comparable. He was lying to take the fall for higher ups. The jury knew that’s why he was lying.

    Part of your mental problem is being unable to distinguish correct analogies from false ones.

    I’ve been questioning the credibility of DA-Risa for years. I think she’s an incredible political hack who isn’t fit to serve in public office. Her decision on the Kane case is going to be a calculation of what serves her political interests.

    On one hand, if she takes it, she gets tied up in it when she wants to be campaigning for judge and comes off looking partisan. If she drops the case, the GOP machine will likely brand her a traitor to the party.

    Given the Dem majority in Montco, I’m hoping she loses in either and is finally removed from elected office.

  6. @ DD:

    The essence of what happened with Libby is comparable to what you claim occurred with AG-Kane, namely, serial interviews that may contain discrepancies, over time.

    The essence of what happened with the Grand Jury is that it concurred with the indictment on multiple counts; do you plan to challenge the credibility of DA-Risa if she concurs?

  7. Robert-

    1) Scooter Libby took the fall for Dick Cheney in outing a CIA operative. This is NOTHING like Kane. The jury was convinced that Libby was lying and obstructing justice to cover up for higher ups, like Rove and Cheney, but were left with only Libby to convict.
    Kane isn’t covering for “higher ups”, did not leak classified information, and is not obstructing justice.
    So it’s “identical” to the Libby case in the same way your brain is identical to a bag of horse manure.

    2) “You mischaracterize the Grand Jury process when you portray its participants as rubber-stamps”
    Umm…. no. The grand jury indictment rate is about 98-99%. It is very rare for a grand jury not to return an indictment.

    Google: grand jury indictment rate

  8. @ DD:

    1. Scooter Libby was convicted under the identical circumstances that you now would consider tangential, regarding AG-Kane.

    2. You mischaracterize the Grand Jury process when you portray its participants as rubber-stamps; furthermore, your effort to divert attention notwithstanding [by invoking the classic-lib “moral egalitarianism,” there was no justification for AG-Kane to secret politically-tinged info to the media … any info … for, if she was truly concerned with the public welfare, she would properly have held an open press-conference and released all redacted info to everyone.

  9. Robert-

    1) A grand jury report means only that a prosecutor convinced them of what he wanted, without a defense lawyer cross-examining. Doesn’t prove she lied, only that her testimony conflicted with someone else’s. It’s all leaks, so we don’t know who else the jury thinks lied. Did Fina testify? Was he asked any hard questions?

    But to be direct, I do not think that Kane has lied. Instances where she and others have different recollections or interpretations of events could be construed as lies, but that doesn’t make them so.

    2) To paraphrase you:
    “what purpose … beyond political … was satisfied by releasing these charges against Kane to the press”
    You are so concerned with leaks being “political”, yet you ignore the political nature behind the unending leaks in the investigation of Kane.

  10. @ DD:

    The article you cited includes the following: “A grand jury says Kane leaked confidential information to a newspaper and then lied about it under oath. The panel recommended that she be charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, contempt of court, and other crimes.”

    Do you also claim she never lied?

  11. I can only guess that today’s Inquirer profile, a rare even-handed treatment from a newspaper that’s been on an obvious vendetta against Kane, came in response to internal pressure from staff that was growing tired of how biased and “Fox News”-ish their coverage of the AG looked. Of course, now that they’ve got this boulder rolling downhill it’s going to take more than a Sunday feature article to slow it down.

  12. The purpose of being transparent about an investigation into how a previous case was handling. That mishandling the reason the case was being re-opened because Fina failed to do his due diligence. Exposing the flaws and problems as part of an effort to clean up the department is not political. It only seems that way to the corrupt and/or incompetent that required the cleaning.

    You ignore Fina’s failures to follow up his investigation that caused the problems she revealed.

  13. what purpose … beyond political … was satisfied by releasing these data to the press???

  14. The case was being reinvestigated. Some of the people in the case were trying to pursue another person in the case who they suspected of hiding assets. With the case taking a new turn, and the investigation showing Fina had failed to pursue a good lead, it was newsworthy. The background information contained an unredacted name by accident. But, the rest of the release was part of an investigation about how prosecutors handled their jobs. That is not protected information.

  15. Robert-

    It’s “unredacted”.

    But, my point remains. Had that one name been redacted there would be no case. The rest of the information was valid to release.

  16. @DD:

    The “minor slip of an interacted name” occurred while she was leaking; thus, for political purposes, she created an atmosphere in which such an error could occur.

  17. Nothing more satisfying that seeing a liberal complain about being treated unfairly by the press. Gives them a small taste of what conservatives go through every day.

  18. Democratics fighting over Democratic candidates…have to love it. In DD’s defense, I’m pretty sure Kane still would be a better senate candidate than Sestak. That’s how pathetic this has become.

  19. This a three-part series and a scathing indictment of the lack of journalist integrity of the Inquirer.

    Part 1: The incredible shrinking newspapers: From ‘Tower of Truth,’ to ‘Grotto of Horseshit’

    newslanc.com/2015/03/04/keisling-the-moral-and-ethical-decline-of-the-philadelphia-inquirer/

    Part 2: The moral and ethical decline of the Philadelphia Inquirer

    newslanc.com/2015/03/12/the-moral-and-ethical-decline-of-the-philadelphia-inquirer-part-2/

    Part 3: Frank Fina changes the conversation

    newslanc.com/2015/03/18/keisling-the-moral-and-ethical-decline-of-the-philadelphia-inquirer-part-3/

  20. Troubled voter-
    Murphy’s ONLY reason to run for A.G. was as a stepping stone to gov. He told his donors as much when they pressed him.

    You are calling for her impeachment for incompetence, and for her to be hauled away in cuffs. If you think she purposely engaged in criminal behavior, then say so, and don’t demand jail time for poor performance.

    Robert-
    I didn’t “blame” Corbett. I was merely pointing out “troubled”‘s hypocrisy.
    I’ve lost all respect for the Inquirer. They’ve been on a vendetta against Kane. There was a three part series of articles about how terrible and unprofessional the Inquirer has become in these witch hunts. It’s pretty hypocritical of them to attack her on a minor slip of an unredacted name, yet base their coverage on an unending stream of detailed grand jury leaks that were serial crimes, in which the Inquirer has been a participant.

    Also, the Inquirer editorial dept failed to make an endorsement in the gov race last year. The reason was that the owner was a HUGE Corbett contributor, and didn’t want the paper to endorse Wolf.

    Ezekiel- Given all the negative press lately, it’s unclear if the staffers can’t take the heat or if they have a problem with Kane. No one ever publicly says the real reason they resign.

    Does ANYONE think that Fina would survive this level of attack by the Inquirer?

  21. When the dust settles and the history of this episode is written, it will be clear that Kane allowed herself to be sucked into a losers’ brawl that she was ill-equipped to fight. She could have walked away and let Fina – through his two incredibly lazy and biased reporter mouthpieces – fire impotently. Instead, she showed up at the Inquirer with lawyer in tow and the war was on, a war that she fought badly. She may survive this – I hope she does – but every person and institution involved comes out damaged. The connections to Sandusky-Paterno-Gricar are disturbing.

  22. Good on Piggy and DD they have all the loyalty and awareness of devout Scientologists.

  23. Lol “I don’t find the story of a staffer quitting to be particularly noteworthy.”

    How about at least 5 quitting?

  24. @ Peggy:

    Notwithstanding your “belief,” note additional data elsewhere on PoliticsPA:

    kane-blocks-subpoenas-in-casino-investigation/64980/#comments

    breaking-pa-supreme-court-rules-against-kane/64888/#comments

    kanes-ex-deputy-contradicts-the-ags-sworn-testimony/64434/#comments

  25. I still believe that Attorney General Kane was and still is being set-us. I support her 100%.

  26. @DD:

    Just like the proverbial Blame-Bush rationalization abounds nationally, you try to blame Corbett.

    Care to tackle the specifics of the Inqy-editorial?

  27. Typical. Trying to find a way to bring Corbett into the argument because you have nothing to stand on. I get that you want to be loyal soldier to a candidate you’ve backed from day one. But after all of these issues I just can’t help but think you’re afraid to admit you’re wrong.

    As a Democrat, I voted for Murphy. Our party got what it deserved when we relied on an endorsement from a former President to hijack our primary and cloud our judgement. I didn’t fall for it, you did. I just hope Josh Shapiro isn’t damaged by Kane’s incompetence when he’s our candidate for Attorney General in 2016.

  28. Troubled Voter-

    So, you think she’s incompetent, and should be taken away in cuffs? There’s a huge difference between someone being bad at management vs deserving to go to prison.

    I don’t remember you calling for Corbett to be taken away in cuffs for his incompetence. Nor, for all his favors to his big donors in oil/gas by turning a blind eye to the hundreds of violations and appointing industry shills to oversee the environmental protection.

  29. I’m not calling for her impeachment because her COS resigned. It’s because of everything that has happened over the last year with Kane. She is clearly incompetent and you can tell Wolf wants her gone. Shapiro will be the Democratic Attorney General Nominee in 2016. The question is whether or not Kane decides to go down with the little dignity she has left. Personally, I would love to see an ad run with her spewing the “I will not politicize the Office of Attorney General” and then cut to her in handcuffs. Only a matter of time, Dave.

  30. Robert-

    I’ve been swamped lately. If you read the thread about PA turnout, you’d see there has been a problem with producing voter files for the past month. I’ve spent the past few days trying to obtain the file, load it onto my servers and notify my customer base about the update. I’ve also been stuck at car shops for state inspection and various repairs from problems discovered. These potholes have been wreaking havoc.

    I don’t find the story of a staffer quitting to be particularly noteworthy. I have no idea about the inner office environment there, nor know any of the staffers. With Sestak, I’ve met ex-staffers and their friends, so I know more about why they quit or what irrational basis Sestak use to fire them.

    I will say this, it’s ridiculous for people like Jackb1977 calling for her resignation, or a (mentally) “Troubled voter” to call for her impeachment because a staffer quit.

    The article says: “Rutherford said he’s headed to the high-powered Philadelphia law firm Cozen O’Connor and its lobbying arm Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies”, also that his wife is local Philly news anchor, Jessica Dean.

    So, he left Harrisburg for a job in the same city where he and his wife both live. That is quite a shocker.

  31. Hey, at least she didn’t give a hard-line muslim regime that is still calling for the destruction of Israel nuclear legitimacy and a clear path to the bomb.

  32. Stand tall General. Chin up. God will give you strength. When the mob turns on you have the fortitude to withstand it and let the whole world watch and let them see and feel what they’ve done. They have no honor.

  33. If she isn’t going to resign than impeachment proceedings should begin immediatly. Our Governor also needs to public ask her to resign. She has lost all credibility and the office is in shambles.

  34. Rob Wells may be on to something. At this point, is she regretting she did not pay attention to Nixon’s parting words?:

    “Always give your best, never get discouraged, never be petty; always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.”

  35. The AG must resign. She has absolutely no legitimate argument to maintain her position in state government. Let Governor Wolf appointment a place holder until 2016. What a total train wreck this has been.

  36. My guess is the guy from Arkansas did not know what he was stepping into. Good for him that he saw the light and got out of there. This has a Nixon like quality to it. Who will be left there to pray with AG Kane? Advice to the AG – Make the deal. Resign and go home to Scranton and be a good Mother.

  37. I think these staffers have seen what a mess she is, how in over her head she is, and how incredibility unqualified she is to hold this office. She is a complete fraud.

  38. What a freaking joke. The boys from Arkansas didn’t stay long… they bailed.

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