In praise of Seth Williams. No, really.

THANK GOD for Seth Williams.

That's something I didn't expect to ever come out of my own mouth (something slightly more likely than, "I think Wendy Davis is a natural blonde").

Williams angered me for his seeming crusade against the Catholic Church when it came to the so-called pedophile priest scandal, including the almost gleeful way his office attacked Monsignor William Lynne, a man who never in his life touched a child.

But lately, the Philadelphia district attorney has made a believer of me, because I realize he doesn't save his firepower for political enemies. Williams has enough ammo for those in his own party, and that makes him either crazy (like a fox) or a courageous iconoclast.

The truth, I think, is somewhere in-between, but I want to give him the benefit of the doubt because his last few hunting expeditions have been exceptional.

First, he came right out and showed Kathleen Kane for the incompetent, whining grandstander she has shown herself to be. Pennsylvania's once-but-not-future attorney general scuttled an ethics investigation against state legislators because she said it was "tainted," thereby implying that racism was involved.

When she threw down the gauntlet to Philadelphia's top enforcer and said, "You think you can do better? Do it," he met the challenge and came up with some indictments. I can only imagine how satisfying it was for the black D.A. to give that sort of in-your-face answer to the white A.G.

More recently, Williams stood toe-to-toe with the top Democrat in the commonwealth by challenging Gov. Wolf's death-penalty moratorium in court. Calling the moratorium a "lawless act by the governor," the D.A. noted that this moratorium - a clear political sop to progressive supporters in the state - violated the chief executive's duty to uphold and execute Pennsylvania law. Given the fact that Kathleen Kane did exactly the same thing when she refused to defend laws protecting traditional marriage against a federal court challenge, it seems that Harrisburg is filled with rogue Democrats that Williams can feast on.

Granted, I doubt that the D.A. will pay a high political price for his actions. Both Ed Rendell and Lynne Abraham were strong death-penalty proponents, and they weren't stripped of their royal-blue voter registration cards by the powers that be.

But it's refreshing to see a prosecutor who isn't afraid to shrug the protective party mantle off his shoulders and speak for all past and potential victims in the Delaware Valley, not just those who have passes to the Democratic National Convention.

It's also good to see someone make a rational, unemotional and legitimate case for the death penalty. While some people can have a sincere opposition to executing convicted murderers out of their religious beliefs or because they feel (with some justification) that the system is flawed, those of us who think that capital punishment is a vital and legitimate tool of government need to have an articulate spokesman for the point, and Seth is definitely one of them.

Setting a moratorium on executions is a dog whistle that those in the anti-death-penalty crowd hear loud and clear. It is not a temporary fix for an infected process. It's not an administrative push of the "pause" button. It is, for all intents and purposes, the next step in abolishing capital punishment in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and only the most naïve or tolerant think otherwise.

It's true that the last person executed in Pennsylvania was serial killer Gary Heidnik, and that was almost two decades ago, so we have a "de facto" moratorium in place today.

But it's one thing to have a law on the books and have problems applying it, and quite another to expunge that law altogether. That's what this moratorium seeks to do, and Wolf is lying when he suggests that this is just a gubernatorial breather.

Seth Williams understands this, and he also knows about the Constitution (he should have lent his bar exam notes to Kane). In unilaterally placing a moratorium on a penalty that is otherwise legislatively available to judges and prosecutors, he is usurping the role of the courts to hand down sentences that they, in their discretion, deem appropriate. It might not be a sexy concept, but the last time I checked it's still in force.

It's also an example of executive overreach, and has nothing to do with a simple "suspension" so that the administrative pipes can be unclogged. It's an almost imperial action, and for a man who came into office talking about working with the legislature and trying to compromise, the dissonance of his actions with his words is striking.

I'm glad Williams took the public stand that he did. Some will dismiss this as politicking of the highest order. Some will say it's simply wrong from a policy perspective. Some will shrug their shoulders and say that it's a family feud.

For me, though, it's a sign that someone is watching out for the victims. And for the integrity of the system.

It's about time.