What did he know and when did he know it?

I guess I'm more productive than I realized -- I published a story while I was 1,000 miles away on vacation:

IT'S HARD TO imagine a political cause that would unite longtime Harrisburg gadfly Gene Stilp, liberal activist Michael Morrill and conservative columnist Chris Freind.

But in recent weeks, all have voiced loud support for what may be a quixotic quest for an investigation into whether Gov. Corbett mishandled the probe of convicted Penn State serial child molester Jerry Sandusky when Corbett was state attorney general.

The Corbett critics insist that their questions about the first two years of the child-sex probe — whether Corbett didn't put enough people on the case and whether political considerations were the reasons why — transcend their ideological differences.

"This is not a political issue for me — it's personal," said Morrill, executive director of the progressive lobbying group Keystone Progress, who said Corbett's handling of the case troubled him as a father, not as a liberal. He said he waited months before launching an online petition drive that's attracted more than 12,000 signatures. "I was hoping someone else would call for one."

Commenting here on my own article, in the real world there wouldn't be any downside to such an investigation. Politics aside, given the spate of high-profile child-molestation cases -- Sandusky and the Philadelphia Archdiocese, to name two -- it would be a useful guide to understand what went right in the Sandusky case and what went wrong. There is no such thing as "politics aside," though. GOP lawmakers will never sign off on a probe with even a risk of damaging Corbett. Still, I'm thinking we haven't heard the last word on this subject.