The LuLac Edition #1258, Aug. 7th, 2010

PHOTO INDEX: OUR INTERVIEW LOGO.

INTERVIEW

Friday we talked to a friend who was one of the first supporters of Greg Skrepenak, the former Luzerne County Commissioner, pro football star and now convicted felon. We thought we’d get his thoughts.
Q: What drew you to Skrepenak when he said he wanted to run for Commissioner?
A: His sincerity. I knew him from school. Before he went to Michigan. He was a good guy. He was generous with his time and his friendship.
Q: When you worked in the campaign did you expect anything?
A: No I was helping him out. He went to my school. He was an upperclassman who made it to the top and then came home.
Q: Came home to do what?
A: I think to influence kids and serve the public. He was a good coach when he was at Crestwood.
Q: Yeah but he didn’t stay long.
A: Well, I don’t know about that.
Q: And he had that TV show too?
A: Right on 22 but as you know they don’t do that stuff anymore.
Q: Okay, when Skrep was the Commissioner did you blindly support him or did it start to ebb at some point?
A: I was not happy with some of his picks. I told him so but he just said his hands were tied. I told him that he was not in this job to be liked by his picks but by the people who put him there. He just never got that.
Q: How often did you talk to him to try and set him straight?
A: Apparently not enough. I’d see him at sporting events and the bar but I never went there much.
Q: Why?
A: Just didn’t, I’m not a bar hanger.
Q: What did you think of the sentencing?
A: Well I read what you wrote and I agreed. He shouldn’t got more than the other guys but not less. I think it was pretty stiff but the Judge is sending a message and he was near the top of the food chain. That’s why he got a tough sentence.
Q: Will you write to him in jail?
A: Huh?
Q: I’m serious, will you write to him as a former supporter?
A: Don’t know about that. Let me ask you this, what did you think of his comments after the meeting?
Q: Well I could’ve done without him holding the Bible but I think he was more of a man than some of the other people convicted in all of this who refused comment to the media. In a way he “manned” up and took responsibility. No other person did that.
A: You are correct. I’m so glad you said that because he didn’t duck the media, he talked to them. Didn’t hide. That’s the Skrep I once knew and believed in. The man steps up.
Q: True but he made some bad decisions.
A: He did but they were mistakes of displaced loyalty. Do you remember that Patte’s commercial from a few years back where Skrep was with people eating?
Q: I think it might have been someone else’s but yeah I do.
A: He did stuff like that all the time. Lent his name to businesses and causes. He never could say no.
Q: I think maybe he said yes to the wrong people. Maybe he wasn’t tough enough when he had to be to preserve himself in politics. All that said, he did commit a crime though. Does that disappoint you?
A: It perplexes me. I think he was so preoccupied with other stuff that he just didn’t realize what he was doing.
Q: You know you’re in the minority on this. The comments on the Times Leader website are brutal. A lot of people reading this will say you are naive and in denial.
A: Yes they might. But I feel what I feel.
Q: Skrep is a convicted felon and unless something extraordinary happens legally he can’t run for office again. But if he could, would you vote for him again?
A: No. I think he needs to get away from all this.
Q: If he runs a foundation or something like that would you write him a check?
A: Yeah, I’d still trust him that way. But I don’t have no 5 grand that to give him.
Q: Hold it, I think I just heard about this on ESPN Radio.
A: Skrep and today?
Q: Yeah.
A: Oh jeez.
Q: Hey he was a national sports figure, you know what they say, "the bigger they are, the harder they fall”.
A: Oh jeez.