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Raising Kane at PA Society

Who was the belle of the Pennsylvania Society's annual New York field trip?

The Pennsylvania Society is the annual Manhattan dressy field trip of the Commonwealth's most self-important residents - that is, elected officials and their benefactors.

Even though, or perhaps especially, because critics keep carping that the black-tie event should be held somewhere in Pennsylvania, possibly our pricey underused convention center taxpayers subsidized, the hoity-toity keep high-stepping it to the Waldorf Astoria, as they did this past weekend.

You might think that Gov. Corbett, up for reelection, might be the belle of the ball but, as The Inquirer's Harrisburg reporters Amy Worden and Angela Couloumbis report, you would be wrong.

They wrote, "Yet it was speculation about the polticial future of arelative newcomer to the political scene with star-power polling that got the most tongues wagging".

That would be Attorney General, and frequently the legal thorn in Corbett's side, Democrat Kathleen Kane. The chattering class speculated, as it is wont to do, about whether Kane will run against Republican Sen. Pat Toomey in 2016.

By the way, if they were making a movie of Pennsylvania politics — but who would watch? — Parenthood's Lauren Graham would be perfect as Kane and the late Leslie Nielsen as Corbett.

But, we digress.

Corbett who looked happier and more relaxed at the Philadelphia launch of his campaign than he often appears governing, had an unfortunate moment at a Friday forum. When Harold T. Epps, president and CEO of Philadelphia's PRWT Services, Inc., asked a question, the governor requested he identify himself.

Epps' response, according to a guest: "I've had you in my office and I've given you money."

--Karen Heller