Truth be told, we're almost relieved to see disgraced former supervising grand jury judge Barry Feudale kicking up such a fuss. He rubber-stamped so many of gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett's ridiculous requests - of questionable legality - we had begun to wonder whether he even was paying attention.
Now we know that he knew exactly what he was doing when he supervised the grand jury that allowed Corbett to conduct a blatantly political and self-serving "investigation" of House Democrats while lying about investigating all four caucuses. He stood by and watched as Corbett allowed House Republicans to replace their computers while publicly claiming the caucus was under investigation. He signed subpoenas that were purely for show and then presided over hearings that weren't convened until a full year later "for the purpose of forcing the caucus into compliance with subpoenas and court orders."
He stood silently by when it was revealed that Corbett and his campaign manager privately met with a potential gubernatorial primary rival who supposedly was under investigation at the time. He said nothing about Corbett accepting campaign contributions from supposed targets of the investigation.
He was not moved to protest when he learned that Corbett's taxpayer-funded Office of Attorney General staff had spent hours conferring on the phone with Corbett's campaign staff in 2007 and 2008 while Corbett was prosecuting House Democrats for identical activity.
As supervising grand jury judge, Feudale was well aware not a single witness from the Senate Republican Caucus was subpoenaed to testify and did nothing when Corbett pretended to have conducted a full investigation. He allegedly signed subpoenas in February of 2008 for evidence that remained undiscovered on Senate Republican computers until spring of 2009, but never blinked an eye.
After presiding over six years of Corbett's blatantly political, corrupt and incompetent abuse of the grand jury, what finally moved Feudale to clutch his pearls and cry "politics?"
An attempt to learn why a child rapist was allowed unfettered access to children for nearly three years after the abuse was reported to the top law enforcement authority in the commonwealth.
Ongoing systemic abuse of the judicial system for political gain and petty score-settling doesn't raise his eyebrow, but concern for the safety of children offends Judge Barry F. Feudale.
We have no idea whether Kane really is determined to unearth the reasons for Corbett's unforgivable neglect of the Sandusky investigation, but the hysterical response of those most closely involved is a clear sign they don't want them unearthed.
