Believe it or not, the most outrageous thing to come out related to the Jerry Sandusky scandal wasn't the grand jury presentment that led to former school president Graham Spanier being indicted. Not by a longshot. Nope, it turns out the Republican leadership of the Pennsylvania state house did something so outrageous that it merits a repost from yesterday.
Late yesterday, The (Harrisburg) Patriot-News reported that the two top Democrats in the state house--Minority Leader Frank Dermody and Minority Whip Mike Hanna--have asked Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special counsel to investigate how then-state attorney general Tom Corbett initially handled the Sandusky investigation. The letter, viewable here, reveals that Dermody and Hanna were prompted to make this move when the Republican leadership in the state house refused to let them bring up a resolution calling for a special counsel.
The Pennsylvania Democratic House Caucus hoped to use the full, bipartisan power of the Pennsylvania General Assembly to urge your office, through a concurrent resolution (House Resolution 520) to conduct an independent review of the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General's handling of the Sandusky case. Unfortunately, the Speaker of the House and his Republican colleagues repeatedly blocked this resolution from even being debated--let alone voted--on the House floor. (emphasis mine)
According to the bill history, the resolution was parceled off to the House Rules Committee, where it died in the summer of 2011.
We've come to expect some outrageous things from the GOP, but this has got to be near the top of the list. You'd think child abuse would be something that would cut across party lines. I have to wonder how many moms, dads and grandparents are in the Pennsylvania House Republican caucus. Why didn't they speak out when Speaker Sam Smith and Majority Leader Mike Turzai decided this resolution wouldn't be debated? Somehow, I thought there would be more Republicans like Chris Freind, who gave Corbett a well-deserved tongue-lashing for his slow-walking of the case.
Then again, I should have expected this considering that one of my friends in the Philly area tells me that impeachment isn't even on the table. Just about anywhere else, if an an attorney general who later became governor willfully dragged out an investigation of a serial pedophile, it would be an impeachable offense. And even if it turns out that Corbett merely mishandled it, it would prove that he can't be trusted to lead the state. But we can't know that unless we get a fresh set of eyes to look at it.
One thing is clear beyond all doubt, though. The Pennsylvania House Republican caucus' behavior here is at least as disgraceful as Corbett's handling of the Sandusky investigation.