Marc Dann's Affair Proves Me Wrong

Last week I took the Vindicator to task for its coverage of the sexual harassment allegations in the Ohio Attorney General's office. I criticized them for the "Under Fire" banner that hung on the top of their web page and said it was salacious. I also criticized Bertram de Souza's column in which he gave Dann a big old "I told you so" for hiring friends Anthony Gutierrez and Leo Jennings. In this criticism, I was wrong.

With today's admission by Attorney General Marc Dann that he was involved in a romantic relationship with a subordinate in his office, he has demonstrated that it was he, not the Vindicator that made the story salacious. I was too quick to jump to the conclusion that only Gutierrez had acted inappropriately and that Dann, being a Mahoning Valley boy, was worthy of the benefit of the doubt. Bertram de Souza was not inclined to do the same. Today, Marc Dann proved me wrong and showed that the Vindicator and newspapers like the Columbus Dispatch were doing the correct thing in chasing this story even when it seemed like there was nothing of substance to report.

Dann's reputation and his fight to investigate Republican donor Tom Noe gave me hope that the era of bad government was behind the Mahoning Valley. It was good to see the rest of the state vote for a hometown guy and put one of our own in a powerful state office. It was redemption that all the years spent cleaning up the area's unethical government was paying off.

Now we're here, in the middle of a scandal, where we have been so many times before. The feeling is so familiar that it has a sense of inevitability about it. "What did you expect?", people will ask, "Look where he's from."

There was a New York Times article last year that favorably compared Marc Dann to Eliot Spitzer as a fellow crusading state's attorney general. It's eerie how their careers paralleled each other in accomplishments as well as failures. All that is left now is for Dann to resign and he should do so quickly.

Vindicator Coverage of Attorney General Issue is Uneven

As a subscriber to the Vindicator and a frequent user of information from the paper, I have to question the recent coverage of the sexual harrassment scandal at the Attorney General's office. Readers have endured uneven coverage of an issue that may end up being much ado about nothing and a lot of chest thumping by Bertram de Souza.

The "scandal" started out with the usual salacious ingredients. It has older men in charge seemingly taking advantage of young, attractive women subordinates. There was drinking, a wrecked state vehicle, emails that would not be released and a setting right out of "Animal House"

But did anything of substance occur?

From the charges filed by the victims, it appears that Director of General Services Anthony Gutierrez is one of those icky bosses that needs to be reigned in by a good human resources manager once a complaint has been filed. Of course, filing a complaint is easier if you don't go out for drinks with the guy like the supposed victim did. The situation gets even sketchier when the AG himself invites both parties over for pizza and they accept, then take a nap. Not that I'm blaming the victim but everyone needs to take responsibility for their actions.

Once this ball started rolling, the Vindy sent its number one political gunslinger, de Souza, to score some good shots. His scathing criticism in a front page editorial boiled down to him saying that he had been right all along, and that Dann should never have hired old friends like Gutierrez and Leo Jennings to run top spots in the AG office. A glorified "I told you so" is pretty poor top-of-the-fold headline material.

So, it seems like we're left with sexual harrassment charges the Columbus police won't press, emails that contain more silliness and made up drama than a reality TV show and a guy who may or may not have been a creepy boss who still hasn't explained the damage to his state owned car.

So I'm left pleading with the Vindicator; There is either a story here or there isn't. If something occurred, please investigate. If you find something, please tell us. If that something doesn't deserve a salacious banner on the front page of your website, please take it down.

Oh, and speaking of that salacious banner on your website, the Attorney General spells his name with a "C" not a "K".