Whatever could she mean?
Monday, August 18th, 2008 By Mike Maurer
A solid piece from Julie Carr Smyth on the bumble-squared fiasco that erupted at the top levels of Ohio government earlier this year, when Attorney General Marc Dann bumbled his office administration and Ohio officials at all levels bumbled their response to it.
The problem, as Smyth’s piece develops, is that now the standard of government is “we’ll run around in a panic of self-interest whenever the press or anything else drives us to it.”
Seasoned observers may say it has always been so, but nonetheless, a government that is not based on law is beyond troublesome. It’s dangerous. Split, 5-4 and 4-3 decisions of high courts are a tremendous part of the problem, and so are incidents like the Dann scenario, where everyone concluded he should be hanged, they just were not quite sure for what, or when or, as far as the law goes, why.
Best line: “Lawmakers themselves, recognizing the historic moment, were nervous. Some, fearing Dann’s admitted affair with an employee would be cited, were petrified.”
Hmm. What were they petrified about? The potential for blue language?
Usually unspoken in all of this is the role played by the Clintons. Dann was only following Bill’s model of “Screw you, carry me out of office if you can.” Fortunately for the country, Obama drove a stake into the heart of that legacy (or so one can hope) and Dann didn’t realize that it works better when you’re president and people will force themselves into all sorts of contortions to prevent the evil enemy from winning, even when your guy is a clown. (All the Clinton defenders will here start spluttering about Bush, but really now, that’s the problem–else why isn’t Hillary the nominee?)
If there can’t be some nominal comity, if responsible people at all walks can’t step up and at least approximate a sense of rules that can be applied, there is deep, deep trouble afoot.
Tags: courts, General Assembly, marc dann, rule of law
