Aug 16, 2016 3 min read

After almost four years of fumbles, stumbles, missteps and misdeeds, Kathleen Kane did the right thing Tuesday.

She resigned, which will be effective at the close of business today.

“I have been honored to serve the people of Pennsylvania and I wish them health and safety in all their days,” Kane said in a statement that had the sound of a farewell, as well it should – she was convicted Monday on nine criminal counts, including perjury and criminal conspiracy, after she orchestrated the leak of grand jury information to the Philadelphia Daily News in order to embarrass prosecutor Frank Fina. Fina previously worked in the attorney general’s office, and Kane believed he was the source for a Philadelphia Inquirer story that she closed the books on an investigation of Philadelphia-area lawmakers who were later convicted on charges ranging from bribery to conflict of interest (a third lawmaker is still awaiting trial).

According to testimony, Kane took considerable pains to cover her tracks. She conspired with political consultant Joshua Morrow to pin the leak on a former associate who had fallen out with her – one of many who did so during her stormy tenure. Before Morrow met Kane to plot the tale each would tell a grand jury investigating the leak, Kane’s security detail searched Morrow with a security wand to be certain he was not wearing a hidden recording device and took away his wallet, keys and cellphone. Prosecutors played a recording of a call Morrow made to a friend at the time, where he expressed doubts about the wisdom of leaking material to the newspaper, and characterized Kane as “unhinged.”

That’s an opinion other people came to share over the last couple of years, as more stories surfaced about Kane’s paranoia, the high turnover among her staff – she went through eight press secretaries since 2013, with the most recent departing after what he called “an unfolding series of crises that were just never-ending” – and her constant insistence her troubles were all the result of an old-boys network in Harrisburg she was seeking to smash. She might well have had her share of opponents, but it appears Kane sorely lacked the thick skin necessary to do battle in the state Capitol.

Considering Kane was once considered a supernova in Pennsylvania politics, her apparent inability to absorb blows and slough off brickbats would have only deepened had she reached one of the offices many observers thought she was heading toward. Had she not become mired in scandal and demonstrated a degree of competence as the state’s top law-enforcement official, she could have been the candidate challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey in this election cycle and not Katie McGinty. Maybe she could have followed in the footsteps of Tom Corbett and be promoted from attorney general to governor. As the first female elected to the office since it became an elected post in 1980, and the first elected Democrat ever, Kane’s horizons seemed limitless.

But now her horizons are desperately limited. Her time in the months ahead will be consumed with appeals. If they fail, she could well be heading to jail.

William Shakespeare had an unerring ability to dig deep into human nature and uncover the foibles of the ambitious and powerful, whether it was Richard III’s murderous drive for power, Hamlet’s indecision or Othello’s insecurity and jealousy.

The Bard would have had a field day with Kathleen Kane.