This blog post is taken from commentary in this weekend’s edition of Radio Pennsylvania Roundtable, hosted by Brad Christman. You can listen to the entire show, which includes Kathleen Kane’s statement here on PAMatters.com.

The great tragedy of this whole situation (the Kathleen Kane saga) may be that Kane had a chance to be the crusading power of justice she envisions in her own mind. The porn email scandal that has rocked Harrisburg – and was uncovered by her initial investigation of the handling of the Sandusky probe – could have been a shining moment for her, because…like Kathleen Kane or not…she is right about those who were involved in the inappropriate email chains. But her crusading effort is overshadowed and tainted by Kane’s use of the emails as a weapon in her own personal political agenda and legal battles. All along, the emails were used as a “chip” she would threaten to throw into the pot as her personal legal situation got murkier and murkier. As a result, any cries of justice in her efforts were overwhelmingly drowned out by the noise of a politician using her office as an arsenal for her own personal battles.

Kathleen Kane is not running again, and she seems to be the last person on the planet to have realized that. Her announcement this week fell on mostly indifferent ears even within her own party, as Democratic candidates and strategists noted that it was determined long ago that Kane was a non-factor in the coming election – whether she was a candidate or not.

Brad Christman is the News Director of the Radio PA Network, based in Harrisburg, and is the host of the network’s flagship program Radio Pennsylvania Roundtable. He has covered Harrisburg for the past 22 years.