Although former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann is deserving of the Mahoning Valley's resentment for how he conducted himself in the second highest administrative office in the state — that conduct resulted in his resignation last week after a mere 16 months — he did perform a public service.

Because of the way Dann and members of his inner circle in the office, including Anthony Gutierrez and Leo Jennings III, behaved with other staff members, especially in public, the age-old tradition of "father-daughter"/"uncle-niece" intimate dinners at ritzy restaurants in downtown Columbus is now in the spotlight.

For the uninitiated, here’s what has been going on since time immemorial: You walk into one of the expensive restaurants (usually after 9 p.m.) and at a table you see a middle aged (or older), generally portly, slightly balding gent with a svelte blonde (aren’t they always?) half his age or younger. If you’re a man you glance quickly to acknowledge the conquest. If you’re a woman who isn’t svelte or young, you whisper to yourself, “Bastard!” You do not believe for a minute that he’s with his daughter or niece — even though that’s what the unspoken explanation for such coupling in the seat of state power has been for so long.

But now, with the sexual harassment scandal that has rocked the attorney general's office, camera phones will be clicking away in every restaurant where some mature officious looking individual is seeing in the company of a young woman who obviously did not come FROM his loins.

Indeed, given the attention that Dann et al have brought to such extracurricular activities, the population of Columbus and its envions may increase after married men ask their wives to join them in the state's capital if they're not from Franklin County.

So, if you're a looking for a reason to think kindly of Dann, Liberty Township resident, think of what he has done on behalf of the institution of marriage.