Joining the Resignation Chorus
I haven't exactly been defending Marc Dann, but I have been arguing for focusing on aspects of the story that are relevant (this morning, ONN was including the existence of the AG's Washington liaison as an element of the "scandal") and maintaining some skepticism in the face of a sensationalist onslaught from the media (I didn't know why Jennings was suspended but I knew about Utovich's Anti-Valentine's Happy Hour).
The demands of a day job mean that even pursuing the details on my lunch hour hasn't allowed me to read the report or a transcript of Dann's press conference. But I've seen enough.
Marc Dann let his personal relationships trump his professional duties. He hired one friend to do a job he now appears to have been incredibly ill-suited for, and he hired another friend who has allegedly attempted to obstruct justice and solicit perjury to help the first friend. Now that Dann has admitted his affair with a subordinate, and the charges against Gutierrez substantiated, I think it's fair to connect some hypothetical dots. Although I do think that supervisor-subordinate romance is a really bad idea for lots of reasons, I don't believe it creates a hostile work environment in and of itself. I do believe, however, that being in that relationship necessarily compromised Dann's ability to exert the authority necessary to prevent the hostile environment from developing, and to take action once it was established (this is under a fairly generous, benefit-of-doubt reading of the facts as I've seen them).
The investigation and disciplinary action only began once employees initiated legal action and the media became involved. Marc Dann's personal judgments rendered him unwilling or unable to carry out his professional duties. Two men have been fired for the illegal things that they did. Marc Dann hasn't really done much of anything.
That's why we need a new Attorney General.
2 comments:
It's refreshing to see a man and a woman have an affair. If this was a Repugnicant, he would have had an affair with a little boy or a farm animal.
Marc Dann should stay in office for as long as Foot-Tapper Larry Craig and Diaper Dave Vitter remain in power.
At least Dann doesn't go around pretending to be some sort of moral exemplar of virtue, like Craig, Vitter, and so many other Repugnicants do.
The Repugnicant motto: do as we say, not as we do.
Marc Dann should use this as payback time.
Go after the corrupt Repugs in Butler County (Dynus)
Go after the corrupt Repugs in Clermont County (Walker)
Go after all the moralizing reporters, like none of them have ever banged a subordinate.
Go after the corrupt Repugs in Warren County
Go after the corrupt Repugs from Ashtabula to Zanesville, from Archbold to Ironton, and everywhere in between.
Hoist them on their own moralizing petards.
Go after the corporations, the price-gouging oil companies.
Show everyone what a fighter you are, Marc. This is why we elected you. Remind everyone what sort of corrupt morass you inherited after 16 years of Repugnicants plundering the state government and Treasury.
YOU are the reason Tom Noe is in jail and not wining and dining Governor Blackwell tonight.
YOU are the reason AOL and Time Warner aren't ripping the public off anymore.
YOU are the reason our state retirement system is much closer to solvency than it was when Tom Noe and other corrupt Repugs were buying coins and Beanie Babies with public retirement funds.
You've got some top-notch people at your disposal. Now is the time to put an end to all this moralistic snooping into your personal life and go on offense.
Show the guts, the heart, and the spine you showed in the Senate, and you'll get 70% of the vote next time.
It's time to not just defeat the Repugs at the ballot box, but also in the Courthouse.
Every single person in Ohio who chooses to affiliate themselves with the Criminal Enterprise Formerly Known As The Republican Party bears some degree of knowledge of, or responsibility for, their damaging policies and their criminal practices in office.
It's time to shut them down.
You haven't broken any laws, Mr. Dann, but a truckload of Repugnicants from one end of this state to the other have.
Investigate, indict, imprision. That's your job. Your job is not to answer questions from sex-starved moralists getting their jollies off asking you about your personal life.
I'm not usually one to cast aspersions, but the previous poster is a meandering windbag. Lay off the Red Bull and speed, okay partner?
Dann hasn't broken any laws? I'm not so sure, but either way, must every misdeed we should expect our leaders to be punished for involve prostitutes or the criminal justice system?
Look, I pay Marc Dann's salary. Not the toe tapping Senator's from the West or the hooker-loving former Governor of New York. Larry Craig and and Elliot Spitzer have as much to do with this as Pacman Jones.
Dann has made a mockery of his office, and the truly talented and dedicated, non-"Y'Town clique" employees that preceded him.
He's a farce. A joke. A punchline. And, sadly, a cheating, dishonest, unethical man. Doing things the "Youngstown Way" got him in this mess. Sharing a frat-like party-bordello in Dublin with two grown men? Nice.
So I, too, call for him to resign. And I'm a Democrat. It's pretty pathetic that he was the best the party could do in 2006.
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