1 down. 1 to go.

Yesterday, Cathy Collins-Taylor lost round 1 in her fight to keep her job.

In a blow to the Strickland Administration, the Ohio Senate Criminal Justice Committee voted 5-4 to not recommend her for confirmation.

Next week she goes to the full Senate where she needs to somehow find a bunch of Republican votes if she wants to keep her job.

It will take a miracle.

And now we have even more questionable activity going on thanks to the testimony of Earl Mack. His copious note taking led him to testify about efforts within DPS to conspire against Inspector General Thomas Charles. A proper law enforcement probe would look for communication between DPS and the Governor's office to see if DPS did this on their own or under the direction of the 30th floor. The best smoking gun of truth is that Mack notified his chain of command and an investigation. That initiated an internal investigation. That said, the person of interest within DPS, Josh Engel, still has his job and his pay. That tells you they don't want to isolate Engel. Why? Because if he turns on them, it's over. It's amazing how many times one person starts a tide that takes down a cover-up. The media will want to see the investigation files on Engel following Public Safety's investigation. I'd say it's in DPS' best interest to do a good investigation or there will be new stories and new hearings that will drip, drip, drip into the fall.

Strickland needs to pray it all wraps up fast and nothing else comes out.

If so, the only question left is how badly this scandal will damage Strickland in November.