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I like to think Rat #1 was repaying Rat #2 for any number of irritants and exasperations. And that's what's happening right now at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, whose august members, trustees and staff are engaged in an epic rendition of academia's most cherished activity... the art of finger pointing, a recherche' skill refined over a lifetime and kept for just such a moment as this.

The objective is plain, to prove beyond any doubt whatsoever that you are righter than right, as usual, and that anyone who disagrees is next door to a certified moron, never mind 18 books and a Nobel Prize. And on this basis, the infants terribles destroy the harmony and quiet disdain that ordinarily defines their sand box.

This is why the late William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008), renowned for his puckish commentary once famously said "I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University."

What is happening these fascinating days at the American Academy proves his trenchant point... that is why I cannot get enough of this scandal for it shows the best at their worst.

The facts.

In early June, 2013 The Boston Globe broke the story that the 45th president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Leslie Berlowicz, who wore her doctoral title like a papal tiara, did not have the earned doctorate in English she claimed New York University had conferred; rather that she had bestowed it on herself which even the most fastidious must admit is faster than the tedious business of working for it. And as Leslie was a girl in a rush, she made the perfectly rational decision that so much tiring effort was for the little people, not titans of moving and shaking like her. No other course of action made any sense at all.

Thus she applied to be President of the Academy (1996) the revered institution founded in 1780 by three heroes of the American Revolution, John Adams, John Hancock and James Bowdoin, their goal the constant betterment and improvement of the Great Republic.

Her lies were equal to the task at hand, for they secured her the bountiful objective of her schemes, including princely remuneration which in 2012 reached $598,000, a height which even Madam Leslie may have thought acceptable for such a paragon as she (but probably didn't).

She had gambled, she had won, she had proved her superiority and tactical skills, including leveraging her bogus credentials on one false document after another (including grant applications to several agencies of the federal government) to get still more. She had a proven system of success and she worked it with a will. Never mind that she was sole beneficiary or that she brought shame to one of the Great Republic's most respected institutions. The important thing was that she survived and prospered.

Thus, I give you Stephen Sondheim's 1971 masterpiece, "I'm Still Here" from his aptly named musical "Follies". So apropos are the lyrics to the developing scandal at the Academy and Madam Leslie's clear objective to beat the rap and even keep her golden goose, no other tune would do.

Go now to any search engine and listen to its bold, bodacious, brassy sound and its unmistakably clear message of what it takes to survive. I prefer the version by Elaine Paige, a diva always worth hearing. Ironically enough the many talented Sondheim was elected a Fellow of the Academy in 2008, very much during Berlowicz' salad days. No doubt Madam Leslie appreciates his often wicked cool lyrics and smooth harmonies, though this may not be her very favorite.

"I should have gone to an acting school, that seems clear; Still someone said 'She's sincere,' so I'm here."

Latest disclosures, further evidence the Board was asleep at the switch.

A short refresher course in the whys and wherefors of nonprofit organizations is now necessary. These organizations, hundreds of thousands strong, are the bedrock of our society, crucial to the way we live and the quality of our lives. Almost all are tax-exempt, that status being conferred upon application and review by the federal government.

The power to act and the responsibility for acting resides in what is either called the Board of Directors or Board of Trustees. These people are elected by the Board for either their prestige, management skills and business acumen, or their useful contacts and ability to give donations themselves or connect them to others who can do so.

Executive power is delegated by the Board to the individual variously called either president or executive director. This person is responsible to the board for all actions and may or may not have full membership on the board as the organization's by-laws dictate.

This executive serves at and may be removed at the pleasure of the Board with or without cause. Thus, in theory, the executive is the creature of the Board, every action open to periodic and regular review either by the full Board or by an executive committee appointed by and responsible to the full Board. Within this framework, the Board rules all... at least in theory.

In fact, as glaringly occurred at the Academy, the President , Madam Leslie, subverted the governing structure and systematically replaced their power and authority with her own, leaving directors progressively disengaged from the governing process for which, remember, they remained completely, legally, responsible. How had this inversion occurred? In a nutshell it was because the Board had largely disengaged from the governance of the Academy, thereby creating a vacuum which Berlowicz was only too anxious to fill.

"I'll do it" was her policy and governing objective... achievable because she micro-managed just who was elected to the Board, an essential project to which she gave unstinting attention, especially when after just one year in office, she was taken to task by the Board for abusive behavior to the Academy's long-suffering staff. She survived -- just --- no doubt resolving "never again." Her decisive influence over the Board made her regime of control and contempt not merely possible but inevitable.

And so...

In 2004 "Dr." Berlowicz persuaded her compliant Board to add her name to the roster of more than 200 newly elected members of the Academy -- 6 months after the original election notice, thus making it look like Madam had been voted in to the exalted Pantheon along with everyone else. It was a lie, of course, but by then altering reality was her speciality and by 2004 her skills in this department were peerless.

For instance, as reported in The Boston Globe, several former employees claimed that Berlowicz worked early and late getting just the right candidates for election; "right" being defined as people Madam liked and admired, always blocking those she felt would be inimical to her regime of falseness and favoritism. This included even seeing all the ballots before they were tallied... a device reminiscent of political machines for whom voting the long dead and gone was child's play.

Academy spokesman Ray Howell pooh-poohed any such concern saying that while Berlowicz did have access to all ballots, no one need worry since she "was responsible for making sure the election process was administered appropriately". Mr. Howell, no doubt, was speaking in the ironic mode, tongue firmly in cheek. Thus, he follows the party line and stays "loyal". After all, he has a job to protect, and Berlowicz has not resigned or been removed -- yet.

And so it goes as one revealing feature after another of her menacing regime seeps out. How she ordered the word "welcome" effaced from the Academy's front door to make sure hoi polloi would understand this nirvana was not for them. How starting three years ago she began closing access to the good people of Cambridge to the 5.1 acres of wooded grounds which the Academy leases from Harvard University. The City of Cambridge intervened to retain the status quo and a place for a pleasant saunter.

How the Academy in her regime has blocked access even by qualified scholars to manuscript material of George Washington (who once lived nearby in Cambridge), Thomas Jefferson, and Founder John Adams, and many others thus outraging the very basis of the Academy as a place of unfettered research and the free dissemination of useful knowledge.

Why did the Board put up with it all? One guess.

With a rap sheet as long as your arm, why didn't the Board act to save the mission, its soul and self respect? Money... that's why. Miss Leslie, you see, was a prodigious fund raiser, skilled in adding generous plutocrats and zillionaire entrepreneurs. Boston Scientific Corp. cofounder Peter Nicholas, who became a Fellow in 1999, gave $2.4 million between 2006-2010 when the Academy raised $39 million.

John Cogan, a Boston investment executive who joined the Academy in 2005, gave $1.9 million. Gershon Kekst, Wall Street communications tycoon, elected in 2006, gave a million.

There were Fellows, of course, who talked darkly about the evil influence of cash and how these folks were NOKD ("not our kind, dear") but the well-heeled had always been welcome. After all one of the cofounders, John Hancock, was the richest merchant in Boston.

Thus had Leslie played her cards better, foregoing the delights of demeaning her staff and affronting anyone and everyone, she might have gone on to scale the invigorating slopes of power, riches and sweet control, her lies known but tolerated because of her undeniable fund raising skills. But moderation was never her metier. And so she is now on paid leave whilst her Board dithers to a decision about what to do, though that should be obvious to even these tabby cats.

A person of eminence and known integrity should be appointed to review the case, thence to make recommendations for reasserting the Board's legitimate and legal functions. I recommend Margaret Marshall, recently resigned Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, a woman well respected, who conveniently lives within walking distance of the Academy and knows it well. After all she's been a Fellow since 2001.

As for Madam Leslie, I can hardly bear to think of her retiring from the scene, golden parachute in hand. But perhaps she'll survive to fight another day. After all that is the point of Sondheim's gem,

"Good times and bad times, I've seen them all/ And, my dear, I'm still here."

And that, for once, is nothing but the truth. It's a start.