Under fire and in disgrace, Dann turns in resignation

Under fire and in disgrace, Dann turns in resignation

Marc Dann resigned as attorney general late Wednesday afternoon, but he ceded whatever sliver of authority he still had a day earlier when he first offered to resign in exchange for keeping the state inspector general out of his offices until he had a chance to vacate them.

We had shown ourselves willing to give Dann the benefit of the doubt, but now we have to wonder what Dann was afraid the inspector general would find.

We expect anyone facing the imminent loss of employment to attempt to negotiate the best possible terms of separation. Certainly a lawyer would do no less.

But it is intolerable for the attorney general of the state — Ohio’s highest law enforcement officer — to negotiate on the basis of short-circuiting an investigation.

Just 10 days ago, we were one of only two major newspapers in Ohio that didn’t call for Dann’s resignation in the immediate wake of an internal investigation by Ben Espy into misdeeds by Dann and his inner circle.

Our reluctance was founded in part on the concept that in the United States, the vote is a sacred trust — a right that Americans have fought and died to protect. As such, an elected official should not be forced from office on anything but a serious and clearly provable offense.

In a May 2 editorial board meeting, Dann explained many of the accusations against him to the satisfaction of a majority of the editors attending. We took Dann on his word that he had provided full disclosure of what went on in his office.

It is now safe to assume that Dann does not hold the honor of elective office and the sanctity of the vote in the same high esteem that we do. Further, Dann must know that he committed offenses that warrant his removal, if not by resignation, by impeachment.

Early call for inspector

Ironically, this newspaper called for the state inspector general to investigate Dann’s office more than a month ago. Several weeks were wasted on an internal investigation that — no matter how well-intentioned — was going to be limited in scope. Obviously, Dann was embarrassed by disclosures in that investigation, including his own extramarital affair and mismanagement of the office to the extent that three cronies and his girlfriend lost their jobs. But he didn’t exhibit fear until the General Assembly authorized the inspector general to step in and provided a $250,000 budget.

Marc Dann once played a key role in breaking the Republican grip on statewide offices. He doggedly pursued Thomas Noe, the central figure in Ohio’s $50 million Coingate scandal, and connected some of the dots between Noe and Republicans in Columbus. It was a strategy that helped the Democratic Party win statewide offices and that made Dann a surprise winner in the race for attorney general.

It also made him a marked man. If anyone had a reason to go to Columbus determined to run the cleanest, tightest office in the city, it should have been Dann. He didn’t, and now he has reaped the disgrace that he sowed through hubris, bad decisions, lack of discipline and moral laxity.

Ten days ago, we suggested that Dann’s decision to give jobs to people he thought he was helping but who failed him might cause him to adopt as a motto, “no good deed goes unpunished.”

Instead, he will have to live with a darker, less comforting verse from John Greenleaf Whittier:

For all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’”