Don't do it, Cyril. Don't run for governor. You just got clear of the law, remember? What are you, a glutton for punishment?

Or, conversely, run Cyril. Run. Why not? Your legal battle is over, so why act like you've got something to hide?

Whether one subscribes to the first of these exhortations or the second depends on what kind of political season one is in the mood for -- earnest, dull and unremarkable, or a raucous primary marked by contentious ego, verbal fireworks and long sentences with many subordinate clauses.

Cyril, of course, is Cyril Wecht, although in these parts he doesn't need a last name any more than Cher does.

For the record, Dr. Wecht is the region's best-known forensic pathologist, consultant on celebrity murders, ex-coroner of Allegheny County (twice) and rap-beater on charges of using public resources for his private work (twice, roughly 25 years apart).

At various times he's been a county commissioner, chairman of the county Democratic Party, candidate for U.S. senator and for county executive. At all times he's been known as intellectually nimble, combative, defensive, loquacious and, above all, newsworthy.

Last week, he confirmed that he was considering a run for governor. To say the news came as a surprise is an understatement.

Until eight months ago, Dr. Wecht was the target of a three-year prosecution by then-U.S. attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, a George W. Bush loyalist whose office tried him on 41 theft-of-services charges stemming from co-mingled private and public expenses. Some of the counts were serious, but many were so petty as to be laughable. Dr. Wecht mounted an aggressive and vitriolic defense complete with charges of a political hit job, a biased judge and anti-Semitism, and the drawn-out proceedings ended in a hung jury. The feds immediately moved for a retrial, but a new judge threw out most of the evidence and the charges were dropped, much to the prosecution's chagrin.

So the question must be raised. Having just gotten the target off his back, could Dr. Wecht possibly be serious about entering the race for governor? Or is he just talking this way to flip off Ms. Buchanan -- who, by the way, is considering a run of her own against Democratic U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire in the 4th Congressional District?

(Unrelated aside: As one of Ms. Buchanan's critics during the Wecht prosection, this is where I applaud her efforts to help two sisters from Ben Avon save their charges at an orphanage in earthquake-wracked Haiti. Ms. Buchanan read about their dilemma and immediately moved to mobilize assistance, as did Mr. Altmire, U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, and U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter and Bob Casey Jr. It's good to see them all rising to a crisis, and if there's even a hint of political calculation involved, I frankly couldn't care less.)

In any case, the latest news about Dr. Wecht makes some professional observers look pretty bad. Well, one of them, anyway. After the jury stalemate, a writer who found the prosecution too politically tainted, over-reaching and costly wrote an argument against a retrial, including this:

"If there is a conviction, the public good will have been served how, exactly? The man has been virtually bankrupted by this three-year ordeal. He's not going to return to public office. He's 77 years old. It's enough."

Oops.

Well, it serves me right for thinking I had any idea what Dr. Wecht would do. It just seemed to make sense that once the hounding ended, he'd welcome the chance to go back in peace and quiet to his family, lab specimens, lectures and consulting. Now it seems the abrupt departure from the coroner's office left him with that unfinished-business kind of feeling, and life out of the political spotlight was not cutting it, so to speak.

If he really means to run, he'd be entering a crowded field. Five other Democrats are in the race and Dr. Wecht would be the third from Allegheny County, joining County Executive Dan Onorato and state Auditor General Jack Wagner. Given that the Republican nominee is likely to be Attorney General Tom Corbett, who also hails from these parts, the race could wind up being a southwestern Pennsylvania slugfest.

Dr. Wecht would make a most unlikely candidate at this point, with little chance of winning. He's close to 80 now and he's made a lot of enemies in the party over the years. He's on record asserting that the federal trial cost him everything he had, so he'd need to raise an awful lot of money in a hurry from many of the same sources that Messrs. Onorato and Wagner are tapping. But most of all, his name is associated with controversy, and state government hardly needs more of that.

On the other hand, our shamelessly bloated, over-paid and corrupt state Legislature has made it clear that it's not about to shrink its own numbers or clean up its act. Right-sizing will take place over its dead body. And if anyone in Pennsylvania knows about dead bodies, it's Cyril Wecht.

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