THE SINS OF ST. THOMAS

A Captain Renault post: My colleague Ugarte had another powerful posting on Friday regarding hyper-partisan, hypocritical prosecutor AG Tom Corbett. While the Main Stream Media has been busy canonizing Corbett for his Bonusgate investigation, they have virtually ignored the "miracles" Corbett has worked for his fellow Republican office holders. It seems that St. Thomas' tough talk about investigating and prosecuting sexual predators and "public corruption" falls a bit short when it comes to applying that talk to other Republican elected officials.

The Altoona Mirror carried a story last week about Corbett declining to prosecute the Republican District Attorney in Bedford County for an alleged rape. Anyone following Corbett's career could not be surprised by the result of Corbett's "investigation" of the alleged rape. As Ugarte's Friday post dramatically points out, Corbett has a history of coming to the rescue of fellow Republican prosecutors in their time of need. The Stan Rebert story outlined in several stories here on our Blog points out that Rebert admitted under oath many actions for which others have been indicted and convicted. Yet Corbett and his partisan AG staff cleared Rebert of any wrongdoing. No Grand Jury. No indictment. No criminal charges.

So it is not surprising that St. Thomas cleared the Bedford DA of any criminal action. But this was an alleged rape by a Republican District Attorney! A District Attorney who is a political supporter and contributor to Corbett. Why didn't Corbett hand this case to a fair and clearly impartial prosecutor -- like a DA from another county far away from Bedford County? Why not take the case to one of the many grand juries Corbett is so fond of bragging about?

These are rhetorical questions of course. We know why.

The more important questions are: Why does the MSM ignore Corbett's blatant conflict of interest in a case like this -- and in the Rebert case. For crying out loud, this is a rape case! A Republican prosecutor has been accused by a citizen of PA! Does the MSM have no shame? Are the reporters and editors so busy canonizing Corbett that they can't even ask the tough questions and do some minimal amount of investigative reporting on a case like this? Where are all of the high-minded editorialists who so often love to point out the conflicts of interest of politicians? Where is the call so often heard from editorials for transparency and fairness and keeping politics out of the judicial system?

So many questions, so few good answers.