We already knew that before Gutierrez was hired, there were issues regarding his unpaid state and federal income taxes related to his construction business. We learned that a major avenue unexplored in the Espy-Pfeiffer report was the extent in which Gutierrez may have been conducting his construction business from his state office using state time and resources to operate his business. We already know that an administrative worker at the AG's office was placed on paid leave after she had an office work computer erased that investigators suspected was being used to conduct Gutierrez's construction business.

Now, we've learned over the weekend that Gutierrez's business didn't pay for his Workers' Compensation premiums for 2007.

Who exactly is in charge of helping state agencies like the BWC collect unpaid debts?  Why, the Attorney General's office, of course.  And what was the status of Marc Dann's office to collect from one of his former senior aides?

Dann spokesman Ted Hart said late Friday that he could not immediately determine the status of the collection case or who was handling it for the attorney general's office.

I bet it was lost in a file somewhere.  Like all of Gutierrez's accident reports.  But there are some progressive bloggers who want you to believe that the call for Dann to resign is all about his affair.  It's not.

Gutierrez, for many reasons, simply should not have been hired.  Now, we have to ask, did Dann's office sit on collecting a state debt against one of Dann's closest associates?

Yeah, Dann sure is doing a hellvu a job.

Unfortunately, the lack of Wi-Fi access at the Greater Columbus Convention Center (seriously, WTF?) combined with an inability to get my Verizon Wireless card to work prevented the expanded coverage of the ODP convention I had in mind.  Nothing unexpected happened at the convention, no Marc Dann sightings or anything else. As was previously reported, Chariman Redfern named his two superdelegates. Electors to the electoral college (should Ohio go blue this fall) were chosen. Everyone got a chance to talk.

Interestingly enough, with no Marc Dann sightings the attention turned to the other man who sought the party's nomination for AG in 2006, Subodh Chandra. Chandra was in attendance and was warmly received by party leadership. Someone (not Chandra) uncovered a stash of 2006 "Hire Subodh Chandra" stickers and was passing them out. More than one attendee asked Chandra to autograph their copy of The Road to Blue which was of course on sale. 

Lots of good gossip to blog on though, and I'll be chatting about that in the coming days.  

Blue Bexley is reporting that Chris Redfern has appointed Dave Reagan and William Craig Bashein as his two picks to be un-pledged delegates.

Dave Reagan is president of SEIU District 1199, while William Craig Bashein is a Cleveland area lawyer.

Both, like Redfern, will remain uncommitted.

Glass City Jungle is reporting that Marc Dann has been successfully striped of his Democratic endorsement, making him officially an independent.

Should Ohio go to a two-tier grad system?

The Ohio Core will require four credits in math, compared with three now required to graduate from Columbus schools. It also will require that science classes be lab-based, so the district will need to update its lab equipment, said Pete Maneff, the district executive director of high-school curriculum.

All public-school students must meet the Ohio Core requirements to earn a diploma beginning with the Class of 2014. Students also will have to meet the new standards to be admitted to all state universities except Central State, Youngstown State and Shawnee State.

Right now the minimum grad requirements in Ohio are:

4 credits of English

3 credits of math

3 credits of science (1 physical, 1 biological, 1 other)

3 credits of social studies (1/2 must be American studies, 1/2 must be government)

1/2 credit each of health and phys ed

6 credits of electives (1 must be either a fine art, foreign language, or business technology)

Passing all five sections of the Ohio Graduation Test (see prior YouTube posting)

School districts can add to this, and even offer different types of diplomas (such as tech or college prep) if they choose. The four-year colleges in Ohio came up with the Core, which is the minimum college prep standard they'd like to see students complete - the math credits must be college prep and include at least Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2; the sciences must be lab based and include either chemistry or physics, and the electives must include a fine art and at least 2 credits of the same foreign language. To make these the official graduation requirements for ALL public high school students smacks of imposing middle-class values on all students regardless of SES or career paths.

I'd say it will also drastically lower the graduation rate, but it's hard to prove that statistically when they can't even agree on how to calculate it in the first place...

I have harped, and will continue to harp, on the importance of the Ohio Senate races in 2008. The Senators elected in 2008 will be voting on Ohio's congressional map which will be drawn after the 2010 reapportionment. That is just one of the reasons why its so imperative that we make strides towards closing the current 21-12 gap in the Senate. 

One place where we have an opportunity to do that is the 2nd Senate Distrcit in the Toledo area. The district is an open seat that includes turf that voted for Sherrod Brown in 2006, places like Bowling Green, Sandusky, and Port Clinton. Unfortunately, the candidate in this district, Sylvia Washburn, dropped out, as rumors flew that she would do after the takeover of Senate leadership by Ray Miller.  

Now, Mike Zickar, chairman of the Wood County Democratic Party, is looking for a few good candidates. If you're interested, e-mail him at mikezickar@yahoo.com before May 17th.

PS Quick question: Is the Ohio Senate caucus leadership helping recruit a replacement?

I love the Ohio Republican Party. No matter how lousy a day might seem, they always manage to find a way to make me laugh.

The ORP finally launched a "Dump Dann" website today with a petition calling for Dann's resignation.

Now let's just completely ignore the fact that Plunderbund, a Democratic blog, beat them to the punch by several days. Instead I want to focus on a couple footnotes below the petition:

3 - Contact Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and tell him to clean up the mess Democrats have created in the Attorney General’s Office.  The phone number to Ted Strickland’s office is (614) 466-3555.  Or you can follow this link to email Ted Strickland.

4 - Contact Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern and tell him you disagree with his comments that “no one has accused Marc Dann of being a bad AG” and ask him to more aggressively seek Marc Dann’s resignation.  The phone number to Chris Redfern’s office is 1-877-OHIO-DEM.  Or you can email Chris Redfern at chrisredfern@ohiodems.org.

I'm sorry ORP, didn't you get the memo? Strickland and Redfern are already working to remove Dann from office.

Surely the ORP wouldn't be trying to manipulate the facts on such an important matter for political gain, would they?

I'm getting word that a backroom deal was made yesterday about a possible speaker run should the Democrats take back the Ohio House. Apparently Armond Budish and Matt Szollosi have cut a deal to work together.

Now for the interesting part: Budish would take the speaker role while Szollosi would be his #2, the exact opposite of what many seemed to expect.

The reasons for this apparent switch in status aren't clear, but it's worth pointing out that Budish raked in more cash than any other Democrat in the statehouse last quarter.

If this is true (and I believe it is), these two probably hope to consolidate support from the more moderate House members to propel them past a more progressive candidate.

Escorted by Rep. Steve Rothman, who served as a kind of body man, Obama first made his way along the back aisle where he shook hands and slapped backs. One member, Tim Ryan, snapped a picture with a cell phone. Pages rushed over and asked for autographs.

The conservative editorial board of the Columbus Dispatch has called for the Ohio Senate to end its "obstruction" of the Great Lakes Water Compact.

Gov. Strickland is firmly behind it.

A bipartisan consensus of the Ohio House passed it 90-3 in February of this year.

And yet a pompous ass by the name of Timothy Grendell is willing to put the entire Great Lakes System at risk because he thinks the language in the bill might imperil the right of property owners to wells and streams on their properties.

Never mind that State Rep. Matthew Dolan (R-98th) who represents a portion of Grendell's 18th Senate District, called his concerns "overreaching."

Never mind that there is a palpable urgency to pass the Great Lakes Water Compact before the 2010 reapportionment, when the Great Lakes states are likely to lose about 10 seats in Congress, and about 10 electoral votes to boot, because it must be ratified by Congress.

Never mind that those congressional seats and electoral votes are likely to end up in the desert Southwest, where unsustainable urban growth IN THE MIDDLE OF A DESERT!!!! will soon lead to crippling water shortages, which will lead politicans from those areas to call for diversion of Great Lakes water.

Never mind all that. Tim Grendell has convinced Ohio Senate President Bill Harris not to even hold a vote on a treaty that the Ohio House passed 90-3.

Which leads me to ask a question: Can't we get rid of this guy? He is clearly too conservative for his 18th Senate District, which has one Democrat representative (used to have two until former State Rep. Tim Cassell pled guilty to DUI) , and a moderate Republican in Dolan. Why don't we have a candidate to go after this joker?

Well, a woman named Amy Diamond won the primary. Where is she? If she's not running, is the Ohio Senate caucus recruiting a replacement?

Tim Grendell is putting the entire Great Lakes system in peril. The Plain Dealer called him "the lunatic fringe" in a February 19th editorial. And yet Ray Miller can't be bothered to do his job: find someone to throw this guy out of office.

If he won't do his job, then maybe we in the Ohio blogosphere should do it for him.

Russ Feingold's "Progressive Patriot Fund" has included both John Boccieri (OH-16) and Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15) in its latest round of "Pick a Progressive Patriot" voting.

I'm sure many of you a familiar with the program, but the "Progressive Patriot Fund" routinely holds votes to decide which candidates from around the country most deserve a $5,000 contribution from the PAC.

Voting on this round closes next Wednesday at 4 P.M. Eastern. Please head on over and support our candidates.

Of course, you can also take matters into your own hands...

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing this out.  I remember reading this story in the Plain Dealer, but I apparently missed this important nugget.

Even some on Dann's staff apparently want him out, if nothing more than to help the office start to regain its reputation.

One Democrat said top attorney general staffers on Monday asked Dann to resign. Dann told them he was staying but that he would accept their resignations.

Office spokesman Ted Hart said no one quit on Monday, and he would not confirm whether there was a confrontation between Dann and his senior staff.

Why should these staffers resign?!?  After all, they're the only ones who have been bothering to show up to do actual work.  They didn't wait until their exploits became front-page news to "roll up their sleaves" and decide to be professional.  While Marc Dann, Guiterrez, and Jennings were trying to make a live-action version of "Old School" out of the AG's office, these people, who have more respect for the office than obviously Dann ever did, kept their heads down and did their work.  Work that Dann now wants to take credit for as an excuse for his disgrace and incompetence.

What nerve Dann has to ask these people that they resign inside!  What unmitigated gall and arrogance!  And yet, Dann would want to entire State to believe that his problems aren't a distraction in his office and it hasn't affected its operations.  What utter B.S.

And the thing that is so sickening, so pathetic about Dann, is that it's the work of these top staffers that he has latched onto to justify him staying on the job.  These people do fine work, but that's in spite of Marc Dann, not because of him.

And instead of acting like the contrite and apologetic boss he's been trying to portray himself to the media, he tells these people, who have done no wrong except to express their utter disgust at Dann's betrayal of their loyalty to his office, to hit the bricks.

Every day, every story, every second this goes on is yet another exhibit for the unbending ego of Marc Dann.  He is in the office today for one reason only: it's not for the people of Ohio, for the Democratic Party, or even to try and rehabilitate the workplace so that his dedicated and professionally employees are no longer embarassed to mention where they work.  It's none of that.  Dann is doing this for Marc Dann alone.  He doesn't care about who he hurts, who is harmed, or what the consequences are.

Anyone else notice that now the media is getting comments from Dann's political campaign, and not just his office?  That he's starting to restart his campaign organization to help him fight this.  And that he's hired a Texas oppo research guy for him to start digging dirt on Dann's enemies (you know, the world, including some in our own party?)  Dann is ready to threatening to take a scorched earth strategy while the rest of us wring our hands as to whether we should just not pick a fight and let him bully his way until 2010.

Marc Dann is more than a guy of high ambition who fell hard.  He's starting to reveal that he was a phony from the beginning.  That he played us all for fools, and that he's in this for one reason only-  himself.  A snakeoil salesman who, after dirting his office, now hides behind the badge of that office as if it were a barrier to questions of his own sleeze. 

How can anyone still defend this man?  How can anyone defend him after hearing hat he told his senior staff that if they wanted him gone, then they should resign when they've done nothing wrong?  How many other scapegoats must be sacrificed at the egotistical alter of Marc Dann?  When will this nightmare end?

Apparently the Blade, which initially chastised the Governor for calling for Dann's resignation (calling him "smug" for doing so), now is ... smuggly calling for Dann to resign, but only so they can then say that the bar would be set too low for impeachment.

I don't get it.  Why do people seem to act as if there is a different standard to call for someone's resignation than there is to impeach them?  Here's what I wrote about that nonsense back in 2005 at my old blog in regards to Gov. Taft (HT to LisaRenee @ Glass City Jungle for reminding me):

Impeachment v. Resignation
Several members of the other party have suggested that Taft should step down. The Governor has indicated an unwillingness to do so. One cannot make the case that a public official should resign for misconduct, but if that official refuses, then nothing further should be done. One cannot argue on one hand for resignation but then vote against impeachment. Like resignation, impeachment is a declaration that a public official's misconduct has caused that official to lose their moral authority to act on behalf of the State. That should be the standard in which the Governor should be judged.

To paraphrase for today's scenerio, one cannot declare that a public official has lost the moral authority to stay in office, but then expect that immoral person to do the moral act and resign.  Impeachment exists exactly to deal with the kind of scum Marc Dann is, a person who stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the truth- that he has lost the moral authority to lead or to do his job. 

So, when someone like Marc Dann refuses to do the honorable thing after the dishonorable thing, we're supposed to just throw up our hands and bear it out until the next election?  That's not what the Ohio Constitution says.

And, my God, am I sick of seeing all the handwringing over the Ohio Constitution.  You'd think that someone in the media would realize that the impeachment provisions were left intentionally vague because they WANTED to give the House wide latitude and discretion to decide when to use its impeachment powers instead of a rigid, objective legal standard.

Want to know the difference between Marc Dann and Bill Clinton?  Politics, which is exactly what the Framers intended.  Impeachment is not a legal decision, it's a political one.  That's why it begins in the most political body there is: the Ohio House of Representatives.  Why?  Because if the House abuses its impeachment powers (as the Blade irrationally frets), then the people can vote that legislature out and replace it with more pragmatic legislators who will use their powers more wisely.

In Bill Clinton's case, most people saw it as a politicized civil trial that was over Bill Clinton's conduct before he was President being used by his political enemies to achieve what they could not do at the ballot box.  A review of public polling at the time shows that the public did not support Congress' efforts to impeach Clinton, and that most believed he should have just been left alone.  So what happened?  Public opinion convinced the Senate not to convict, the Republicans majorities in both houses were shaved thin, leading to the Speaker of the House to be overthrown in an internal partisan coup.  Exactly what the Framers intended to be done if the impeachment powers were being abused.

Sometimes people need to realize that the Constitution was left intentionally vague for this reason.  To give political actors latitude to deal with situations unforeseeable by the Framers.

I see in the Blade that Cliff Arnebeck has stuck his neck out to say that the Constitution requires for a commission of a crime.  This puts him in odds with just about every other constitutional scholar in Ohio.  It also puts him squarely at odds with Ohio history.

None of the impeachments pursued in the early 1800s involved an allegation of a crime, including the only one to result in a Senate conviction.

There's no serious debate as to whether the Ohio constitution requires a commission of a crime or not.  There are those who have seriously studied the issue and Ohio's history applying it, and then there are people who simply don't know what they're talking about (or want to pretend that 200 years of Ohio history isn't important.)

And then the biggest coward of them all has to be Speaker Husted who now claims that the House isn't equipped to do an impeachment investigation, so he wants an independent investigation.  What the hell?  So why do we have those hearing rooms at the Statehouse?  Funny, I never heard Speaker Husted say that the House wasn't able to investigate whether new strip club laws were necessary or not.  I seem to recall that the House claimed it had the ability to investigate that issue.

Or school funding.

Coingate.

Or lawsuit abuse to support tort reform.

But when it comes to an issue the House is specifically chartered with investigating in the Constitution, the Speaker claims there's no ability.  Coward.  Speaker Husted has conviced me that he simply cannot handle the weight and magnitude of his office when called upon to do anything more than pass yet another stupid special license plate bill or designating some thing as Ohio's official so-and-so.

Vern Riffe could have handled this.  Of course, if Speaker Riffe were still alive and in power, Marc Dann would have been unwrapping the moving boxes in Youngstown by now.

I just don't get it anymore.  Seriously, what is wrong with these people?

His party has abandoned him, the Republicans want to hold an election-year wake for him, and now his own employees are speaking out... What's left to convince this man he should resign?  From WBNS 10TV in Columbus:

On Wednesday, CJ Edgington, who also works in the Attorney General's Office, offered his take on the situation involving his boss.

"Most of the stuff, I was surprised by it," Edgington said.  Edgington said he watched Friday's news conference as it happened. He said that's when he and many other employees lost faith in Dann, 10 Investigates' Paul Aker reported.

"The collective feeling … everyone's pretty much backing Vanessa and Cindy, of course," Edgington said. "Now that the allegations are pretty much true."10 Investigates asked Edgington if he thought Dann could lead his office right now."Some people think, not really," Edgington said. "They think he should resign."It was a feeling Dann bolstered when he made an awkward excuse for his mismanagement, Aker reported."I don't know how many people here expected me to win the election," Dann said during his Friday news conference, "but I wasn't among them." Edgington raises concern about Dann's statement.  "If you're not ready," Edgington said, "don't stick your foot in.""I don't think he should stay in office, personally," Edgington said.According to Edgington, the majority opinion in the office was that Dann should resign. He said there were still some who supported the attorney general, but the uncertainty was apparent."What's next for Marc Dann, and next for us, too?" Edgington said.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer is running an editorial in today's edition which calls for Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race for the Democratic presidental nomination. Ohio's largest newspaper calls the race for the Democratic nomination "all but over and Obama has won." This on the heels of Tuesdays' primaries in Indiana and North Carolina where, again quoting the PD "she nipped Barack Obama in an Indiana primary she expected to win handily and was crushed in North Carolina."

The paper acknowledges Clinton's right to continue campaigning if she wants to, but urges her to scale back her attacks on Obama, because "Proclaiming him unelectable and out of touch with average Americans at this point diminishes both Democratic candidates - and thus helps only the Republicans and John McCain. That can't be a legacy Clinton desires."

Last night, I headed out to my local Costco to do some shopping and fill up with gas. As I was standing there watching the numbers tick upwards on the gas pump, I looked around at the other vehicles in the Costco gas station and realized with a start that my trusty four-cylinder Honda Accord was the only actual car in the station. The rest of the pumps were occupied by SUVs, Minivans, and large pickup trucks. 

Then I heard the gentlemen across from me grumble and bitch about the price of gas while filling up his GMC Acadia. I don't think he meant for me to hear him, but I did and said in reply "You want to know why gas costs so much? Just look around." I said, waving my hand at the SUVs drinking in $3.44 a gallon gas. This earned me a mean look but nothing more, but it got me thinking.

Whose fault is it that gas costs so much? No one but ourselves. For the last 60 years, we have designed our cities and planned our lives assuming that gas would always be cheap. Of course, anyone with half a brain could tell you that gasoline is derived from petroleum, and petroleum is a fossil fuel, which means there is a limited supply of it, and when demand increases faster than supply you get increases in price. That's a free market economy for you. But our country has blithely ignored that reality, and instead built massive houses further and further out in suburbia, while buying behemoth SUVs for our commutes. We spent trillions on new interstate highways while abandoning rail transit and eschewing buses and other mass transit options. Now we're paying the price. 

The good news is, that since we caused this run up in gas prices, we can put an end to it as well. How? By using less. By trading in those SUVs for four-cylinder cars. By trading in that McMansion in subrubia for a smaller home closer to your place of business. By planning and living in walkable neighborhoods where you needn't hop in a car to go to a grocery store, bar, or pharmacy.  By demanding our leaders take rail transit funding as seriously as they take highway and airport funding.

Want to see lower gas prices? Get cracking and do something to make it happen.

Apparently, Marc Dann's father-in-law decided yesterday to come out and defend Marc Dann.  I think he would have been better off had he not.  This seriously got my blood to boil...

From the Columbus Dispatch:

Dann's father-in-law, Bentley Lenhoff, told Youngstown radio host Rob Mangino that Dann does not fear an impeachment process. Lenhoff, a keynote speaker at Dann's 2007 inauguration, said all of the attorney general's dirty laundry came out in an investigative report last week detailing sexual harassment, cover-ups and other questionable behavior that led to two firings and resignations of two Dann staffers.

"Any impeachment process would be nothing but a vindication of Marc Dann," Lenhoff said. "I'm serious."

And then from the Dayton Daily News:

"He plans to face impeachment because he doesn't think he has done anything impeachable," Bentley Lenhoff, Dann's father-in-law, said Tuesday, May 6 ". . .  This has been nothing but a rush to judgment."

Lenhoff said the bulldog tendencies of his son-in-law should not be underestimated. He said Dann is a victim of half-baked lies and innuendo that have been swallowed whole by the media.

Vindicated?!?  Marc Dann will be vindicated?!?  I can imagine a number of scenerios for Dann, but vindication isn't even on the radar screen.  How could anyone read the Espy report, which was as about as much of a stacked deck for Dann as he's going to get, and then predict that future investigations are going to vindicate Dann.

Second, name one half-baked lie or inneuendo in this whole incident other than the ones from Marc Dann's mouth.  Just one.  And then explain to me why we should support Dann for firing three people over these half-baked lies and innuendo.  What does that say about his character?

We have endured the steady stream of incompetence and disappointment from the personal hands of Marc Dann since the moment he was sworn into office.  Has the rest of his office done good work?  Sure.  But that's been in spite of Marc Dann, not because of it.  I'm not going to applaud Marc Dann because he has some employees who showed up for work rather than trying to dip their pens in the company ink well at the workplace like Dann and Guiterrez, and potentionally even Jennings did.

Rush to judgment?  Did the Governor come out and say resign or be impeached?  No, he listened to Dann's press conference, read the Espy report, and reviewed the transcripts.  A "rush to judgment" is making a decision on someone without the evidence.  The body of evidence in this matter is pretty comprehensive and compelling.  Marc Dann ignored his own office's employment policies, encouraged others as well, to hire unqualified employees with criminal backgrounds who then became prey for sexual solicitation at the workplace by Dann's other unqualified employees with questionable backgrounds.  Dann admitted that he had some knowledge of the allegations against Gutierrez for some time in his interview.  He did nothing.  Ed Simpson did nothing.  The only thing Dann and Co. did then is what he is trying to do now damage control.  Let's not forget that evidence was destroyed, a witness was asked to lie, and Marc Dann, to put it charitably, was less than forthcoming in his interviews, even after being given the opportunity to revise his earlier testimony.

Unless Marc Dann has something in his back pocket that is going to completely discredit the finding of the Espy-Pfeiffer Report, I don't think vindication is looking for Marc Dann's address right now.

For those who want a break from the Dann drama, check out this entertaining video, a satirical look at Bush's "No Child Left Behind":

House Democratic leader Joyce Beatty (D-Columbus) selected three attorneys from the House Democrats earlier today to lead the Democratic Caucus' exploration of impeaching Marc Dann.

The three members selected were Jennifer Garrison (D-Marietta), Dan Dodd (D-Hebron) and Mark Okey (D-Carrollton).

You know, papers get annoyed when new media like bloggers recycle their materials without attribution.  You'd think they'd be sensitive to doing the same thing.

From my post on Sunday:

According to The Ohio State Constitution: A Reference Guide (real sexy title, I know) (2004) Steven Steinglass & Gino Scarselli, Greenwood Publishing Group at pg. 145, the most well-known impeachment case in Ohio history (and only one I could find quickly) was early in Ohio's history.  In 1808, the Ohio House of Representatives impeached a sitting Supreme Court justice and a Common Pleas Judge for ruling (for the first time in Ohio history) an act of the General Assembly unconstitutional.  The judges were one vote shy in the State Senate from removal of office.

Steinglass & Scarselli's book agrees with my analysis that the term "misdemeanor" in Ohio's constitution refers to the broad definition as "misdeeds," instead of a strict category under Ohio's criminal statute. 

From today's Dispatch:

The constitution says an officeholder can be impeached "for any misdemeanor in office," but that doesn't necessarily refer to a crime, said Steven F. Huefner, an associate law professor at Ohio State University, and Steven H. Steinglass, a law professor and dean emeritus at Cleveland State University. Rather, "misdemeanor" in this context refers more generically to any misdeed, and that ultimately is defined by the General Assembly, they said.

Steinglass said the most notable impeachment case in Ohio was brought in 1808 against George Tod, a Supreme Court justice, and Calvin Pease, a common pleas court judge.

They both were impeached by the House for declaring a law involving the right to a trial by jury unconstitutional, but each was acquitted by one vote in Senate trials.

Gee, I wonder where Mark Niquette and Jim Siegel got the idea to talk to these particular constitutional law scholars? 

Granted, I did just cite their book, but you'd think the paper could admit that it was this blog that brought this argument to the table or tipped them off to Professor Steinglass and Huefner's scholarly work.  Think it's just a coincidence that the Dispatch went out and interviewed these particular professors two days after we posted about them?  Me, either.

Oh, and Prof. Steinglass and Huefner, you'll welcome for me pimping your book with the most boring title ever.  I bet it's become a real hit at the Statehouse law library now.

This whole Attorney General Marc Dann situation gets harder and harder to stomach with each passing day. I'm glad this statement hit my desk before I read it somewhere else.

State Senator John Boccieri: Attorney General Marc Dann should resign Immediately

Today State Senator John Boccieri, Democratic candidate in Ohio's 16th Congressional District, called for Attorney General Marc Dann to resign from office:

"I am outraged that the Attorney General of the state of Ohio has neglected the duty and honor of public service," Senator Boccieri said. "The cronyism and lack of attentiveness to protocol and detail in Attorney General Dann's hiring practices has led us to this tragic moment in Ohio's history. I feel for his wife Alyssa and his children, who must endure the embarrassment he has caused to them, and the people of the state of Ohio.

"We support the ongoing investigation to determine whether any criminal lines have been crossed. However, after combing through the sordid details of the investigation transcripts, it is clear that ethical and moral lines have been disregarded. For this reason, I call upon Marc Dann to resign immediately."