Annette John-Hall: Queen of Greed and those others

This, from the have-you-no-shame, you-got-some-nerve, just-go-away files.

First up, the Queen of Greed, only because she just reared her vindictive head - again.

When last we shipped off Arlene Ackerman, she had unapologetically pocketed a buyout package close to a cool $1 million.

We thought we had seen the last of her.

But, no. Like the Terminator, she's baaack. Seems the former school superintendent has further held up the cash-strapped district by applying for unemployment benefits.

Now that's gangster.

That's a Scarface move right there.  It's Michael Corleone dispassionately ordering up revenge hits like so many tequila shots in The Godfather.

Let's face it. Any time someone who proclaims that her only allegiance is to the schoolchildren of Philadelphia and then proceeds to throw them under the school bus, well, you can only draw one conclusion.

Winning at all costs, greed and arrogance. You know, traits we usually associate with men brandishing oversized egos.

Ackerman may be a mother and a former teacher and wife. But I'm convinced she's so hard-core she can't possibly be one of us.

And to think I once thought I owed her an apology.

Have-you-no-shame, you-got-some-nerve, just-go-away file No. 2. I've been wondering a lot about role reversal lately. Since the Penn State scandal broke, I've been asking my girlfriends whether the alleged coverup would have happened if women had been in those jobs.

Clearly, an emotional chip was missing in the many men who kept silent all those decades about Jerry Sandusky's alleged crimes.

"I can't help but believe that the fact that we bear the children would make us ask, 'What is wrong with this child? What is wrong with this coach?' " says Michelle Bernard of the Bernard Center for Women, Politics & Public Policy.

A woman, Bernard adds, would never turn a blind eye, even if she only had an inkling that children were being harmed.

At least I'd like to think so.

But, sad to say, one of the most troubling traits that women have is enabling men who behave badly.

Have-you-no-shame, you-got-some-nerve, just-go-away file No. 3. Which makes me wonder about another possible shameless runaway train - Herman Cain.

He may be black, Republican, and conservative, but brazen womanizing among politicians is as bipartisan as it is color-neutral, Bernard says.

"What is it about high-powered, high-profile men [I'm thinking Bill Clinton, John Edwards, both Jesse Jacksons, Mark Sanford, Newt Gingrich, Jim McGreevey . . . well] that they believe that they're so strong and powerful that when they engage in this kind of behavior, no one will care?" she asks.

"You don't hear of female politicians committing adultery," she adds. "Maybe it will be a sign of progress when you hear that women are doing the same thing with no sense of shame . . . I hope not."

 And though it may boil down to individual character, enablers like Joe Paterno, Gloria Cain, and Mayor Nutter have a responsibility, too.

"I fault the district for paying [Ackerman]," Bernard argues. "She doesn't hold the purse strings, they do."

As they say in those gangster flicks, don't hate the player, hate the game.