Applauding Ernie Preate

Last week I was on a public TV show about the culture of corruption in Northeastern Pennsylvania.  The whole idea was to raise awareness and a sense of indignation at what we’ve let our leaders do to us.  A centerpiece of the discussion was the criticism of my friend Mark Ciavarella, one of the judges who brought disgrace on his office and himself.  There were interesting comments and compelling discussion as we wandered over the list of misdeeds by other public officials. 

But at one point, former Lackawanna County DA and Pennsylvania Attorney General Ernie Preate spoke about his own crimes and punishment.  When he was finished, people applauded.  I couldn’t help be struck by the irony.  I wonder if people will applaud my friend Mark Ciavarella some day.  I doubt it.

The show was a great idea for the talk show hosts at WILK and hopefully it worked for WVIA-TV as well.  I know I talked to a huge number of people who watched it.  It gave our radio station terrific exposure and gave people a chance to get in on an important conversation. 

I know the culture of connections has always bothered me about this area.  Everyone has to be connected if they want to do any public work at all.  That includes the county courthouse which awards too many no-bid contracts, the school boards who employ numerous family members and friends and any number of miscreants who want to skip the punishment when they do the crime.  

My friend Mark was a part of it.  He took money from a developer to help him get a contract to build a juvenile detention center.  He has pleaded guilty to taking over a million in kickbacks and he’ll do at least 6 years in prison for his crimes.  As I have said, I have tried without success to make my friends perfect.  So I forgive them for their flaws.  I can forgive my friend Mark for being greedy and stupid.  In fact, I already have forgiven him.  However, if I thought he had sold children into prison, I would not forgive him.  Mark has told me he didn’t do it and he has never lied to me, so there it is.

Ernie Preate used to be part of it.  In the 80’s Ernie was the Lackawanna County DA.  He rose from there to be state Attorney General and narrowly lost to Tom Ridge in the GOP primary for governor.  Then it all fell apart.  Ernie was accused of taking cash from video poker machine operators.  Because he used the mail it was a federal offense and Ernie ultimately did a year in a federal prison camp in Duluth, Minnesota.  I’ve been to Duluth and it is awful.  Ernie once joked that he wore a parka on the 4^th of July! 

Ernie did his time and since his release, he has made it a bit of a personal mission to reclaim his good name.  He’s done lots of pro-bono work, represented many worthy groups and ultimately won back his license to practice law. 

However, something Ernie said the other night was just plain false.  He claimed that what he did wasn’t as bad as what Ciavarella et al have done.  No, in fact it is exactly as bad as what Mark did.  Both men took a sacred trust and used it to their own gains.  Ernie used it to line his campaign coffers and Mark used it to line his pockets.  Mark is doing more time because he took more money, not because his crime is any worse.  It isn’t.

Someday Mark will get out of prison.  We’ll still be friends.  I hope he can resurrect some part of the reputation that made him liked and admired.  I know I’ll be happy to do what I can to help him because I believe he’s a wonderful guy who did a stupid, stupid thing.  But I won’t expect other people to applaud, no matter what good deeds he performs, because frankly, he doesn’t deserve applause.