The recall "myth"

After reading today's Cleveland Plain Dealer and Thomas Suddes article over the weekend, the Plain Dealer apparently is on a campaign to try to be the smartest kid in the class and act like it's the only one who knows how to solve the Marc Dann problem.

Today's editorial reeks of hypocracy by the PD.  For all the newspaper's bluster about how Dann called the Democrats bluff and its sanctimonious finger-wagging at Governor Strickland for letting "their rhetoric outrun the reality,"you'd almost forget that one of the other impotent parties to Dann calling people's bluff is also the Plain Dealer, who Dann ignored their calls to resign (which the PD made within days of Dann's press coverage and BEFORE Strickland said if Dann would not leave willingly, he should be removed).  While the PD applauds the deliberative efforts of the House Republicans, they seem to completely ignore the fact that the House GOP is deliberating over something that it politically did not want to touch.  They were more than happy to call for the IG to investigate Dann so long as it provided campaign fodder but didn't actually remove Dann from the scene.  It was the move by Strickland, Redfern, and the rest of the Democratic statewide leadership that has forced the GOP to deliberate something it politically did not want to consider.

Second, the Plain Dealer claims that recall, and not impeachment, is an easier way to go.  Yet the PD has presented nobody who is experienced or knowledgeable about impeachment and recall to say that is true.  In fact, as many of the advocates of impeachment such as myself have pointed out, recall in Ohio requires a judicial trial in which it must be proven that the public offficial committed an act that under the recall statute is grounds for the official's removal.  Those grounds are the same, historically, as the grounds for impeachment.

Let me say that again.  The standard for recalling public officials is the same as impeachment.  In fact, the bar may even be higher.  And if Suddes and the Plain Dealer believes a petition gathering process followed by a trial is going to move faster than impeachment, I'd like to know what they are smoking.  There's absolutely no basis to believe that Dann could be removed "easier" by recall rather than impeachment.  It's a myth.

And, one of the first legal issues to deal with in such a trial is whether the recall provisions of the Ohio Revised Code applies to statewide officials.  At least one prominent Ohio election law expert has said no. (HT: Marwood, a commenter over at Jill's WLST.)

If someone wants to tell me how getting 600,000 signatures in order to start a recall trial is somehow more fair and quicker than impeachment, I'm all ears.  All I'm saying is that I don't see any difference between the standard for impeachment or recall, and I'm not convinced that the process of gathering and then certifying over 600,000 only to open up a case for trial is any quicker than impeachment looks like it is going.