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Democrats try to limit investigation to 90 days
By Dennis J. Willard
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Sunday, May 18, 2008
COLUMBUS: Republicans once again demonstrated this week why they ran the state for 16 consecutive years while Democrats could lose control after 16 months on the job.
Marc Dann was forced to face reality and resign when Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles started removing computers, files, papers and anything else that would be needed to investigate the rampant cronyism, sexual harassment, destruction and misuse of state property, and other still-to-be-undisclosed ills of the attorney general's office.
Dann is gone. His former chief of staff, Ed Simpson, and scheduler, Jessica Utovich, resigned. His general services director, friend, roommate and chief sexual harasser Anthony Gutierrez, was fired. Leo Jennings, spin doctor, political adviser, and public relations specialist, was axed.
So where did the Republicans win on this issue and where did the Democrats fall short?
First, the Democrats, afraid to be seen as coddling one of their scandalous own, went to war with Dann instead of trying to negotiate an honorable and necessary withdrawal.
In 2006, largely guided by Dann's constant attack against Republican corruption, Democrats became governor, secretary of state, treasurer and attorney general and picked up seven seats in the Ohio House.
Suddenly, they were being painted as the corrupt party and, in the words of Gov. Ted Strickland, they needed the public to understand they would clean their own house.
On May 4, Strickland asked Dann to resign during two telephone conversations. Just two days earlier, Dann had told the media he was staying despite admitting to an affair with a junior staffer, allegedly Utovich. The same day, an internal investigation outlined the charges against Gutierrez, Jennings and Simpson, and they were gone for good.
When Dann refused to step down, Strickland quickly whipped up a threatening letter signed by six other top Democrats that gave Dann an ultimatum: Leave or face impeachment.
Instead of conceding, Dann dug in and promised to defend himself against impeachment.
With respect to Yogi Berra, in their haste, the Democrats moved too quickly.
A more purposeful and prudent approach for Strickland to have taken would have been to continue talking to Dann, bring in close friends, meet with the family the governor said he cared for so much and felt so badly about and, over a period of days, help Dann understand that his future was not in the attorney general's office.
Would anyone have blamed Strickland for taking this approach, for waiting and working just a few more days, to convince Dann the best thing for himself, his family and the state would be to resign?
Did anyone really believe Dann would or could continue to serve for an extended period as attorney general?
Enter the victorious Republicans, winners because it would be naive to not see that every step in each participant's effort to force Dann's ouster was guided by politics as much as or more than good public policy in a presidential election year.
Republicans, specifically Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, and House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, sat back and watched the Democrats go to war with each other.
While the Democrats' impeachment charges were coated in Teflon, Republicans shrewdly dismissed the idea, understanding the proceedings would raise too many constitutional and related questions, including what laws were broken. And Dann's
inevitable resignation would render the effort moot.
Republicans pushed instead for a wider, independent inquiry led by Charles that would be reminiscent of the same investigation launched against coin dealer Tom Noe in 2006.
An ongoing probe of Dann, long after he was gone, would take away the higher moral ground staked out by Democrats for two years.
On Wednesday, Republicans proposed an amendment to fast-track legislation to give Charles $250,000 and no deadline to investigate Dann. Democrats tried unsuccessfully to limit the probe to 90 days.
And when the bill hit Strickland's desk that same afternoon he had no choice but to immediately sign the measure and start the investigation.
To hesitate would have opened him and the Democrats up to charges they were coddling Dann.
The time to negotiate had long passed.
On Thursday, Charles swooped in, swept up and even posted State Highway Patrol officers on the ground floor of the James A. Rhodes Tower to ensure employees from Dann's office were not trying to sneak anything past the investigators.
A few hours later, a resigned Dann stood next to Strickland in the governor's Cabinet room. He never acknowledged the governor before starting his remarks, in which he said he was ''removing'' himself from the office.
And then Dann departed without so much as a shoulder shrug toward Strickland.
Yes, it was a good week to be a Republican. They should chalk one up for hunting ghosts in a vacated office.
As for the Democrats — well they were blinded by the torches they had lighted.
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
COLUMBUS: Republicans once again demonstrated this week why they ran the state for 16 consecutive years while Democrats could lose control after 16 months on the job.
Get the full article here.
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