Scandal
Posted at 5:44pm on May 14, 2008 Ohio AG Marc Dann resigns
Pressured out by his own party
By Kevin Holtsberry
It seems that Marc Dann finally realized that the gig was up and he couldn't hang on:
Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann resigned this afternoon, just hours after the inspector general’s office launched a raid on his office.
The embattled Democrat made the announcement in a joint appearance with Gov. Ted Strickland in the governor’s cabinet room, next to his Statehouse office. The governor called it a “sad day” for Ohio but said he is “pleased” Dann quit.
It's up to Strickland to appoint a successor until Ohioans vote in November on someone to fill out the final two years of Dann’s term. Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher has been among those mentioned as a possible successor.
Dann’s decision comes after a week and-a-half of increasing pressure to get Dann out of office, and a little more than five weeks after The Dispatch revealed sexual harassment complaints by two women employees against their supervisor in the attorney general's office, a longtime Dann friend.
Investigators descended on Dann’s offices in the Rhodes Tower shortly after 11 this morning, defying Dann’s legal arguments that they had no right to investigate his office.
The situation is thick with irony. Dann was one of the loudest critics of former Governor Bob Taft and hammered Ohio Republicans on the so called "culture of corruption" theme over and over. Surprised when his tactics worked, he found himself elected to a critical statewide office lacking the competence and leadership skills to do the job.
Now he finds himself forced to resign after articles of impeachment were filled against him by his own party and his office was searched by the inspector general in the aftermath of revelations that his office was rife with sexual harassment and improper relationships; including an affair between Dann and his scheduler. All Taft did was play golf with friends and fill out some paperwork wrong!
That old adage that you need to be loved or feared is applicable here. Dann's bombastic style and lack of judgment alienated even fellow Democrats. Lacking power or friends he soon found himself without a political card to play.
Ohio Democrats appreciate the fact that they have gained the power they have - they control four out of five statewide offices but the GOP controls the General Assembly - thanks to some screw ups by Republicans and an appearance of moderation and stability. There was no way they were going to let someone like Marc Dann put that at risk.
The netroots might take note that angry attack style politics is not how Democrats have found success in critical swing states. And if the party doesn't find you useful they will kick you to the curb without blinking an eye.
Posted in Marc Dann | Ohio | Scandal | State Politics — Comments (11)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:17pm on May 13, 2008 Plain Dealer: OH AG Marc Dann to resign
By Kevin Holtsberry
UPDATE: Columbus Dispatch says he is trying to negotiate a deal:
Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann apparently is trying to negotiate the terms of his resignation, adamant that a bill be killed authorizing Inspector General Thomas P. Charles to investigate the scandal in Dann's office.
Sources said Dann told a number of legislators that an investigation by Charles "would cause all sorts of problems for him and he offered to leave office if the bill is scotched.
All sorts of problems is right! Sounds like he would like to avoid any more investigation and legal repercussions.
Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann is expected to announce his resignation later today, The Plain Dealer has learned. He planned to break the news to his senior staff this afternoon.
The decision came as Dann faced intense pressure both from fellow Democrats and Republican critics who said he was not fit to continue as the state's top lawyer.
If Dann resigns Gov. Strickland would name a replacement to serve until a successor is elected this November.
Posted at 9:46am on Apr. 3, 2008 And they wonder why their numbers are slipping in Michigan?
By RightMichigan.com
Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.
What's a brother got to do to get a little love around here? And no, that's not a Tom Athans joke. I'm talking about Michigan, the Democrat National Committee, the two kids they have pulling hair and name calling in their primary contests and their chairman, Howard Dean.
Posted in Barack | Breaking News | Clinton | Democrats | Howard Dean | Kwame | Michigan | prostitution | Scandal | Stabenow — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 8:07am on Mar. 10, 2008 IDK, My BFF Barack?
By RightMichigan.com
Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.
I'm sitting at home yesterday afternoon watching the Wings hang on against a pesky Nashville team when my phone blows up. It's a text message from a friend. The sort of message that contains startling statements and life altering revelations. The sort of text that'll change the way one looks at the universe from that moment on into perpetuity.
Posted in Barack Obama | Breaking News | Carl Levin | Hillary Clinton | Kwame | Michigan | Primary | Scandal | senate — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:51am on Feb. 12, 2008 Report finds Jennifer Granholm's DHS directly responsible for childrens' deaths
By RightMichigan.com
Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.
As a child advocacy group prepares for it's date taking the State of Michigan to court reports and details surrounding the tragic deaths of numerous wards of the State continue to hit the newswires. And the more we hear the uglier things look. The preventable deaths of five children comprise the centerpiece of a study issued yesterday. These are kids whose interests the State of Michigan were supposed to be looking after. The Department of Human Services didn't just fail. At times they may have been complicit.
The Ivory Tower reports on several of the cases in question:
Posted in Breaking News | death | DHS | jennifer granholm | Michigan | Scandal —
Comments (0) / Email this page » /
Read More »
Posted at 1:20pm on Jan. 3, 2008 Scandal Pushers: Put Up Or Shut Up
By Dan McLaughlin
I'm seeing various sources on the web (no, I won't link) hinting that a major scandal will break soon on one of the big GOP presidential contenders, with some people speculating who and in some cases what.
Folks, don't fall for it. Maybe something big really is around the corner, but the people pushing this either have the goods (in which case they should come forward with whatever they have) or don't. If the latter, they shouldn't be pushing a vague unsourced, uncheckable, unrebuttable rumor without its basis. That's just wrong, period.
Posted at 10:07am on Nov. 15, 2007 Democrat sugar-daddy Stryker caught in medicare scandal, stealing from seniors to buy MI elections
By RightMichigan.com
Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.
We know Jon Stryker funds everything from the Michigan regressisphere to the Democrats take-over of the State House to radical and militant gay-special-rights groups to Governor Granholm’s reelection campaign (who did donate all that partners for progress money, anyways?) and the Michigan Democrat Party and we all assumed that it was family money he’d inherited or made through his company, Kalamazoo based Styker Corporation.
Posted in Breaking News | campaign | Jon Stryker | Justice Department | medicare | Michigan | Scandal | Stryker | theft — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 2:32am on Oct. 23, 2007 Where There's Smoke . . .
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
How is it possible that this isn't receiving more attention?
DONORS WHOSE addresses turn out to be tenements. Dishwashers and waiters who write $1,000 checks. Immigrants who ante up because they have been instructed to by powerful neighborhood associations, or, as one said, "They informed us to go, so I went." Others who say they never made the contributions listed in their names or who were not eligible to give because they are not legal residents of the United States. This is the disturbingly familiar picture of Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign presented last week in a report by the Los Angeles Times about questionable fundraising by the New York senator in New York City's Chinese community. Out of 150 donors examined, one-third "could not be found using property, telephone or business records," the Times reported. "Most have not registered to vote, according to public records."
This appears to be another instance in which a Clinton campaign's zeal for campaign cash overwhelms its judgment. After the fundraising scandals of President Bill Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign, the dangers of vacuuming cash from a politically inexperienced immigrant community should have been obvious. But Ms. Clinton's money machine seized on a new source of cash in Chinatown and environs. As the Times reported, a single Chinatown fundraiser in April brought in $380,000. By contrast, 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry raised $24,000 from Chinatown in the course of his entire campaign.
Investigations, anyone?
Posted in Clintons | Democrats | Scandal — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »
