Feb 22, 2016 3 min read

Who will be president of the United States a year from now? Hard to say at this point. But there’s one thing we can now say with absolute, take-it-to-the-bank certainty: Kathleen Kane will no longer be Pennsylvania’s attorney general.

The idea of that day arriving, when a constant swirl of soap opera and scandal is no longer enveloping the commonwealth’s top law-enforcement officer, is one to relish. The embattled Kane bowed to the inevitable last week and announced she would not seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for another term. Though she cited family concerns and her role as a single mother, the reality is Kane would have been able to count only on immediate family and a few very close friends voting for her after her bumbling, calamitous tenure. Moreover, she would have been up against three accomplished candidates in the form of Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli and Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro, the latter of whom is seen as an up-and-comer in Pennsylvania politics and has the endorsement of Gov. Tom Wolf.

Kane herself was once perceived as an up-and-comer who could use the attorney general’s office as a springboard to a Senate seat, the governor’s office or maybe even a spot on a national ticket. But that all briskly unraveled when Kane was shown to be thin-skinned and in over her head when it came to both running her office and exercising her authority. She burned through employees, shut down a sting operation targeting influence-peddling by Philadephia-area lawmakers and is now facing criminal charges after allegedly leaking confidential grand jury information to a Philadelphia newspaper in order to embarrass a political enemy. As a result, she faces a trial due to start this summer and was stripped of her law license. It would have been better for all concerned if Kane resigned last year, but she dug in and refused, arguing she was the target of a cabal of Harrisburg old boys and the charges against her were baseless.

While Kane managed to avoid being removed from her job by state senators a few weeks ago, impeachment proceedings are moving forward in the state House, with a maiden hearing set for today. If the House finally recommends Kane be impeached, she would face a trial in the Senate that could drag on and on before she is finally removed from office.

All this with just a little less than 11 months left in her term. Will this sturm und drang finally result in Kane being removed from office just weeks, or maybe even days, before she would have left anyway?

We are not defending Kane – we were among those who called on her to resign last year – but we question the value of proceeding with impeachment at this point when her days as attorney general are already numbered. The perjury, conspiracy and other charges will be hashed out in a Montgomery County courtroom later this year. That is the proper venue for the case against Kane to be aired. Now, with the clock running out, it’s hard to see what launching impeachment proceedings against Kane would accomplish, aside from distracting lawmakers from more pressing and substantive aspects of their jobs.

Like approving a budget. How about that, guys?