Why Didn't Former PA AG and Now Governor Tom Corbett Stop Jerry Sandusky?

Since January of 1997, our family has lived in the college town of Norman, OK, with a well known football program at The University of Oklahoma.  That is where the similarity with Penn State ends.  The members of the media here in Oklahoma investigate every little rumor and are not adverse to reporting without all the facts on the OU football program or any of the other programs at OU.  I would rather they be tenacious then what we are seeing after the fact about the cover-up by the Pennsylvania media of the people in charge at Penn State including Penn State President and the Athletic Department who covered up for Sandusky since 1998 and the cover-up for then Attorney General and now Governor Corbett since at least 2008.  

Penn State's football program became more important than young boy's safety from a predator along with an out of control Attorney General who had plotted his way to the Governor's office.  Once Governor, he threw Paterno under the bus like he had nothing to do with it as Attorney General.  He was more concerned about putting political enemies behind bars then he was protecting young boys as the details have come out.

Started this research when I watched an ESPN video today about the aftermath where they mentioned Gov Corbett who then as Attorney General had done nothing with the allegations against Sandusky but took campaign contributions knowing about the allegations from the Second Mile Charity of Sandusky and a lot of Penn State donors.  What I discovered has left me speechless.  I am still shocked at what I read today about this scandal and would have to wonder how Corbett can still be Governor.

Now Gov Corbett friends are asking the same questions that those of us not involved with Penn State are asking.  Why didn't the Attorney General Corbett have his office investigate all of this aggressively.  Was it because he wanted those campaign donations and support to run for Governor?  Sure looks like he put his political career over the safety of young boys who were left alone with Sandusky.

Why Didn't Tom Corbett Stop Jerry Sandusky? 

Will Gov. Tom Corbett's role in the Sandusky investigation continue to haunt him when he seeks re-election?

• July 18, 2012

Columnist and investigative reporter Chris Freind, a longtime supporter of Gov. Tom Corbett, has penned an open letter (letter below) to the state leader asking tough questions about the Jerry Sandusky child rape scandal. 

Freind says Corbett refuses to answer disturbing questions about his role as attorney general in investigating Sandusky. 

Freind contends that Corbett could have stopped Sandusky, but didn't. 

Pennsylvania has re-elected every governor for a second term since 1971.

IMHO Governor Corbett should not be reelected but needs to take the honorable route and resign but after reading the details, the chance of that happening is zero, zip, nada.  When he stood at the podium and talked about the voter ID bill he had just signed was going to elect Romney it left me speechless as I watched it this week.  But then while looking for that video, I discovered that Gov Corbett has contracted with a Romney fundraiser for the ID bill.  Chris Freind who is a reporter made these comments which every last journalist should be living by today:

Bottom line: this isn’t personal, and it’s not partisan. It’s only about one thing: the truth

Those two sentences should be followed by every last reporter and network.  Fox News has proven that they have little regard for truth in this election cycle as Roger Ailes promotes Mitt Romney including taking the President totally out of context which led to Limbaugh and the Romney camp running with that.  Truth has taken a huge hit at Fox News this time.

This letter from Chris Friend blew my mind:

Freind: An open letter to Gov. Corbett on Sandusky affair
Published: Monday, July 16, 2012
By CHRIS FREIND,
Special to the Times 

An open letter to Pennsylvania’s governor, who refuses to answer disturbing questions about his role investigating the Penn State sex scandal: 

Bursting with righteous indignation, his cheeks flushed with rage, the governor banged the podium in disgust while berating a journalist - in fact, chastising the entire media - for the audacity to ask questions on the issue. 

We’re not talking about New Jersey’s Chris Christie, who gets away with such outbursts because of his stellar track record and pure gravitas. 

No, this tantrum came from Pennsylvania’s Tom Corbett after being queried about his incredibly long investigation of child predator Jerry Sandusky. 

And it backfired in spectacular fashion. Why? 

Because Tom Corbett is no Chris Christie.

Since questions on this matter remain unanswered, it seems only fitting, on behalf of the media and public, to pen an open letter to Mr. Corbett. 

For the record, no media commentator in Pennsylvania supported Corbett’s ideas more than Freindly Fire during the 2010 campaign, from increased Marcellus Shale drilling to school choice to liquor privatization. In fact, FF even backed Corbett’s decision to subpoena Twitter during the Bonusgate corruption probe - a highly unpopular position. Bottom line: this isn’t personal, and it’s not partisan. It’s only about one thing: the truth.

Dear Gov. Corbett:

Since there are a number of questions which you have failed to answer concerning your investigation of Jerry Sandusky, on behalf of the media and the public, I respectfully ask for clarification in the following areas: 

1) Based on a decade’s worth of evidence of Sandusky’s predatory activities, why did it take the Attorney General’s Office three years to arrest him? I fully understand that it takes time to conduct an investigation, but as numerous prosecutors have stated, you could have arrested him quickly and continued building the case. 

Tragically, it is probable that Sandusky continued to molest victims during your epic investigation, as predators do not stop preying unless forced to do so. Had he been arrested early, (standard procedure in many cases with a lot less evidence), Sandusky would have had to post bail, had restrictions placed upon him, and, most important, been under an ultra-intense media and community spotlight - every minute of every day until his trial. 

In short, children would finally have been safe. And contrary to your assessment, this would have created a much more favorable environment for additional witnesses to come forward, knowing their bigger-than-life demon could hurt them no more. Arresting Sandusky quickly would have in no way jeopardized the strength of the case. 

One of two things seems to be true, as there is no third option. Either A) you were an incompetent attorney general, which virtually no one believes, or B) the investigation was deliberately understaffed and drawn out because you did not wish to be the gubernatorial candidate who took down fabled Penn State - with its massive and intensely loyal alumni network - and the beloved Joe Paterno. Since doing so would have presented difficult campaign challenges, many are asking if politics was placed above children’s safety. Which leads to the next question. 

2) Why was the investigation so understaffed? Yes, you just now claimed - after eight months - that media reports are wrong that only one investigator was assigned the case for the first 15 months. The real number, as you now state, was a whopping two. We know you were busy with Bonusgate, but political corruption never threatens anyone’s physical well-being, particularly defenseless children. 

And the two investigators assigned were narcotics agents. While Sandusky’s heinous crimes were many, drug offenses were not among them. 

Yes, they were former police officers. But wouldn’t the reasonable course have been to assign agents with experience in child molestation cases? Did their inexperience lengthen the investigation more than normal … say, past your election in November 2010? 

Additional resources were available. Upon becoming governor, you placed state police on the case. You could have made that same request to Gov. Ed Rendell, and, given the stakes, there is virtually no possibility he would have refused. And since you are a former United States attorney, you undoubtedly realized that federal assistance was also available. 

3) Do you believe ethical and moral lines were crossed when, after investigating Penn State as Attorney General, you then participated as a member of the Board of Trustees upon becoming governor? 

In other words, knowing full well that the investigation was still in full swing, conducted by your handpicked attorney general successor, you nonetheless chose to sit on the very board you had been - and still were - investigating! 

Did you ever consider recusing yourself from board activities until the investigation was concluded? Since governors rarely attend board meetings, this would have in no way raised suspicions. 

4) As governor, why did you personally approve a $3 million taxpayer-funded grant to Sandusky’s Second Mile charity, given your knowledge that Sandusky was under investigation for multiple child rapes? 

Your statement that blocking the grant would have tipped people off to the investigation is utterly disingenuous, particularly since the media reported on the investigation in March, and you did not approve the funds until July 2011. 

Vetoing the charitable grant would have simply been viewed as another financial cutback in a budget full of slashed programs. 

So one has to ask if the $640,000 in campaign donations from board members of the Second Mile, along with their businesses and families, had anything to do with your actions? 

If not, fine. But how did such a massively significant point slip your mind - until the media brought it up? And was that question also out of line? 

Since these are matters of grave concern, I and many others look forward to your immediate response. 

The media talks about Penn State’s Big Four casualties: Joe Paterno, former President Graham Spanier, Senior Vice President Gary Schultz, and Athletic Director Timothy M. Curley. But perhaps they are missing the biggest: Tom Corbett. 

He has always claimed to hold himself to a higher standard, and has roundly criticized Paterno and others for not doing more to stop Sandusky. But when it came down to it, when Corbett had the power to put a speedy end to Sandusky, he didn’t. 

If mistakes were made, fine. People can accept that. But to stonewall reasonable questions on such an important matter, and then stalk off , is something that should not, and will not, be tolerated. 

Tom Corbett has a choice, perhaps the biggest of his career. He can either answer now - or in 2014. 

Chris Freind is an independent columnist, television/radio commentator, and investigative reporter who operates his own news bureau, www.FreindlyFireZone.com. He can be reached at CF@FreindlyFireZone.com

There should be a huge outcry out of the people of Pennsylvania for Governor Corbett to resign.  Is this the type of Republican that the Tea Party has chosen to be elected?  Beginning to look like it more and more that ethics and integrity do not count in the Republican Party of today -- it is the hatred of all Democrats that is the most important.  This statement says it all:

The media talks about Penn State’s Big Four casualties: Joe Paterno, former President Graham Spanier, Senior Vice President Gary Schultz, and Athletic Director Timothy M. Curley. But perhaps they are missing the biggest: Tom Corbett. 

Today ESPN reporters talked about Governor Corbett and his cover-up while Attorney General.  The last paragraph of the Corbett story is far from over as more and more people learn the truth.  The following is an essay on the whole situation that ended with the author hearing about the death of Joe Paterno so this predates the Freeh investigation but is damning to Corbett, the media, and the Attorney General's office who spent their time working for Corbett's campaign while he was doing a witch hunt against Democrats in the legislature.  The current Governor when you read the facts was an out of control Attorney General who put his own election for Governor as the primary guiding factor in the AG's office.  This is mind boggling and I have only excerpted as it is a very long article.  What we have learned about Paterno and others since this article after the Freeh Report leaves you asking the question if there are any honest people in the leadership of PA State Government.   Bill Keisling IV, posted this on January 22, 2012:

'JoePa' takes the fall

A slow Tom Corbett throws Joe Paterno
under the bus

'It's going to kill him'

'Joe Paterno was Pennsylvania's Coach, and we owed him,
in his final days, our debt of gratitude,
not a death of instant scandal and ruin'

"What counts in sports is not the victory, but the magnificence of the struggle," Penn State Coach Joe Paterno for years was fond of saying. It's a variation of the phrase, "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game." 

This ethos of fair play, honesty, doing the right thing, abiding by the same rules as everyone else, hard work, proper preparation, and decency in all our endeavors is lost on Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett. 

Insiders at the state attorney general's office speak of moral bankruptcy, blatant hypocrisy and raw politics in the AG's office under Corbett. 

Tom Corbett misused the office of attorney general to win the Pennsylvania governor's office at any and all cost, by any means necessary, those around him say. Part of the great cost paid, we now see in the Jerry Sandusky case, included the safety, dignity and well-being of children.

Required homework for understanding the Sandusky case: 'Don't do it here' 'Get used to having your mind boggled' Winning friends and influencing voters 'Tied together' Political prosecutions race forward while pedophile case stalls 'Arrest by news conference' 'Tom didn't want to do it' Candidate Corbett orders background investigation of 356 potential 'Bonusgate' jurors Poor ethics create more problems in the AG's office Bonus for 'Bonusgate' prosecutor? A laughable punch line: 'I'm referring this matter to Attorney General Tom Corbett' Not the good shepherd 'The whole office was political' 'Kissing the ring' The writing on the wall Whither Ray? Corbett avoids assigning Sandusky case to AG's Child Predator Unit: 'Could have done a quick grand jury in two months' time' A moveable scandal: Gov-elect Corbett removed as obstacle, AG office nabs Sandusky in several months' time JoePa takes the fall for TomCo What this is called

As governor, Corbett then attempted to distract public attention away from his own mounting failures, political machinations and dishonesties by making a fall guy of Joe Paterno. 

Tom Corbett's lack of sense of decency or character, his fundamental dishonesty, and basic incompetence were magnified by the political nature of the elected attorney general's office. This gives cause to pose plenty of troubling questions about the stalled legal case against Jerry Sandusky. 

Look at the wreckage in Corbett's wake. The reputations of Coach Joe Paterno, Penn State, and its football program, are all in tatters and ruin. Like a scandalized widow, Penn State would contemplate changing its name. Penn State's once-proud football team, for decades among the finest in the nation, suffered a fall from grace, deep disgrace, and was in jeopardy of disbandment. 

The moral authority and integrity of the governor's office and its predecessor -- once occupied by great, sincere and hard-working men like Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Curtin, and Gifford Pinchot -- has also taken a devastating hit.
Pennsylvania and some of its most hallowed institutions would be discredited and become the butt of national jokes and disbelief. All that has been much discussed. 

Not so clearly seen and spoken about is that Corbett, on his political run to the governor's office, would leave in tatters the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, and potentially the careers and reputations of the many good and dedicated people who work there. 

But that's only part of the unseen story.

'Don't do it here' 

Jerry Sandusky's kid glove treatment at the hands of diverse Pennsylvania institutions, from 1998 until late 2010, reveals a classic pattern of looking the other way. From at least 2009 onward, AG Tom Corbett would be the lead player in this culture of cover-up, shielding and confidentiality. 

In March 2009, a former Corbett underling, Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira, referred several Sandusky pedophile complaints to AG Corbett. Madeira was a former deputy AG, and a drug prosecutor, under Corbett. He'd been elected Centre County DA following the strange disappearance of Ray Gricar in 2005. Passing the case along to AG Corbett, Madeira cited a personal conflict of interest with a relative. 

DA Madeira himself hadn't done much with these Sandusky complaints while they were in his office. The complaints, after all, had been referred to Madeira the previous year, in 2008. Neither would AG Corbett do much with them.
After the Sandusky scandal became public, speculation arose as to possible motivations behind Corbett's reluctance to take action. His concern that he'd be perceived as having impeded or obstructed the investigation. His fear of offending major contributors. Fear of backlash from alumni and friends of Penn State. 

While certainly there are issues of politics, largesse (Marcellus Shale, for example) and patronage deserving keen public scrutiny to help explain Corbett's misconduct, we must consider an obvious harsh reality: 

Sandusky's protection by Corbett, and others, mirrors a pattern that is all too familiar to those who've investigated or studied other long-running pedophile crimes, I've been told repeatedly by experts. 

Sandusky's treatment by superiors at PSU and the law enforcement community in Pennsylvania is little different from that received by Catholic priests in this and other countries. This familiar pattern of non-investigation -- amounting to shielding and protection -- would later scandalize the Roman Catholic Church. 

Pedophile priests for years would simply be told to go to a different town and parish. 

"Just don't do it here," became the bottom line. Like it or not, culturally and socially, for decades, this is how pedophile cases curiously have been handled by church and state authority figures alike, here and abroad. 

This happened with Jerry Sandusky. Complaints from victims and their families would be given lip service by school officials, charity overseers, and law enforcement -- including Attorney General Tom Corbett. Any complaints filed, and any supposed investigations, would be allowed to languish in the dark for years. And Sandusky would remain free to carry on.
Jerry Sandusky would simply be told, again and again: Don't do it here. Don't do it in the shower room. Don't do it at Penn State.  

(snip)  

Much like those questionable disciples, AG Corbett would keep the children from the supposed safe harbor and long arms of the law.

There would be an investigation of Sandusky in name only, and opportunities to prosecute Sandusky for pedophilia would be avoided time and again. 

It would come down to matters of priorities and political expediencies, Corbett's associates say. 

Corbett, for his part, has doubtfully explained his failure to prosecute Sandusky. It was the fault of a "slow grand jury," Corbett explains. Very slow indeed. 

He would say he wanted to make sure there was enough evidence before bringing a case. But he did little to collect more evidence, and stymied the investigation. Corbett in fact did next to nothing from early 2009 onward, when the Centre County DA Michael Madeira referred the case to him. It was Tom who was slow. 

Corbett adds that he was focusing his attentions instead on a long-running public corruption case known in Pennsylvania as "Bonusgate." That, observers say, is somewhat closer to the truth. 

But it's not really the whole truth. The whole story is far more complex and troubling.

The whole story is, in fact, mind-boggling.  

(snip)   

The inability of victimized Pennsylvanians to get help, or to simply be heard with their complaints, is at the heart of the overall problem. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania no longer has a government, or a press, that is much, if it all, interested in all of its citizens. Rather, privileged insiders (like Jerry Sandusky) have become all-important, and take precedence. It has become the Privilegedwealth of Pennsylvania.

How did we get here? 

A lot of this, to paraphrase Terry Gross, simply is not as it should be. To understand the decades-running Sandusky story you have to be prepared to go from one mind-boggling event to another. 

The bottom line is that Tom Corbett's personal misuse of the state AG's office to run for governor all but destroyed the morale and integrity of the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Previous to 1980 the AG was an appointed position. Elective politics have proven to be poison for the AG's office. 

Most ironically, the staff of the AG's office has been left as helpless as the victims. No one working in the state AG's office seems to know where to turn for help, or how to explain to the public the deep problems. 

"It's all politics," with a sigh, is how I've heard described what's going on. 

(snip) 

 Did AG office employees know they were helping Tom Corbett get elected governor? "Hell yeah," I'm told. 

"It was all political, and everyone knew it," is also how I've heard these and other practices described. 

"Everyone in the AG's office knew they were working to get Corbett elected governor with 'Bonusgate,' and with everything else they were told to do." 

It was the truth that everyone knew, but no one could speak.

The sad twist of irony is that, in late 2011, the Harrisburg Patriot-News decried the two years the Sandusky case had languished in the AG's office. 

The complaint I've heard is that it was the Patriot's own self-serving chest-thumping about the "Bonusgate" donnybrook that ate up an overwhelming chunk of the finite resources of the state AG's office, and the limited time of the grand jurors.

The political AG's office had become media driven. 

This is where the media drove it. 

(snip) 

As we see here, a politically elected attorney general let loose to plague society can easily misuse his public trust to control a political and social hot potato. That's what happened to the AG's Sandusky pedophile non-investigation for a year and a half, from 2009 to late 2010. It was put on ice. The slow boat to China. Given File 13, as cops say. 

Tom Corbett simply did not want to prosecute the Sandusky pedophile case.
"Tom didn't want to do it," I'm told. 

"What do you mean, 'He didn't want to do it?'" I ask again.
"He didn't want to do it." 

I have to keep asking the same question, and getting the same reply, before it begins to sink in.
By assigning only a single trooper, yet not instructing or even allowing his prosecutor to push the case, AG Tom Corbett did the bare minimum he could do to cover his ass and to say that he was doing something about the Sandusky pedophile complaint(s).

In actuality Tom Corbett was doing nothing, except, intentionally or not, protecting and shielding Jerry Sandusky, and Sandusky's well-connected associates and institutions.
This would be exactly the same excuse offered by Pope Benedict in Rome to explain why pedophile complaints had languished for decades in his old Vatican office, without a good shepherd, when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, before his election as pope. "Stavamo lavorando su di esso." That's Italian for, "We were working on it." 

The cardinal's inactions hurt the papacy. 

Just as Attorney General Corbett's inactions now injure the governor's office. 

The green-domed Harrisburg state capitol building, I should mention, is modeled after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. 

Candidate Corbett orders background
investigations of 356 potential 'Bonusgate' jurors

Over time it became all-too apparent to those working in the AG's office that Tom Corbett's "Bonusgate" investigation itself was political in nature. "Bonusgate" was used by AG Corbett as his main strategy and pillar in his political run for the governor's office. 

It was stunning hypocrisy. AG Corbett was running for governor by prosecuting public employees for mixing elective politics with state work. Corbett was now openly doing the same thing: mixing elective politics with state work. The attorney general was prosecuting others, and jailing them, for doing what he was now doing, and making his staff do. 

No one seemed able to speak out about it. At least, no one could be heard. 

"The whole AG's office knew we were helping Tom Corbett to get elected governor," is one complaint I've heard. "Our focus from 2008 on was that. Everybody was working on 'Bonusgate.'" And, "The whole office was political." 

The AG's office, now running its boss for governor, simply had no time, or resources, for the Sandusky pedophile case -- even if there was the will to pursue the allegations, which there was not.

(snip) 

JoePa takes the fall for TomCo

For Gov. Tom Corbett, meanwhile, there remained one more important task following the nationwide public relations fiasco of Jerry Sandusky's long-overdue arrest. Corbett had to protect his own carcass, and cover his own ass for the nuclear blast he now feared was about to blow. 

It wouldn't do to have the public focus on Corbett's own refusal to investigate or prosecute Jerry Sandusky for a year and half. Corbett sought to change the conversation. He looked around for a likely scapegoat(s) to take the fall for him. What's one more victim, or two?
Corbett incredibly settled on a beloved 85-year-old to take the fall. The Gipper was down, why not kick him down some more? Gov. Corbett landed on the brilliant idea of throwing Joe Paterno under the bus. As Nixon observed, when the wolves are gaining, it's time to toss a baby from the sled. 

After all, hadn't Joe Paterno failed to follow up by calling the university police or DA Gricar? It wasn't nearly as bad as deliberately sandbagging the Sandusky case for a year and half, and actively shielding and protecting Jerry Sandusky, as AG Corbett had done.

But Corbett knows from first-hand experience that today's corporate media is servile, for the most part isn't all that smart or morally scrupulous, and doesn't look into things all that deeply or for very long. And more and more these days they simply write what they're handed. Corbett himself learned this on his long slog for the governor's chair, and all through the recent years of growing corruption in Pennsylvania. That business with the 6,500 kids sold down the river in Wilkes-Barre had blown over. Maybe the serial rape of innumerable kids at Penn State will blow over too. 

Corbett's job as attorney general had been to prosecute. To uphold the law. To protect the public. He didn't do so well in that job. Now, as governor, the job was altogether different.
A competent governor, and a good man, would have, and should have, asked the public not to rush to judgment against Joe Paterno. A competent leader, and a good man, would have asked the public to wait for all the facts to come in. A competent governor, and a good man, would have reminded the public of the great and exemplary services performed for Pennsylvania, and Penn State, by Joe Paterno in over 60 years on the job. A competent governor, and a good man, would have pointed out that that Joe Paterno was Our Coach.

Joe Paterno was Pennsylvania's Coach, and we owed him, in his final days, our debt of gratitude, not a death of instant scandal and ruin. 

"It's going to kill Joe," suddenly was on everyone's lips. "It's going to kill him." Tom Corbett, as usual, had his own not-so-sorry ass to worry about. It would be the pathetic act of a desperate, morally bankrupt man. 

On November 9, 2011, Gov. Tom Corbett indulged the Penn State board of trustees, by telephone, to throw Joe Paterno under the bus. At the moment of the vote to fire Paterno, Corbett said over the speakerphone, "Remember that little boy in the shower."

From the 31 trustees in the room there was no response. No question. No objection. Just silence. Despite the illustrious backgrounds of most of them, they all marched in lockstep, following Corbett's lead. 

Corbett wasn't there to look them, or Paterno, in the eye. He wasn't there to explain why he had done nothing to help that little boy. He wasn't there to explain why he himself had prevented any investigation for a year and a half. He wasn't there to explain the double standard. Why should the coach be punished, but not the attorney general/governor? As I say, in Tom Corbett's Pennsylvania, some are more privileged than others. 

That night Corbett got his scapegoat, and the students rioted in State College. A weary nation turned its eyes to the fleeting images of the saddened cries, groans and crashes of the decline and fall of Pennsylvania. 

A simmering story in the sports columns in moments ignited into an all-consuming firestorm, a national disgrace, and a world-class scandal. 

Excerpt:  Read More at Yardbird.com

Then I found this letter to the editor that goes after Corbett for his not prosecuting Sandusky in 2008 (my bold in the letter):

Editor: 

Most likely there was no one more relieved when the memorial services for Joe Paterno ended than Gov. Tom Corbett and the rest of the Penn State Board of Trustees. They are banking on the fact that people will forget what they did by throwing Paterno to the curb in the manner that they did. They could not be more wrong. Where was the due process? Corbett's poor excuses for not arresting Jerry Sandusky in 2008 - slow grand jury, the need for more evidence, working on other cases - could lead one to conclude that had Paterno involved the state police in 2002, it might not have led to an arrest anyway. 

After all, it took the attorney general's investigator an entire year to find the police report filed in 1998. It also took him an entire year to find out that Sandusky wrote a book. Where was the sense of urgency to get a child predator off the streets? What happened to the sense of urgency to report in a timely manner? Who is at fault if Sandusky abused more children from 2008-2011? So why was Paterno excoriated for not doing enough when Corbett's office dragged its feet several years later? There is more to this scandal than the people are being told, but thanks to people such as Phil Knight, Anthony Lubrano and Bill Keisling, who found the courage to say publicly what needed to be said, the public is learning more. I will remember forever, especially when election time comes around. 

Domenic Parenti, Lower Heidelberg Township

If the judicial system is going to prosecute the former Penn State Administrators former President Graham Spanier, Senior Vice President Gary Schultz, and Athletic Director Timothy M. Curley who along with Paterno were covering-up for Sandusky according to the Freeh Report, then the current Governor needs to be right there as he also covered up for Sandusky as well.  Shame on the Republican Party of Pennsylvania for continuing to support this Governor and not question why he covered up his inaction in this sordid event when he was Attorney General.

Wes Harris, Arizona Tea Party Leader, Seeks To Recall John McCain Over Huma Abedin Defense

This quote from Harris should have every Republican up on arms but unfortunately the party is quickly being taken over by the likes of conspiracy theorists like Bachmann along with the Tea Party who support her:

“Go to hell, Senator, it’s time for you to take your final dirt nap,” Harris concludes.

What a nasty thing to say about anyone you disagree with and that is the problem today by some of those on the right as they attack viciously anyone who disagrees with them.  This election has been an eye opener at just how many nasty people are involved in today's politics and makes you wonder why anyone would run for office or take a job that would put them in the target zone.

In Arizona being Hispanic is a problem to some of these people who don't care if they are here legally or not -- they put them all in the same category.  Saw some of that when I helped out McCain in the Senate primary race against Hayworth using this blog.  Some of the Hayworth supporters were way over the top and frankly bigots.  Shame on Senator McCain for believing people no matter their origin or race should be given a chance to be successful.  (sarcasm)  The more I have learned to know about the Senator, the more respect I have for him.

No longer listening to some posters on sites where if you don't agree with their outlandish statements, you are the one with the problem and are called names.  I took my blinders off some time back but this man tops everyone although Mark Levin I have been told is over the top in his rhetoric defending Michelle Bachmann, but then he also supported "I am not a witch" O'Donnell and the lackluster candidate in Nevada Sharron Angle.  We cannot forget Rush Limbaugh and his over the top rants he keeps making.

What do conservative pundits have in common?  They work for Clear Channel who is owned by Bain Capital.  The deal in which Bain Capital became one of the owners of Clear Channel was initiated just a short time before Mitt Romney's first run for president.    

Wouldn't it be great if a Republican presidential candidate could just buy the support of just about every major conservative talk show host in America? Well, it may not be as far-fetched as you may think. Clear Channel owns more radio stations (850) than anyone else in the United States. They also own Premiere Radio Networks, the company that syndicates the radio shows of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck, among others. Needless to say, Clear Channel basically owns conservative talk radio in the United States.  

Imagine this, Rush got a big raise just when Romney is running for office this time, does little research on Romney and gets on board.  Why anyone listens to his rhetoric today and cannot think for themselves makes me wonder who they are.  I guess I have a different group of people for friends and family because no one I know listens to these pundits any more.  Most of my friends are like me and listen to sports talk radio or music.  Much less upsetting.  When you find yourself talking back to the radio, time to turn to another station.


What is upsetting to common sense conservatives who happen to be Republican is that people like this Wes Harris who heads a Tea Party is damaging the Republican brand whether some want to admit it or not.  But then some Republicans are perfectly happy to be a member of a party that doesn't think twice about attacking people who are not white or a member of their evangelical church.  You see it when some of these people talk at Town Halls.  I am frankly embarrassed by some of their comments which are right out of the gutter.  Is this what the leaders of the Republican Party want the face of Republicans to be?  


Marco Rubio was criticized for standing up against the Bachmann group along with others but none have been treated like Senator McCain although it is starting to come close for Rubio as Debbie Schlussel attacks the Senator:

UPDATE: Marco Rubio joins the chorus of Islamo-pandering Republi-dhimmis attacking Michele Bachmann (maybe Muslims helped him avoid criminal charges for illegally charging tens of thousands of dollars in personal expenses to his Florida GOP credit card)***  

The hatred is going to destroy the Republican Party if the leadership is not careful.  When you choose to hate someone and will do anything to destroy them, you have lost your way and that is exactly what I am seeing today out of some so-called Christians who are vicious and hateful with no basis in fact.  They are so filled with hate and doom and gloom that it makes you wonder how long the Republican Party can survive before people like me and a lot of others take a walk.  


What happened to the Party of Civil Rights or the positive outlook of Ronald Reagan or willingness to help others less fortunate?  Looks like it doesn't exist anymore as the Koch Brother's Tea Party movement has taken over a lot of the Republican Party with the Kochs joining with other big donors to elect Romney.  Is it so they can get the DOJ off their back for alleged bribes in the Middle East?  Would they destroy the Party to get out of serious trouble.  Without a doubt just like their speculation on oil drove up the prices which hurt our economy.  They are rich, selfish people who only believe what they want matters so they formed organizations like Americans for Properity and the Tea Party movement to get their way.  


The hatred of Obama is so far over the top I find it embarrassing to be a Republican with the racist comments thrown at the President.  Been told if I don't support Mitt Romney, then leave the Republican Party.  I am not leaving yet because I want to make sure my voice is heard as a longtime Republican, but that day could be drawing near if things don't change after November.  I will not remain in the same party with a bunch of bigots who look no further than the color of a person's skin, their religion, or nationality and report conspiracy theories as facts even when they have been disproved. 


Truth does not seem matter to some of these people today -- it is the narrative which is important.   Just like Fox News reporting on what Obama said cut out major portions and changed the whole meaning and next day Romney takes it and runs with the Fox version.  Did the same thing yesterday with the foreign minister of Australia -- misquoting his words to say what he wanted which caused the foreign minister to issue a statement to set the record straight. Is this who you want for a President?  That's who the Koch Brothers and other major donors want!  Just remember the Koch Brothers help found the Tea Party movement -- same movement that has bred people like Harris.

Wes Harris, Arizona Tea Party Leader, Seeks To Recall John McCain Over Huma Abedin Defense 

The Huffington Post | By Nick Wing Posted: 07/24/2012 10:14 am Updated: 07/24/2012 2:28 pm
Conspiracy theories about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin being linked to the Muslim Brotherhood publicly dribbled down to the lower echelons of conservative politics this week, with an Arizona Tea Party leader promising to launch a recall effort against Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for his defense of Abedin. 

Last week, a group of Republican lawmakers led by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) drew widespread condemnation from both sides of the aisle for the loosely sourced contention that Huma Abedin, the Muslim-American wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. 

McCain strongly pushed back against this charge, taking to the Senate floor to call the allegations "nothing less than an unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable woman."
Wes Harris, the founder and chairman of the Original North Phoenix Tea Party, now says McCain's words have given him grounds to mount an effort to unseat the longtime senator.
In an interview with the Arizona Capitol Times, Harris called McCain an "embarrassment," before laying out a variety of unapologetic anti-Islamic sentiments.  

“Have you ever read the Quran? I suggest you do so, because anyone that is a Muslim is a threat to this country, and that’s a fact,” Harris told the Times. “There is no such thing as a moderate Muslim. If they are Muslim they have to follow the Quran. That’s their religion and that’s their doctrine.”

According to the Times, Harris believes Muslims are incapable of being loyal to the U.S., because he claims that their faith in Islam and the Quran trumps any other allegiance. He also apparently believes Muslims shouldn't be able to serve in the State Department at all.
“Is [Abedin] a Muslim? Is she an active Muslim?” Harris asked the Times. “I rest my case. That’s all she needs to be.” 

In his email airing his grievances, Harris also linked to the Bare Naked Islam blog, an internet clearinghouse for Islamophobia that claims to have further proof of Abedin's supposed ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. One post touts a new report from the Center for Security Policy, the right-wing think tank behind the paper that led to Bachmann and her cohort's initial inquiry, that seeks to unveil the "Islamist" roots of Abedin's mother. 

While other top Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), came out to reject Bachmann's accusation, Harris says McCain's defense of Abedin is just the latest in a string of actions that have warranted a recall effort. 

“Go to hell, Senator, it’s time for you to take your final dirt nap,” Harris concludes.   

Source:  Huffington Post

Romney Brought Bain Capital With Him To The Olympics

Looks like Romney's penchant for not telling the truth continues when you discover his role at the Olympics and his description don't exactly match:

Fonnesbeck quibbled with that description. 

"I have no complaints except for his attitude that he had come to save us," she said. "My problem came when he just insisted on taking all the credit, and his attitude towards us in Salt Lake was 'Oh you poor people, here I am.'" 

Indeed, of the half-dozen Olympic officials interviewed for this article, none said that the games would have been a failure if not for Romney's intervention. David Wallechinsky, a commentator for NBC's Olympic coverage and the author of several Olympic reference books, said that Romney played an important role in budget and PR matters. But beyond that, "his involvement is greatly exaggerated." 

Then you have the fact that Bain companies were involved in the Olympics.  Did Romney use Bain to stiff arm donors so that they would donate to the Olympics?

Jon M. Huntsman, who had criticized the Olympics and was quoted in a Salt Lake Tribune article dinging Romney for bringing "one of his cronies to be the COO" -- Romney hired former Bain executive Fraser Bullock for the role -- ended up giving a $1 million donation to the games in January 2000. Roughly one year later, Bain announced it would buy a $600 million stake in the Huntsman Corporation. The deal, which Huntsman Corp. officials said was done without Romney's involvement, fell apart.

Wonder what the senior Huntsman has to say today about Romney and Bain after Romney took out his son in the primary this year just like he did others.  The Huntsman family knows probably knows more than they are saying since the senior Huntsman is still an active member of the Mormon Church.

All these connections to Bain Capital during the Olympics plus all the documents he signed flies in the face of his interview on five networks saying he had absolutely nothing to do with Bain after he left for the Olympics. The funny thing is that no one would have thought much about his use of Bain during the Olympics but he said he had no contact with Bain -- that was a dumb move and opened him up to more scrutiny.  Seems the Olympics was all about a stepping stone to eventually be President.  Why would we want another President like Nixon who was not transparent and lied?  If he is this bad in the primary, why give him a chance.

Unbelievable that the Republican Party is set to nominate someone who lies when they don't have to but I thought the most telling remark about him came from Fonnesbeck with this quote:

"his attitude towards us in Salt Lake was 'Oh you poor people, here I am.'" 

Romney and his wife seem to have a problem with ordinary middle class people and it shows a lot.  As a member of 'you people' I don't understand why the GOP doesn't wake up and ask him to step aside because it is going to get worse.  The ops research that was done on Romney in 2008 and added on to plus what the Democrats have is going to make sure he never gets near the White House and that $55M he has stashed aside for his Victory is going to just sit there. 

Mitt Romney Brought Bain Capital With Him To The Olympics
Sam Stein and Jason Cherkis
Posted: 07/19/2012 2:46 pm Updated: 07/19/2012 5:11 pm

WASHINGTON -- When Mitt Romney transitioned from working full-time at Bain Capital to running the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, he did not fully leave the private equity firm. That's not just because he continued to sign documents and take a salary, or because he described himself as Bain's CEO on the Olympics' website, but because he brought with him Bain's personnel, ethos and, most importantly, its clients.  

Romney leaned heavily on Bain to turn the 2002 Olympic committee into a success. Several officials who worked with him said his extensive business network proved critical. But the continued Bain ties came with a price, as Romney opened himself up to criticism that he used the Olympics to assist colleagues and build a foundation for a future political career.

In his book on the Olympics, "Turnaround," Romney portrayed himself as a reluctant savior of the games. He initially thought the idea of taking over the SLOC was "preposterous." He had no background in sports administration, had a family in Massachusetts and was enjoying a lucrative business career. 

"How could I walk away from the golden goose?" he asked. 

He brought the golden goose with him. Camping in Utah, and confiding to colleagues that his future political career was on the line, Romney opened his Bain rolodex. 

Sealy Mattress, a company in which Bain had majority ownership -- earning $2 million in yearly management fees -- signed on as a supplier of 5,000 mattresses for Olympic athletes.
Marriott Corp., the hotel franchise where Romney served as a board member, became a sponsor of the games as well, ponying up $4 million to be the official lodging supplier.  

Sometimes Romney cleared hurdles to get Bain-affiliated companies involved. He promised Tom Stremberg, the CEO of Staples, that the company's sponsorship would cost as much as the sales it made in the Salt Lake City market during the Olympics -- guaranteeing it wouldn't lose a cent. He then said he'd lobby "SLOC board members and other corporate contacts to switch their office supply contracts to Staples." 

Staples, on whose board Romney served, ended up agreeing to spend $1 million more than the other potential supplier, Office Depot. But by then, Office Depot had already signed on the dotted line. Romney tried once more, offering Office Depot $1 million to back out of the deal. 

The company declined.

Perhaps one of the most oft-told examples of Romney's belt tightening involved him canceling the organizers' budget busting free lunches. Instead, he brought in Domino's Pizza and made board members pay $1 a slice. Domino's was a Bain company. 

Andrea Saul, a spokesperson for Romney's presidential campaign, said that he showed "exceptional skills at leadership." 

"Mitt Romney took over the Olympics at a time of scandal and red ink," she emailed. "He restored public confidence, balanced the budget and staged one of the most successful games ever held on U.S. soil." 

Romney himself addressed charges that he engaged in favoritism in a 2007 Boston Globe profile. 

"It is not a conflict of interest for the Olympics for its chief executive to be soliciting sponsorships from anyone I could find," Romney said. "That was my job -- to use every personal association I had to raise money." 

Members of the 2002 Olympics' board confirmed that the games largely benefited because of Romney's contacts. "Oh sure" they helped, said Robert Garff, former chairman of the board of the SLOC. "It's obvious that he has connections in all kinds of ways. That was a very, very important ingredient." 

(snip)

Sydney Fonnesbeck, a former Salt Lake City councilmember who served on several Olympic organizing committees, including one with budget oversight, told HuffPost that the SLOC became less transparent under Romney. "He closed ranks," she said. "I certainly didn't see a budget after Mitt came in." 

For McCormack, Romney's tenure remains a major improvement over the prior SLOC administration, which was bedeviled by accounts of bribery. But several reporters who've covered Romney's Olympics record -- David Bernstein of the Boston Phoenix chief among them -- have noted that companies that agreed to help with the Olympics did, on occasion, enjoy beneficial relationships with either Bain or Romney after the fact. 

Bombardier, an aerospace and transportation company that worked on prior Olympics, became the 2002 games' official supplier of snowmobiles and other winter recreational vehicles. A year after the games, it sold off its recreational vehicle division to a group of buyers that included Bain. 

(snip)

By then, Romney's attention had expanded beyond the Olympics. He had confided to David D'Alessandro, president of John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance, his concerns that he wouldn't "be anything anymore in public life" if the games flopped. John Hancock, which had threatened to leave the games as a sponsor over the bribery scandal, was eventually persuaded to stay involved. 

"Mitt went back to visit them the minute he came in and restored their sponsorship," recalled Garff. 

In the fall of 1999, Romney signed the Provo-based nutritional supplements company Nu Skin to be a sponsor of the games. A Nu Skin subsidiary, Pharmanex, also inked a deal to dispense dietary supplements to the athletes and carry the Olympic rings on its products. The International Olympic Committee raised red flags -- Nu Skin had settled several lawsuits and a Federal Trade Commission case over false advertising and claims that the company operated a pyramid scheme -- and advised athletes not to take the supplements "because of concerns that they may be adulterated with steroids," Mother Jones reported in 2011. 

Romney insisted Nu Skin's pills were clean. The company's employees and bigwigs later returned the favor, donating tens of thousands of dollars to his campaigns. Two shell corporations with ties to Nu Skin gave $1 million each to the Romney-backing super PAC Restore Our Future.  

Several Olympic executives who worked with Romney supported his run for governor of Massachusetts in 2002. Those contributing the maximum donation of $500 included Garff, Finance Director Gordon Crabtree, and Head of Marketing Donald Stirling. But no connection to the Olympics proved more fruitful than the one Romney forged with Spencer Zwick, who went on to become known as Romney's "sixth son" and currently serves as national finance chairman for his presidential campaign. Zwick was Romney's driver during the Olympics.

Officials who worked alongside Romney argue that there was nothing unusual or untoward about the oversized role that his business network played at the Olympics and in his campaigns. Romney, after all, was brought to Salt Lake to infuse the games with the so-called "Bain way." Boardrooms were part of his DNA, and many of the companies he secured as sponsors were mainstream. 

"Certainly I had the sense that he had a lot of great contacts in his fundraising efforts and then in terms of his operational mode," said Rocky Anderson, the Democratic mayor of Salt Lake City at the time of the Olympics and a member of the SLOC board. "It was pretty clear to me he was a very efficient manager and knew how to build an extremely competent and loyal team." 

Still, an "efficient manager" is several notches below how Romney would describe his role. In a 2012 campaign video titled "Leader," Romney declared that he "worked at one company, Bain, for 25 years" before leaving "to go off and help save the Olympic games." 

(snip)

Excerpt:  Read More at Huffington Post

Penn State penalties: NCAA sanctions include $60 million fine, four-year bowl ban, scholarship cuts

Let this be a lesson in all walks of life that the cover-up of something this egregious will not be tolerated by reasonable people.  The Penn State football program became bigger than the University with the Coach becoming one of the most powerful men in the State of Pennsylvania.  The fact that the Administrators went along with Paterno in the cover-up because of the harm it would do to Penn State is indefensible especially since Sandusky had a key to the Penn State facilities after the initial reports were given.  

He didn’t have the leadership to do it himself, but interim university president Rodney Erickson accepted the penalties for the university, though many Penn Staters did not. Students literally held their breath while watching the NCAA press conference on television.

Paterno and his sanctimonious comments over the years some of which were during this time span even up to when the University was firing him, he wanted to negotiate on his own terms when he left.  He knew the truth and knew about the cover-up but he was above reproach.  During the height of the Catholic Church scandal this group of people also kept their mouths shut knowing full well Sandusky worked a charity for children.  How could they live with themselves or did they think the football program at Penn State was more important?  Looks like they chose Penn State Football over these young boys.  As more details are released, it makes your skin crawl.

This is a one-time set of sanctions by the NCAA because the seriousness of the situation and the cover-up that went on for 14 years.  The NCAA President had the full support of the NCAA Board Presidents in this issue.  We are glad to see that the Penn State Interim President accepted the sanctions.  Now it is time for the students and alums to back down and stop trying to rationalize why Paterno should be held in high esteem.  Some of them have come on the Sooner message boards defending Paterno and others and railing against the NCAA.  The NCAA President did what was necessary after 14 years of cover-up of child abuse some of which happened in the football facilities of Penn State.

Now it is up to the Courts to punish the people who covered up.  Penn State should be grateful they still have a football team and a coach willing to stand by the program.  It could have been worse.

Penn State penalties: NCAA sanctions include $60 million fine, four-year bowl ban, scholarship cuts

Published Monday, Jul 23, 2012 at 8:47 am EDT Last updated 1 hour and 13 minutes ago  

Rana L. Cash, Sporting News

NCAA president Mark Emmert did not deliver Penn State the death penalty Monday. Rather, Emmert sentenced the university and the football program to a decades-long imprisonment.

That’s how long it might take for Penn State to see the light of day again after arguably the most severe sanctions in college sports history were levied in the wake of the Freeh Report. The toll for its actions: 

— 40 scholarship losses, 10 a year for each of the next four years 

— A four-year postseason ban

— All wins vacated from 1998-2011, including 111 of Joe Paterno's career victories 

— All players can transfer and be immediately eligible  

— A five-year probation  

Additionally, the Big Ten announced that Penn State is not eligible for any of the conference's bowl revenue over the next four years. That's about $13 million today, a figure that is expected to grow considerably with the new postseason playoff arrangement. PSU is not eligible to play in the Big Ten championship game over that same span. 

"The result can be an erosion of academic values that are replaced by the value of hero worship and winning at all costs. All involved in intercollegiate athletics must be watchful that programs and individuals do not overwhelm the values of higher education. In the Penn State case, the results were perverse and unconscionable." 

Penn State can carry no more than 65 players on scholarship, only two more than what is allowed by FCS programs. Current and incoming players can transfer to other programs without penalty, and won't be counted against the scholarship totals of the teams they join. Big Ten president Jim Delany said the conference presidents are likely to allow transfers to other Big Ten schools as well. 

The $60 million fine, Emmert said, cannot come from non-revenue sports and cannot be paid for by taking away scholarships. Erickson said the university will pay $12 million over each of the next five years to a special endowment created to fund programs designed to protect and support child sexual abuse victims. 

The goal, Emmert said, was to enact punitive damage while "having minimal impact on innocent parties." 

In November, Emmert sent Penn State a letter demanding answers to questions involving ethics, compliance and institutional control. The independent investigation conducted by former FBI director Louis Freeh was lengthy, exhaustive and explosive. It took eight months, Freeh’s team interviewed more than 400 people, pored through an unthinkable number of documents and closed the book with 237 pages of staggering revelations. Its conclusions, accepted by Penn State, prompted immediate action from the NCAA. 

Among them: Paterno, whose presence engulfed the football program and the university, cared more about protecting the program’s image than he did the lives of the young victims being attacked year after year by Jerry Sandusky, dating back to 1998.

Confronted in 2001 with allegations made by former assistant coach Mike McQueary that Sandusky had raped a boy in the Lasch Building showers, Paterno told his superiors to keep the situation quiet. Sandusky was not arrested until November 2011 and in June was convicted on 45 counts of sexually assaulting 10 boys over a 15-year period.

"As the executive committee, Division I board and I have examined discussed in this case, we kept foremost in our thoughts the tragic damage that has been done to victims and their families," Emmert said. "No matter what we do here today, there is no action we can take that will remove their pain and anguish. But what we can do is impose sanctions that both reflect the magnitude of these terrible acts, and ensure that Penn State will rebuild an athletic culture that went poorly awry." 

The man charged, in part, with permanently changing that culture is coach Bill O'Brien.
"I am committed for the long term to Penn State and our student athletes," O'Brien said. "I could not be more proud to lead this team and these courageous and humble young men into the upcoming 2012 season." 

On Sunday, the iconic image of Paterno—a 7-foot, 900-pound bronze statue—was removed from outside Beaver Stadium. It left behind a gaping hole where greatness once stood. Just like the one left in the heart of Penn State on Monday.

President Obama Speaks about Shooting in Aurora CO at the Midnight Showing of 'The Dark Knight'

Would be willing to bet that most people at the event didn't have the full details of this horrific tragedy because of how early you have to get to campaign events when the President is speaking.  They are applauding the President and his visit at the beginning of the event as they came to see the President.  Some are criticizing these people for applauding the President at various on-line sites but once the audience discovered what had happened the mood in the room shifted.  Shame on those trying to make this political.
Both campaigns have suspended their ads in Colorado and their campaigns as the Nation comes to grips with this tragedy once against caused by a long gunman
Hearts and prayers go out to the families and friends of the victims and to the family of the shooter who also is comprehending their son was responsible for this carnage.  
The President said that today should be a day of prayer and reflection and has ordered the flags flown at half staff because of this tragedy.  

10:1 odds say that Romney took the 2009 IRS Amnesty

Received this fowarded email today that the sender has received from a friend, a tax attorney, who posted his original comment on The Daily Oklahoman to include:

"10:1 odds say that Romney took the 2009 IRS Amnesty. Which means he admitted defrauding the US Government and illegally evading taxes for years."

Some people on the right especially the Romney supporters seem to have a reading comprehension problem as witnessed by his preface comments.  When someone says 10:1 odds that means he is pretty sure that is what happened but since  Romney refuses to release his 2009 returns, he doesn't know for sure.  This would also explain why the McCain's people didn't see much wrong -- they didn't have 2007, 2008 and especially 2009 to make a decision.  This opinion of a tax attorney makes complete sense as to why Romney will release no tax returns before 2010.  Even then the release for 2010 was incomplete.  This analysis, if true, would disqualify Romney in the minds of the vast majority of the American people.  Who would trust Republicans again for nominating such a flawed candidate?

If this is true, Romney needs to pull out now and let us nominate someone like a John McCain -- third time is a charm.  He works across the aisle and stands up for what is right like he did this week against Michael Bachmann and one of the House Members, Trey Franks, from AZ.  Then we could get real reform and transparency in donations to political campaigns.

This would be devastating to Romney.  Is this what the Democrats know and why the drip, drip, drip?

[Preface, this is a copy and paste from a comment i left on a newsok post. My original post was this: "10:1 odds say that Romney took the 2009 IRS Amnesty. Which means he admitted defrauding the US Government and illegally evading taxes for years." 

That was responded to with this comment: "And your proof behind that statement is ....what?"
To be clear, I was never making a factual statement. I thought that the phrase, "10:1 odds say" clearly illustrated that I was making an assumption and guess, but apparently some missed that. I just don't want to type it again and change pronouns and a few specific comments aimed at the original antagonist, so that's why I included that intro. Took me about 40 minutes to compile the information and write the original post, just wanted to present it with context. 

No proof. Conjecture. If there was proof then there wouldn't be odds. 

My conjecture is based on the following: 

1) I'm experienced with federal tax law because part of my law practice focuses on tax. 

2) Romney was seeking the GOP Nomination for President in 2007 and 2008. I would assume that during that time, his taxes were squeaky clean, since Presidents routinely release tax returns, you would think that you would want the one released your first year in office to not have glaring problems. 

3) Based on that assumption, you would think that as he prepared to run again in 2011 and 2012, he would continue to have clean tax returns. 

4) It would be a reasonable assumption that whatever is in the tax returns for the years prior to 2010 must be damaging enough to outweigh the heat he is taking for not releasing them. 

5) What would be a bad enough secret that someone actively running for President over the past 6 years would want to keep hidden in a tax report? The reason must also be plausible. 

6) We already know he's extremely rich and pays a low amount in taxes, so what good does it do to take this heat if that is your only real reason. 

7) We already know that Romney keeps money in legal tax havens in the Caribbean. 

8) In August of 2009, UBS paid $780 million dollars in fines to the IRS for helping American tax payers commit illegal tax evasion. UBS released the names of nearly 4,500 Americans that it helped. 

9) The IRS offered an Amnesty for 2009 taxes. If a tax payer took it, they were admitting that they had committed tax evasion. They paid a fine as part of their taxes and the IRS agreed to never prosecute them for that specific instance. 

10) 14,000 American taxpayers were concerned enough by the threat of criminal prosecution for tax evasion (not knowing if they were on the list provided by UBS), that they accepted the Amnesty, essentially admitting that they had defrauded the government and the IRS. 

Conclusion:Admitting to the American People that you defrauded the government is a serious enough problem that it would actually make sense to take all of this flak over not releasing your returns, because the truth is probably worse. Romney is extremely wealthy and we know he keeps his money in legal foreign bank accounts. So it's plausible that this is the reason why. 

Yes we don't know for sure. If he did take the Amnesty it will be on his 2009 tax return, so that will answer the question 100%. 

So I have no "proof" behind the statement that I give it good odds that this is why he's hiding that return. And those are the reasons I think it is a 10:1 favorite to be the truth.

Noticed the author of this had the same problem on The Oklahoman that we see on the websites including liberal ones where the Romney people attack anyone who dares to post against Romney with some of the most outlandish defense of Romney I have seen.  The over the top rhetoric of the right to include the conservative pundits like Rush, Fox News who edits speeches to take President Obama's words out of context and cheerleads for Romney, Sununu's racist remarks against Obama even if he apologized he said it, and now Romney keeping up the Rush attacks that Obama is foreign has a lot of Republicans up in arms who believe in integrity and honesty which is lost on a lot of people who are turning into pretzels.  What are they going to say if this is true?  Their hero to beat Obama will be no more.  He may have amnesty but in the eyes of the American voter he would still be a tax evader.

Thank You Senator McCain for Standing up for Facts and Fairness

Once again Senator McCain has stood up to the far right to call out Bachmann and others with their ridiculous charges against Huma Abedin who works in the State Department for Hillary Clinton.  Their charges are baseless but attacks like this have had adverse consequences in Egypt where Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was attacked with tomatoes and shoes because some Egyptians believe what Fox News puts out along with people like Bachmann who have no regard for the truth.  

I have had my doubts about Hillary Clinton and have stated them over the years but no matter she is the Secretary of State, and it is time the far right quit attacking with baseless allegations.  Never thought Bachmann was too bright as she has proved it over and over but now she is interfering in foreign policy.  Frankly Speaker Boehner was nuts to put her the Intelligence Committee with her strange allegations over the years.

What has happened to the Republican Party?  Is this what the National Tea Party movement has caused in the Republican Party?  The group that doesn't seem to understand how Government works and only believes in continual attacks on leaders without regard to consequences.  Is this going to end up splitting the Republican Party with Mitt Romney cozying up to them and their lack of reality.  The lack of empathy out of today's Republicans plus their continual attacks on innocent people who are not running for office is flat out wrong.

Thanks Senator for making me proud I voted for you in 2008 and supported you in your Senate race!

McCain defends top aide to Clinton from fellow Republicans
By NBC's Libby Leist 

Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) offered a personal and passionate defense of top State Department aide Huma Abedin in the face of conservative allegations that she is using her position in "unduly influencing" foreign policy in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood. 

McCain called allegations that Abedin has ties through her family to the Muslim Brotherhood "sinister" in a rare speech on the Senate floor taking fellow Republicans to task. 

"Rarely do I come to the floor of this institution to discuss particular individuals. But I understand how painful and injurious it is when a person's character, reputation, and patriotism are attacked without concern for fact or fairness," McCain opened. 

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann (R), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, led four other Republican lawmakers in writing a letter last month requesting that the State Department investigate whether Abedin, who is Muslim, has any ties through her family to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic political group that found success in recent Egyptian elections. 

Jacquelyn Martin / AP
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. 

Bachmann has expressed concerns about how Abedin, who is married to former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner (D), was able to obtain a security clearance. 

McCain condemned these accusations as unsubstantiated. 

"These sinister accusations rest solely on a few unspecified and unsubstantiated associations of members of Huma's family, none of which have been shown to harm or threaten the United States in any way," he said. "These attacks on Huma have no logic, no basis, and no merit. And they need to stop now."  

McCain called Abedin a "friend" who is an "intelligent, upstanding, hard-working and long servant of our country and our government."

"Put simply, Huma represents what is best about America: the daughter of immigrants, who has risen to the highest levels of our government on the basis of her substantial personal merit and her abiding commitment to the American ideals that she embodies so fully," he added. 

McCain picked apart the rationale of Bachmann and her colleagues, who wrote their June letter based on a report "The Muslim Brotherhood in America," produced by the Center for Security Policy. 

"The letter alleges that three members of Huma's family are 'connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations.' Never mind that one of those individuals, Huma's father, passed away two decades ago. The letter and the report offer not one instance of an action, a decision, or a public position that Huma has taken while at the State Department that would lend credence to the charge that she is promoting anti-American activities within our government." 

McCain has spent time traveling with Abedin while she served as a personal aide to Hillary Clinton during Clinton's time as a senator from New York. 

He ended his floor speech with a strong show of support. "I have every confidence in Huma's loyalty to our country, and everyone else should as well." 

Source:  MSNBC