Kathleen Kane resigned as Pennsylvania attorney general at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
Fourteen minutes later, her first deputy Bruce Castor Jr. had his face on the AG's official Facebook page. The same headshot also adorns the AG's Twitter handle now, and the Twitter title is "AG Bruce Castor, Jr."
He is a quick operator -- and a confident one. In his first press conference Tuesday afternoon (before he even took over for the departing, convicted Kane), Castor declared he "has more experience and brings more knowledge" than anyone else could have to fill in after Kane's resignation.
Alas, one day later, on Thursday, Gov. Tom Wolf decided there was someone more qualified to serve as the state's top law enforcement officer for the rest of the year. Wolf nominated a former deputy attorney general, Bruce Beemer, to fill the post until January, when one of two candidates up for election in November will take over for a new four-year term.
Leaders of the Pennsylvania Senate, which must approve Beemer, gave positive signs toward his nomination. But the Senate isn't scheduled to reconvene from summer recess until late September.
That presumably gives Castor a few more weeks as the social media face of the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office.
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After that, he can always go back to his old Twitter and Facebook pages.
Then again, that might not be such a great idea.
