The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Mike Seate explains that Rene Portland got the kind of hall pass previously reserved for crooked politicians.

The message, Seate writes, is that college coaches can 'hate openly'.

She would fit in nicely with bums like former Rep. Tom Druce, R-Bucks County, who hit and killed a Harrisburg man with his car in 1999, lied to police about the accident and then tried to avoid jail..(and) former Rep. Jeff Habay, the Shaler Republican who saw only conspiracy where investigators saw open corruption.

If I were a betting man, I'd wager that Portland already knows this... the rules, whatever they are, don't apply to the powerful and successful. And by now, I'm sure Portland realizes that Penn State may never place the same importance on its students as it does its athletic programs.

Another stinging rebuke of Portland and PSU's administration comes from Bill Early in a Centre Daily commentary.

Portland has consistently demonstrated little regard for university policy, indifference for university leadership, and disregard for any direction. Portland has continued to state that "specific sexual behaviors'' have no place in "her program." On this doctrine, she has been consistent and public for these many years... The only change is that her boorish behavior has grown bolder because university leadership still offers few consequences for her actions.