COLUMBUS - In 11 months, Ohio's tough-minded new attorney general has taken on the nation's largest insurance brokerage, the mortgage lending industry, student loan providers, the big three credit rating agencies and MySpace - to name a few.
And this aggressive approach by Marc Dann, a 45-year-old Democrat who burst on the state political scene only four years ago, has not stopped at the courtroom door.
Brash hiring decisions - including a driver who once pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter - a sharp tongue and jarring political shifts have also become staples of Dann's tenure.
A surprise winner over a seasoned officeholder, Dann was among Democrats whose election to statewide office last year ended Republican domination in the state that gave President Bush a second term. Now Republicans view him as his party's Achilles heel.
http://zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071209/N...
AND
YOUNGSTOWN — Attorney General Marc Dann described an employee as "weird," questioned if two others "have any feel for the human side" of the impact of predatory lending victims, and used expletives regarding his office's computer system.
Dann, a Liberty Democrat, also has a "Google alert" system on his private Yahoo! account that e-mails him anytime his name is mentioned on a blog.
These are some of the tidbits culled from more than 60 e-mails sent to and from Dann's private Yahoo! account, primarily to and from Ed Simpson, his chief of administration and policy.
---
Simpson expressed his dismay at the conduct of Jeanne Johns, the office's chief deputy of public protection, at a May event in Toledo.
"The only problem was Jeanne jumping off the reservation," Simpson wrote to Dann. "It really is disconcerting to have a member of the senior staff complain in front of a bunch of union members about our time-keeping system. Jeez."
----
http://www.vindy.com/content/local_regional/290480177859905.php
Where's the beef? In the previous administration, we had Taft sit there right in front of the Blockade reporter (figuratively speaking) and openly lambast the Blockade for questioning the entire Tom Noe "rare coin" investment. Talk about institutionalized corruption!
So we're supposed to think now something's wrong with Marc Dann due to some truly inconsequential minutiae of his administration? Should we install methane detectors in his office just in case he's farting too much?
I don't mind the reporting here, but I am going to yawn HUGELY as a result. There's no news here, and if Ohio's Atty Gen IS corrupt, I'd want to be the first to know.
Reporters in Ohio should be spending a little more time on matters of greater consequence, too, like the upcoming plunge in tax revenue due to falls in home values, and how all levels of government had simply expanded to occupy the increased revenue from the false growth, etc. THERE is a big nut that reporters should be spending more time cracking!
it just sounds like he's a really interesting guy