Bad American

It has come to this.

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Risking impeachment, Ohio’s attorney general on Monday refused demands from the governor and other fellow Democrats that he resign over a sexual harassment scandal in his office and an affair with a subordinate.

Gov. Ted Strickland told reporters that Democrats will begin drafting an impeachment resolution against Attorney General Marc Dann right away. Republican House Speaker Jon Husted said Monday that his chamber - which takes the first step in any impeachment - was already reviewing the process.

Virtually every state-level Democratic officeholder urged Dann to resign in a letter late Sunday after Strickland tried twice during the day to persuade him to leave office.

A sexual harassment investigation uncovered an atmosphere in Dann’s office rife with inappropriate staff-subordinate relationships, heavy drinking and harassing and threatening behavior by a supervisor. On Friday, Dann admitted to an extramarital affair with a subordinate after the investigation threatened to reveal the relationship.

We needn’t go into the sordid details of what went on in Dann’s office - you can read the rest of the AP report and it’s been pretty well documented elsewhere. WKYC TV 3 news is featuring the women who brought the complaints against Dann on their news this evening.

And you can check with Jill’s site here about more news from her and other bloggers about the distancing that the ODP is doing from Dann including yanking him off their official website and considering him an independent.

With each hammer blow against Dann, the AG’s office suffers, the state of Ohio suffers, the Ohio Democratic Party suffers and basic trust in government, which we thought could go no lower after the shenanigans of the Taft era, also suffer new lows.

Dann should note the enthusiastic bi-partisan movement to impeach him. Ask yourself when is the last time you saw Democrats and Republicans come together so quickly and with so much enthusiasm on anything?

For the GOP, they needn’t let Dann twist in the win - the damage is already done. And to pile impeachment on top of everything will give them more than enough ammunition against Ohio dems in the next election.

For the Democrats, it’s all they can do to stem the bleeding - remove the cancer now and hope that some recovery can take place before the next election cycle.

For Dann, one has to marvel at the sheer arrogance of the man. He’s a dead man walking politically, yet, he’ll cling to his office until the bitter end.

With many politicians at every level, even dog catcher, there’s a certain segment of them that suffer from grandiose notions of their own entitlement. Many have indeed spent most of their adult lives to get in these positions of power and prestige. What happens on top of that is that, in their minds, the office they hold becomes indistinguishable from their personhood.

What I mean by that is that, for people like Dann, the office becomes who they are - it represents all that they identify with their lives. To lose it would be to suffer a death of their identity. And because of that they will cling, as if to the hull of a sinking ship, until the waves finally take them.

Quaint notions of public service being a public trust have no place in the psychology of people like Dann. But lest you think he’s a rare bird he’s not. There are many like him and they’re all over this state. Think Jimmy Dimora. Or Tim Hagan.

It’s all they know. It’s who they are.

I found this comment by Governor Strickland to be amusing, however:

Strickland said, as a congressman, he opposed former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment. But he said the two situations are “dramatically different.” His request for Dann to resign is not based substantially on his extramarital affair, Strickland said.

“It goes well beyond that. It involves many, many factors that are much more complicated than that,” he said.

Oooookaayyy governor.

In the meantime, when teachers teach Ohio government, how do they handle student questions about what has transpired in Dann’s office.

And how that squares with what they are being taught about our system.