Click here to subscribe today or Login.
After 30 tumultuous months of accusations, acrimony and relentless vows to fight to the finish, Kathleen Kane’s tenure as the state attorney general ended not with a bang, but with a whimper.
The combative Scranton native who swept into state office in 2012 promising to shatter Harrisburg’s “old-boys’ network” turned uncharacteristically silent in recent days.
Finally given the chance to tell her side in court following three days of testimony for the prosecution, Kane offered no defense against charges of perjury and obstruction. She did not testify; she called no witnesses.
When the jury convicted her on charges including perjury, conspiracy, official oppression and false swearing, Kane showed scant emotion other than to repeat the claim of innocence and promise an appeal.
She announced her resignation the following day with a terse, two-sentence statement comprised mostly of boilerplate Pablum suitable for any public office departure: “I have been honored to serve the people of Pennsylvania and I wish them health and safety in all their days.”
And suddenly the turmoil that roiled around the state’s top law enforcement office since March of 2014 ended, even if Kane’s own story continues with the inevitable sentencing and anticipated appeal.
To her credit, Kane didn’t protract it further. But her departure was long overdue. This paper called for her resignation last October. At that point her travails had already stretched 19 months, beginning in March of 2014 when the Philadelphia Inquirer reported she had squashed a sting operation that caught several Philadelphia Democrats taking money from a lobbyist.
Kane said the cases were too ineptly handled to pursue, but Philadelphia D.A. Seth Williams resumed the investigations and has won four convictions.
“It’s time for Kane to step down. And it is time not because of One Big Thing,” the editorial argued, “but because all the lesser things have piled far too high to let her effectively serve as Pennsylvania’s top law enforcer.”
She stayed in office, clinging to her contention that she was the victim of payback for having unearthed sexually explicit emails in state government. While the judge in her case disallowed that aspect of her defense, the revelation led to resignations of several state officials, including two state Supreme Court Justices.
Odds are high, however, that Kane’s term will be remembered for the disgrace, not the successes. She was the first Democrat and the first woman elected to the post, but now is most famous for being the second Pennsylvania attorney general to resign under cloud of crime. Ernie Preate left the office in 1995 amid his second term after pleading guilty to mail fraud related to campaign financing.
Preate, like Kane, is from Lackawanna County, giving our region a dubious distinction. Here’s hoping Kane’s conviction is the last time an area pol rises to state office only to disgrace us.
We can’t afford a third black eye.