The Larry Kane Report

A young State Representative, with more people skills than politicians with decades more experience, has dramatically changed the landscape of local politics, along with his running mate, barely known before this election. Josh Shapiro and Leslie Richards’ one-two punch in the Montgomery County Commissioners race was decisive and in many ways, shocking.

Beating back the most popular Republican of the past decade, Bruce Castor, who finished third. Shapiro and Richards take control of Montgomery County government for the Democrats. It’s the first time the Democrats take control in over a hundred years. Castor was forecast to take one of the top two positions. But he finished third! Richards , a Whitemarsh Supervisor, was hardly known in the rest of the county at the beginning of the year.

Shapiro has used his extraordinary skills in the last 5 years to build alliances with Republicans and Democrats.

What surprised me about the contest was the strength that the two Democrats showed in heavily Republican sections of the third largest county in Pennsylvania.

The race was the most expensive ever for a County  Commission seat, and it may speak volumes about Republican Presidential challenges next year in the third largest county in Pa.

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FUMO AND THE LAW -

Vince Fumo is coming back this week to face a sentencing hearing, a hearing requested by prosecutors who want him to stay in jail longer than his current term, under which he gets out in the Spring of 2013,  I’ve always had great respect for the U.S. Attorneys office here. Prosecutors work hard to make sure that lawbreakers are brought to justice, but this case is very odd. It appears something is wrong . Why are prosecutors so obsessed with Fumo that they captured his emails to show he was unrepentant, which might be true? Why are the prosecutors so obsessed with Fumo that they have spent valuable time on the taxpayer’s dime to   keep the former political power in prison for many more years? With the area and the country riddled by fraud and corruption, how could the U.S. Attorney let his office spend so much time on Fumo? Is his release a clear and present danger for all of us?

Some of my colleagues in local journalism are stunned by the obsession with Fumo, and the way the prosecutors played out this story in media.

I ask these questions because the U.S. Justice Department has more immediate issues, troubling issues that face Americans, the drugs, the organized crime, the gun violations that threaten us every day, much more important than demanding a hearing for a convicted felon who has already fallen very far. Just the cost of transporting him here, and the cost of reopening the sentencing phase of the case, seems like a waste.

Vince Fumo has himself to blame for wrecking his career by breaking the law, but what’s behind the zeal of the prosecutors? Do they know something we don’t know?  The U.S. Attorneys Office in Philadelphia has long prided itself on not playing out cases before they get to open court.

Whatever the legal arguments, which is not my specialty,  the question remains: why are the prosecutors so obsessed with Vince Fumo? Didn’t they win the case?

CLASH OF TITANS?

Of all the elections coming up on Tuesday, I stay fascinated by the contest featuring Josh Shapiro and Leslie Richards against Republicans Bruce Castor and Jenny Brown for control of the Montgomery County Commission. Why? Well, first of all the election comes at a time when the GOP is split hard in Montco, after decades and decades of control. Castor is a fascinating and sometimes controversial personality iced out of government control when fellow Republican Jim Matthews forged an alliance Democrat Joe Hoeffel. Then, there is Shapiro. The State representative has become a forced to be reckoned with, and this is a big moment for him. But there’s such an irony about this election. With Castor and Shapiro expected to finish in the top two, it is the running mates that will decide who gets the power. It’s hard to say whether Leslie Richards, a Whitemarsh Supervisor or Jenny Brown, the Lower Merion Commissioner., will get the third spot. But they hold the key. The race will cost 3 million dollars, the most expensive County Commission race in Pennsylvania history.

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There are several investigations underway into how Gadhafi died. While that is proper protocol, the death of the butcher is welcome news. It is ironic that the butcher. the mastermind of Lockerbie, The Berlin disco attacks, and the bloody siege of Misrata, was put on display in a meat locker. What an appropriate end for the butcher.

The really sad part of the Gadhafi legacy is how complicit the United Nations , France and the United Kingdom were in his reign of terror until the revolution began earlier this year. Doing profitable business with the madman was shameful. Even our own government bought into the efforts by the butcher to legitimize his cruel regime back in 2004. The United Nations has been especially sympathetic with the Gadhafi murderers until it looked like he might fall. Like the gathering storm in Iran. much of the world allowed the butcher to kill and torture.

It was Ronald Reagan who first stood up to the butcher with a missile attack following the disco attack. It was Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who pushed the U.N. and the Nato Alliance to use air power to help break the deadlock in the early Spring.

My hope is that other dictators watch the video of the butcher’s end and look in the mirror.

NEWS ON THE NEWS -

The news business is changing so fast . What’s the future: pocket news (that phone in your pocket, digitized newspapers, late and local web sites, or something that has not even been invented. These subjects are the backdrop for my Voice of Reason show at 9:30 tonight on the Comcast Network. The lineup is special: Daily News Editor Larry Platt, Comcast Digital Executive Todd Berman, and Philly broadcast legend Paul Gluck, now a professor and the head of Temple University’s new TV station. If you enjoy a great debate on the future of news, this program is for you. And you’ll find out the real reason the Daily News dropped its Saturday edition.

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Is Cain able? That’s the big question around the Republican political huddles this week as Herman Cain surges in the polls. The answer is clear: Cain is a phenomenon. While he has some interesting financial ideas, his electability potential is, in this perspective, at least, near zero. What you are seeing now is a Republican electorate that is edgy, hardly comfortable with Mitt Romney, and seeking something new. In fact, most surveys show that 50 percent of Republicans are unhappy with their choices. My forecast? You will see more weeks of fast changes. Perry might make a comeback, and Jon Huntsman might surge in New Hampshire. What does this all mean? It means that Republicans smell possible victory, but they have not wrapped their arms completely around Romney. Right now, it’s just a flattering embrace.

Where is Tom Corbett? The first-year Governor of Pa. needs to spend more time in the eastern half of the state, not just quick visits. He needs to do more interviews and make himself more accessible to media. It is not a major political problem for now, but the Governor needs to find out more about the east. It could be problematic later on.

Spent a half hour on TV with four of the Occupy Philadelphia activists. All I can say: This is not the ordinary protest movement. The protestors are pleased that because of the economy, there is a grassroots feel out there. At lunchtime, workers from all walks of life , and a multitude of businesses, are pouring into the protest site to show solidarity. Of course, if the local protests turn violent, the occupiers will wear out their welcome. But Dr.Ralph Young of Temple says the protests fit the pattern of earlier protests in our history that spread quickly. Dr. Young is the author of “Dissent in America”, a history of protests, big and small, going back to our beginnings.

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