Taint from scandal follows Paterno to grave

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Updated: February 25, 2012 8:08AM

When the Penn State scandal broke last fall, I wrote:

“No doubt [Joe] Paterno is anguished by this tragedy. . . . He’s a good man. But when a grad assistant even hints at something untoward between one of your former assistants and a child, how do you NOT get more involved in uncovering the truth?”

Some Paterno loyalists wrote to say I was being unfair to Paterno. Many other respondents said you can’t call someone a good man if he stands by knowing such atrocities might be taking place in his locker room.

By then it was already apparent Paterno’s legacy would now include the worst scandal in the history of athletics — and sure enough, when Paterno died Sunday, very few headlines or obituaries didn’t include mention of the horrific allegations.

The lead in the New York Times:

“Joe Paterno, who won more games than any major college football coach, and who became . . . . a symbol of integrity in collegiate athletics only to be fired during the 2011 season amid a child-abuse scandal that reverberated throughout the nation, died Sunday. He was 85.”

So it was across the country. Millions of JoePa faithful mourning the loss of the beloved coach and simmering about how he was, in their minds, unfairly tarnished by the scandal. Just as many millions convinced if Paterno had done more, some victims would have been spared.

A little more than a week ago, Paterno told the Washington Post his former assistant didn’t get specific about acts he’d allegedly witnessed.

“I don’t know that it would have done any good, because I never heard of, rape and a man,” said Paterno.

It was such a baffling statement. All this time on the planet and you’d never heard of such a thing? Paterno was Roman Catholic. Surely over the last half-century he had some awareness of abuse scandals in the Church. Surely he knew such evil existed.

A college coach starting his career this year would have to win 10 games every year until 2052 to reach Paterno’s record. That will always be a part of JoePa’s legacy.

As will the scandal that led to Paterno’s exit from the coaching ranks.

Newt, there it is

Newt Gingrich trounced Mitt Romney 41 percent to 27 percent in the S.C. primary, capping off one of the most tumultuous and bizarre weeks in modern political history. From the high-profile recyclings of stories about a young Karen Santorum living with the abortion doctor who had delivered her and Newt Gingrich’s Hefner-esque romantic life to the now tragi-comic Herman Cain endorsing “the people” to Mitt Romney having more dough stashed away in the Cayman Islands than a hero in a John Grisham novel, these Republicans have turned out to be WAY more entertaining than any of us could have hoped.

The most amazing stat to come out of Saturday’s primary: According to exit polls, a majority of South Carolina Republicans hadn’t decided on a candidate until the last days of the campaign. That might say a lot more about the flawed options on the menu than the indecisiveness of the primary voters. While President Obama’s killing with his Al Green impersonation, the Republican nominees are Larry, Moe and Curly-ing each other — and then blaming the media for focusing on their foibles.

I’m still marveling at the brass set on Gingrich, who somehow managed to keep a straight face as he thundered at CNN’s John King and the media in general for daring to ask about Gingrich’s alleged offer of an “open marriage” to his second wife.

Gingrich married his former high school geometry teacher when he was 19 and she was 26. The stories of how he left that wife for his second wife and how he left his second wife for this third wife have been told and told again. And yet somehow Newt painted himself as the righteous one, saying these attacks on him are further evidence the liberal elite media will do anything to protect Obama — resulting in a standing ovation from the debate crowd.

Wow. I’m not sure David Copperfield could have worked better magic.