America is a place where people can rebound mightily from great falls, but lately, it is seeming more forgiving than ever.

Politicians who market themselves as having better values, or at least the ability to know what values citizens should follow, have been proven scoundrels yet have rebounded.

The latest is in South Carolina, where the one time disgraced governor Mark Sanford won a seat on the U.S. Senate. He had lied about where he was, hiding an affair with a woman he will now marry. His divorce has been brutal, including a recent police incident for violating a stay-away order. Yet, he won.

Now, disgraced former Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner is seeking the NYC mayor's seat. He left Congress after lying about tweeting nasty photos and thoughts to a young woman. He claimed to have been hacked, prompting many others coming out about his transgressions.


But I don't think voters are forgiving. I think they are forgetting, or rather ignoring.

That's one reason these recent scandals are hurting the president's popularity. People who like Barack Obama, they like him. People who hate him, they hate him. No one is changing their minds or looking for news that attempts to take a middle of the road search for the truth approach.

And don't look for middle-of-the-voters to mind the intrusions into the media, which is as reviled as much as the president.

I'm not buying the family of disgraced college football coach Joe Paterno, the late leader of the Penn State Nittany Lions who died after he was fired from his sacred position when the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal exploded last year, and their revisionist view of their father's role in the case.

The family released its own report that counters the Freeh report, which detailed the failures in the system that allowed Sandusky to continue using his position and stature to abuse boys for years after he left the football program officially.

The proof is in the pudding, as they say. Paterno led the team and was really the top guy in the university. He knew something was up, removing Sandusky from his team yet not forcing an investigation and full removal from the university and program.

The family's commissioned report points out many little discrepancies in the Freeh report that they say shows Paterno did all he could and what was right. But he didn't as Sandusky remained with the school and access to children and facilities.

Paterno is dead and his reputation off the field cannot be salvaged. Of course, his failure was not as bad as some of the others. And he was a great coach and great father figure and was very good to education and sportsmanship. But when it comes to the need to report potential sexual or child abuse, he failed. Perhaps it was a mix of his generation not seeing this problem as we do nowadays (as widespread and open in the public eye) and the lack of this mandated reporting in his earlier years. Plus, he dealt with college-aged people, not children like school teachers.

His failures do not eliminate all the good he did. In fact, the statue did not need to come down, as it should serve as a reminder about how easy it is to undo all the good you do not just by something you do but by what you don't do or what you ignore.

He's actually an entertainer, but Jon Stewart admits he is "the worst journalist in the world."

Stewart interviewed the woman behind the biography of Gen. David Petraeus, who was, it turns out, sleeping with the biographer, Paula Broadwell.

Stewart didn't shy away from his interview of Broadwell; instead, he highlighted it, pointing out that perhaps he should have known something was going on.

The fake news being real news commentary has expanded so much that it is now a part of the story as for many Americans, many who don't watch C-SPAN, first saw and heard from her on his "The Daily Show."

And this Broadwell-Petraeus story is getting better and better, with one of the initial FBI agents investigating being pulled from the case due to his sending shirtless photos of himself to a witness (before this was a case.)

So who benefited from the Sandusky, Penn State child sexual abuse scandal story?

I know that that judge in Texas who beat his daughter silly disappeared pretty quickly.

But my, that Sandusky story has legs, wheels in fact. That audio interview with Bob Costas was fascinating, especially the pauses and language used by the one-time defensive coordinator, trying to mix the truth with the omissions that will land him in prison for the rest of his life.

He touched their legs....but without sexual intent. He is passionate about young people, especially boys.

These are very carefully worded confessions, I feel.

I think he actually believes that he is normal and that his actions are only misunderstood.

I also must say I am in no way offended by Sandusky-inspired humor. I've heard of someone raising eyebrows by naming their bar trivia team "Touched: The Jerry Sandusky story." Funny.

SNL's bit on even the devil being offended was funny.

And somewhere, I think on Facebook, I saw a reference to Joe Paterno death watch. That's funny. You know how occasionally long time married grandparents will die one after the other, sometimes just days apart. Wonder how Paterno will live without football.

At least he won't be like Jon Gruden, annoying television viewers as another ex-coach thinking a second profession is easy.

I would like to see Oprah get Paterno in the hot seat, though. Not just to listen to but to watch him squirm.

Perhaps Joe Paterno would still be planning next year's practices if he had come out earlier and said something. But the wagons were circled over the Penn State administration's inability to report a suspected pedophile to police.

The wagon circling didn't help the situation, especially due to the speculation that more boys had been assaulted due to the failure to notify, which is not just a policy problem but an actual crime. Others above Paterno are being charged, but he's the face of the department, and people aren't buying that he did enough just to pass a bit of information along about his own defensive coach.

Will this be how JoePa is remembered? Probably not, but it'll be a long lesson for anyone who thinks that institutional protection is stronger than a public demand for justice.

Now, I am reminded of another recent circling of the wagons over an allegation of hazing, which is nothing compared to the Penn State situation, except that a longtime popular coach is hoping a problem with go away without ramifications. Coming clean is always the best option, even if means stepping aside.