Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s abrupt announcement that she would not seek a second term almost certainly writes finis – both on her political career, and on Harrisburg’s long running soap opera featuring the state’s first woman attorney general.
Under heavy pressure to resign, Kane so far refuses to do so. She also still faces 12 charges, including two felony counts, alleging a leak of grand jury material while the state legislature may yet move forward with impeachment. But while her legal fate is unknown, her political fate is now sealed.
This one is over–the tale has been told– fait accompli.
But where does the Kane saga belong in the notorious annals of Pennsylvania’s disgraced politicians?
Certainly, it doesn’t belong as part of the infamous history of corruption blazed by so many state politicians back to the Civil War era. The Kane epic is not about the petty venal corruption or graft that characterized so many past scandals and brought down so many state politicians.
Nor is it about the more modern abuse of using state resources for campaign purposes, such as the recent “bonus gate “scandals that wrecked so many political careers.
Indeed, Pennsylvania’s often-squalid politics offers little perspective on the political demise of Kathleen Kane. The Kane story doesn’t fit the corruption narrative at all.
If not corruption, then what did bring down someone who three years ago was one of the most celebrated politicians in the state, destined many believed to be a future governor or even a higher office?
It was character not corruption that brought Kane low. In particular four main character traits fated her fall as surely as a classic Greek tragedy.
- TEMPERAMENT – Kane often seemed to lack the temperament needed to fulfill the duties of a statewide elected official. Her many and much documented quarrels with senior aides and consultants are illustrative (she has had seven press secretaries in her brief tenure). Probably most revealing was her long running feud with Frank Fina, who handled the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse case. Many of Kane’s problems seem directly linked to discrediting Fina and the fear that he would destroy her tenure as attorney general.
- INEXPERIENCE – many of her early problems can be traced to her lack of public experience. Prior to her election she worked as an assistant DA in Lackawanna County, which provided some experience as a prosecutor. But she lacked managerial skills in running a large complex department. Typically, statewide office in Pennsylvania is only achieved after years of experience in local government or the legislature. Yet, Kane had never ran for any office or served in any elected capacity at the state or county level before her election.
- BAD POLITICAL JUDGEMENT – Kane exhibited poor political judgement almost from the beginning, early on shutting down a promising corruption investigation, awkwardly threatening to sue a Philadelphia paper for printing unflattering stories about her, and ignoring staff advice again and again. Her stunning refusal to prosecute a sting operation involving four Philadelphia lawmakers and a traffic court judge particularly hurt her. The appearance of blatant partisanship was even more evident in her handling of the porn email scandal that engulfed her office – selectively releasing only material linked to persons she apparently hoped to embarrass politically.
- POLITICAL ENEMIES – Kane in office embodied what one political scientist has called the “paranoid style in American politics.” She believed the state’s male dominated political establishment was conspiring against her. While there is little evidence of a conspiracy, she surely made enemies with her combative take no prisoner’s style. Tellingly, the felony charge that most unhorsed her – leaking testimony from a grand jury – is common and rarely prosecuted. In fact, the grand jury recommendation to indict her was itself leaked.
In the end, Kane’s political demise was more a suicide than a homicide. Still, it’s hard to see how her story might have turned out differently. Lack of experience, made worse by bad judgement, a temperament ill-suited for state politics, and the tendency to make enemies doomed her.
If character is fate, it was her fate to fall. And like a classic Greek tragedy, she met that fate.
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305 Responses
Sandusky for Fina. Yea, I’d take that swap.
HAHA- Again, very logical post. One wonders if this information is true could a complaint with the Pennsylvania Bar Association in an effort to lift his license so at the very least he suffers the same consequences as KK.
It doesn’t make a prosecutor feel better to tell a victim, “I told you so,” when their abuser is acquitted. They have to live with knowing there’ll be future victims. Michael Jackson’s prosecutors learned that lesson.
Begrudgingly, Corbett’s team got it right. They saved untold future abuse and boys even today from a monster.
Emotions certainly played into what they did to me. It was like re-victimizing me. They can rot in hell. Corbett. Fina. All of them. I was there. I know what they did – and what they didn’t do. Read my book.
I’d like to think that too, but the facts my investigator uncovered have sealed history differently. Believe me, I know how emotions can cloud our judgment sometimes.
They are not heroes. They are turds. And they have the blood of the boys he attacked on their hands. They will have to live with that for the rest of their lives. Sandusky would have gotten the equivalent of a life sentence on the one conviction for the one rape of AF. The prosecutors put him through the ringer instead. Shame on them.
Smerconish got it right. So did ABC.
It does sound that way MMQ.
Any experienced criminal prosecutor like myself knows that it’s Monday morning quarterbacking to assume the evidence you take to trial exists in the beginning of an investigation. That’s why my office exonerated Corbett’s team of any culpability. For the sake of untold underprivileged boys in central Pa, they’re heroes.
MMQB – Don’t worry; Fina will be in jail too!!!
If you are a shill in addition to being a troll – tell him to get his orange jump-suit ready.
The Michael Jackson reference is beyond stupid. Carlos gets it right below. Victims would have been much more likely to come forward with Sandusky behind bars. Plus – a Search Warrant would have easily been obtained based on the statement of the victim, AF. That warrant would have revealed evidence of many other victims. Sandusky kept a written log. He kept track of his rapes.
The AF case should have been brought promptly. Nothing would have stopped them from conducting their grand jury simultaneously if they wanted to go that route to find additional victims.
The bottom line is that the prosecutors allowed a child predator to remain free for 32 months. That is beyond inexcusable. And whether there was hard proof or not, it is way too coincidental that the case was finally brought when Corbett was safely in the Governor’s mansion.
Is it me or does it seem like someone is so blinded by their hate of Frank Fina that they’d rather he was in jail and Jerry Sandusky was out touching boys?
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.
Reality — you are dead-on correct. Fina’s shills (below) want you to believe them over CNN’s Smerconish and ABC News.
My office concluded that this poor boy and others could be abused still today if we listened to the Monday morning quarterbacks.
Corbett’s team was ultimately vindicated and it was a good thing for boys today who were in the Second Mile that they learned the lesson of Michael Jackson’s prosecutors.
I have been reading these posts about Corbett’s Office and how they handled the Sandusky investigation. I agree with HA and Marie. And so does ABC News.
From ABC News:
“The man said that his abuse by Sandusky lasted until he was about 16, in the year 2009. The timeframe suggests that Sandusky continued to abuse boys while under investigation by a grand jury, since the investigation was launched in late 2008.”
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 actions.
Why – thank you, James … I mean Jerry!!
Below is some more substance for you. It’s about the guy who led the smear campaign against Kane. The one the Superior Court called: “highly improper.” You want to know who it is?
You want to know about Frank Fina? Ask these two women —
1) Sheilah Novasky
She met Frank Fina for the first time while she was waiting to testify before a grand jury in the state’s case against DeWeese. She said she sat in a small room with seven men – including Fina.
Fina repeatedly asked bout two things: How many women on DeWeese’s staff were sleeping with Manzo? And did she know about Frameli’s “breast enhancements”?
Novasky then went before the grand jury. Fina asked her nothing about breasts or Manzo’s sexual relationships.
“I think it was for their own amusement,” Novasky said. “There is a line between intimidation and interrogation and they crossed the lines whenever they concentrated on the sexual antics, which had nothing to do with [the case] …”
“Fina was saying that we were exchanging political emails on state time and that it was illegal,” said Melissa Frameli. “It’s pretty sick that they were doing the same thing that they were screaming at us for – and our emails were related to political work”
2) Melissa Frameli
She recalled that Fina was fixated on her personal relationship with DeWeese’s chief of staff, Michael Manzo, and whether she had spent her bonus money on a “boob job.” He accused her of “whoring around,” unleashing a string of profanity and “F-bombs,” she said.
“He was completely putting me down and saying I was going to get in trouble for sleeping with my boss. Screaming at me, and saying that I used my bonus to get a boob job and that I was a disgrace, basically . . . I felt very degraded by him. I felt very degraded as a woman.”
I don’t understand how you guys keep getting my comments deleted and it’s driving me crazy!
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.
Long live those who live by these truisms.
HaHa. Nicely written. May not agree with everything in it and I’m sure it will stir debate. But well done explaining your views. Taking away 3 owned points.
Here is some substance:
Anyone who tries to separate Kane’s problems from the people behind them is disingenuous.
Kane can be all the things listed above: 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.
The person who was allegedly The Genesis of the e-mails is Seamus McCaffery. He was a Supreme Court Justice. His brother is currently a Judge in Philadelphia. He was once aligned with Kane.
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. 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.
HaHu-OWNED. 5. Times now. Seems like you’re a bit unglued since you saying nothing sensible but then again when have you. Remember everyone when he does this stuff of
Trolls etc it’s just a way to prove he has nothing of not to say.
Poor retard troll coming unglued AGAIN.
Marie- Have those information on the poll you posted…..ohhhhh didn’t think so.
Diablow- Have that name of the one Pa. Legislator that was interested in your “lists” Good news though several organizations used your explanations of your lists in various hospital maternity wards and all the babies went right to sleep. It seems like everyone else they were bored and tired and went right to sleep.
Was that Jepordy thing supposed to be funny? That was one of the dumbest things HaHu ha ever posted. Even the troll part was dumb. HaHU you need to get better lines because we are all tired of these. Thus far HaHU owned 4 times. Time for bed HaHU put on your plastic underpants just in case you have one of those peepee accidents. Don’t forget to kiss Diablow tonight. Obama or Hillary aren’t going to call about his lists so no reason to wait by the phone. Pleasant dreams boys.
Marie – Michael Jackson’s victims got pay-outs after which they were no longer cooperating. That is NOT the case with Aaron Fisher. Just read his book.
Imagine what the victims felt like after Michael Jackson got out. Not just the older ones, but the new ones he abused after double jeopardy was attached. Good thing experienced prosecutors knew to learn from California’s mistake.
No way they shoulda let that child predator on the street. Those guys cannot control themselves. They had a cemredible witness and should have moved. Easier for additional victims to come forward when the predator is locked away. Fina and Corbett fucked up. The horror they put that kid through was like re-victimizing him. I know. I once was a counsellor.
It’s a good thing Fina didn’t arrest Sandusky too soon. We’ve seen high profile cases against pedophiles fall apart because the prosecution wasn’t ready.
I for one am glad Sandusky is behind bars now and not walking around abusing kids like Michael Jackson did when the prosecutors actually screwed up.
Marie- Have those stats yet. Guess not. Another of HaHu’s accounts or just another poster who runs there mouth posts whatever they want but when challenged is exposed. I actually like HaHU in today’s world it’s tough to find someone who would be considered as easy pickings as him. No credability, no nothing just his mom and Diablow.
I know, Marie. It’s funny that a troll can be so obsessed with a person on the internet. He’s like one of those little girls SCREAMING for Justin Bieber.
Sad.
Has Kane resigned yet?
Ron, you’re my hero. Even if my family is hypocritical over the silly emails, at least you don’t find them criminal.
That troll really is obsessed with you, Ha3. Look how many times he types your name on this one article.
Have I mentioned how grateful I am that you don’t apply my definition of what’s criminal on Republicans? Remember – it only applies to Democrats (like McCaffery).
Has Eakin resigned yet?
Stand back everyone! HaHaHa is having a meltdown getting owned from every angle. I think he’s gonna blow…
Did you guys see this? Hilarious.
https://www.politicspa.com/politically-uncorrected-the-fall-of-kathleen-kane/72841/comment-page-3/#comment-1061896
Oops. I need to fix this computer.
I get that you may not UNDERSTAND the pace of the Sandusky investigation, but there’s nothing INEXPLICABLE about a high profile case like this.
Isn’t it funny though that you pick on Fina because he wasn’t an “exonerated investigator” because he’s a “prosecutor” and now you blame the investigators. You can’t keep your conspiracy straight.
HaHo has nothing else than those troll and clown car comments. Ask mommy to get you a dictionary so you kind find new word. Wonder how many names HAHo posts under.
Every time you include a troll and/clown car in a post that is one more time you are OWNED.
Have I mentioned how grateful I am for my family’s double standard for Democrats?
I get that you may not UNDERSTAND the pace of the Sandusky investigation, but there’s nothing INEXPLICABLE about a high profile case like this.
Isn’t it funny though that you pick on Fina because he wasn’t an “exonerated investigator” because he’s a “prosecutor” and now you blame the investigators. You can’t keep your conspiracy straight.
HAHo- Nice try posting under a different name really James Monroe. Grow up. You want to look victimized so people will overlook your troll posts. Won’t work. You are what you post. But you are owned and I like the idea that the number goes up every time we see a troll or clown car. Do you do children’s parties?
… says the idiot who just mistakenly posted the same comment under two different names.
You suck at this.
HaHo has nothing else than those troll and clown car comments. Ask mommy to get you a dictionary so you kind find new word. Wonder how many names HAHo posts under.
Every time you include a troll and/clown car in a post that is one more time you are OWNED.
Oh look. Now he is “James Monroe”!!!
Classic.
That troll is so OWNED.
Marie- Still awaiting the information on this poll you claim was taken. Who took it? What were the questions? How many people polled. Seemed very interesting as the poll showed MS Kane on top.
Diablo- still awaiting the name of the Legislator who you claimed signed on to your service.
HAHo- Nothing special you still are a waste to society that will be judged by your stupid troll or clown car posts. Everybody is tired of it. Besides its getting late, get your coloring book off Diablow and color your mommy a nice picture of Mr. Fina. The guy who has yet to be arrested, disbarred, fired. I hear he is thinking about running for DA on Montco or Delaware County with Bipartisan support. One piece of advice Frank DONT use Diablow’s list as you’ll surely lose. Be well my friends.
It’s about that time where they turn off the wifi at the Home for Retards where JerrytheMoron/SpongeBob/Brandy/ScrantonSuckBoy/UnsanctionedRetard lives!!!
Poor thing.
Well – because you are a troll using a cartoon character as a screen name; seems sorta obvious.
Marie- Still awaiting the information on this poll you claim was taken. Who took it? What were the questions? How many people polled. Seemed very interesting as the poll showed MS Kane on top.
Diablo- still awaiting the name of the Legislator who you claimed signed on to your service.
HAHo- Nothing special you still are a waste to society that will be judged by your stupid troll or clown car posts. Everybody is tired of it. Besides its getting late, get your coloring book off Diablow and color your mommy a nice picture of Mr. Fina. The guy who has yet to be arrested, disbarred, fired. I hear he is thinking about running for DA on Montco or Delaware County with Bipartisan support. One piece of advice Frank DONT use Diablow’s list as you’ll surely lose. Be well my friends.