This Kane not Able

We used our editorial page today to pen what we thought would be the final chapter in the sad, ugly saga we've coined The Kane Scrutiny.

Wrong again.

A few hours after we wrote the piece, the convicted Pennsylvania attorney general announced she would step down, resigning her position effective at the end of the day Wednesday.

She made the right choice.

It's one of the few things she's gotten right since her spectacular rise to power - and equally stunning fall from grace. In the process, she becomes the latest in a long, seemingly unending string of Keystone State officials who have been convicted of wrongdoing.

Kane was taking kickbacks. Or stealing from the state coffers.

Her downfall was more personal, rooted in a personal vendetta, a vow to get even with a former prosecutor in her office and rival she felt had done her wrong.

It led her to leak confidential grand jury information about the prosecutor, Frank Fina, to a newspaper for a story she hoped would even the score for what she believed was a leaked story from Fina that led to the first taste of bad publicity for the woman who recorded more votes in her first run for statewide office than President Obama got in his re-election run.

Kane blamed Fina for a story that suggested she killed a sting operation that showed several elected Democratic state representatives taking cash and gifts. She called the investigation - headed by Fina - ham-handed and even suggested a possible racial overtone in those targeted in the sting.

She was livid when the story hit the paper - and vowed revenge.

She ended up shooting herself in the foot - and blowing up a promising career.

They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

In The Kane Scrutiny, that appears to be tragically the case.

Kane simply wasn't able to let a perceived slight go. Instead, she set in motion a series of events that makes you wonder how she was elected in the first place.

In the end, Kathleen was no longer able to raise Kane. All she could do was raise the white flag, the first woman and first Democrat ever elected attorney general was now the first woman and first Democrat elected attorney general ever convicted of a felony. Kalamity Kane, perhaps.

You can read the editorial here.

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