Power Corrupts

Power Corrupts

by Mark Luedtke

Everybody loves a sordid tale of sex and power, from Henry VIII and Louis XIV, to John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton. They're older than Alexander, and they didn't end with Mark Foley or Vincent Fossella. Sex scandals and abuse of power are as old as sex and power and as long as aristocrats rule the people, they'll continue.

We all know the adage that power corrupts, but as a society, we invariably pretend to be shocked when our professional politicians, American aristocrats no different than any other aristocrats throughout history, get caught in sex scandals. Maybe it's because we expect politicians to be smart enough not to get caught. It's certainly not because we expect them to be paragons of virtue. We know better. With very few, commendable exceptions, they're all doing it.

Our political system rewards people who thrive on wielding power over others, and it rewards corruption. As a result, Washington and our state capitals are corruption factories, where people like Eliot Spitzer and Newt Gingrich rise to the top and use the power of their positions for sex. It's human nature for people to wield power for personal gratification.

Marc Dann and Columbus are no different. What separates Marc Dann from most professional politicians is that he isn't smart enough to keep from getting caught.

We can't count on the press to report the affairs of our politicians because the press is in bed with them. Literally. Barbara Walters didn't report on the affair of Senator Edward Brooke. She had the affair with Senator Brooke. Marc Dann's wife was an award winning journalist, until she married Dann. Even if the reporter isn't the one sleeping with the politician, journalists get most of their news stories from politicians, so reporting on their affairs is like cutting off the hand that feeds them. They'll never get another scoop in their career. So reporters feign surprise.

Typically, one of the few, meaningful differences between Republicans and Democrats is how they handle scandals. Wanting to promote the appearance of moral superiority, Republicans tend to force scandalized Republicans to resign. Democrats tend to circle the wagons, protect their scandalized comrades, evening defending sexual predators like Gerry Studds, who took a 17 year old congressional page to Europe for sex.

According to formula, Republicans claimed the moral high ground in the Dann case, calling for him to resign and preparing for impeachment if Democrats fail to act. Dann performed all the standard apologies and genuflections, claiming human frailty, a Democrat needs to perform to win his second chance from other Democrats. But the interesting twist to the story is that Democrats are calling for Dann to resign or be impeached anyway.

Gov. Strickland captured the role of leading hypocrite. Strickland supported Bill Clinton when he did worse than Dann, including perjuring himself, and in return Hillary campaigned for Strickland in his hotly contested congressional race. But now Strickland leads the Democrats' charge to impeach Dann if he doesn't resign. Strickland changed his position on philandering because Democrats have to win Ohio to win the White House and he is on both Obama and Clinton's short list for vice-president. How he handles the Dann scandal could determine our next president and Strickland's future.

Neither party cares about right and wrong. It's just politics. Democrats understand that the only reason they're in power in Ohio is because the corruption of Republicans finally became too much to bear during Taft's tenure in office. But neither party has a leadership position on corruption, and Dann's predicament threatens to remind the people of that, so Democrats also want to claim the moral high ground by ousting Dann. The Ohio Democrat party is threatening to revoke its endorsement of Dann, leaving him isolated as an independent.

But Dann's desire to fight for his job puts Democrats between a rock and a hard place. If they don't impeach Dann, they'll lose the public's trust. If they do, every politician who has an affair amid accusations of sexual harassment will be subject to impeachment. That precedent would put them all at risk. And you can bet Marc Dann has dirt on many Columbus politicians. He has the resources as Attorney General to dig up all the dirt he wants, and he'll do anything to save his job. So after much blustering, Democrats' moderated their impeachment rhetoric with calls for a slow process and a thorough investigation. Democrats hope to delay dealing with the scandal until it fades away, but that puts them at odds with Strickland's desire for a decisive resolution. And Republicans would love to pick up the ball if Democrats drop it.

Regardless of the politics, Dann should lose his job. Marc Dann blasted Republicans for abuse of power during his campaign while fully intending to do the same when he got in office. He brought in cronies from Youngstown, including a mafia wannabe who bragged about mob connections in the office. The 3 of them set up a fraternity house in Dublin and treated the Attorney General's office as their personal hunting ground and the women in it as prey. Dann had a second chance to clean up his office every day, and he never did it. His vow to clean up his office now doesn't mean any more than his vows to his wife. The only thing Dann is sorry about is that he got caught. Gov. Strickland and Democrats everywhere are sorry he got caught too.