Troopergate: It's Everywhere!

Speaking of the Strickland attacks on the Inspector General as detailed in the post below, a column in the Akron Beacon Journal on Sunday called out the Democrats and their shameful efforts.

[Democrats] hardly seem bothered by the coincidence they are peddling: For all these years, Charles performs well, and now that he has found failings in the the Strickland operation . . . he's suddenly reckless and off-base.

Imagine how loudly Democrats would laugh if Republicans pitched such thinking.

What did Charles find exactly?

For starters, the inspector general himself kept his distance. His wife is a Highway Patrol captain. His staff took the lead, Charles overseeing and signing the final report.

[...]

In short order, Cathy Collins-Taylor put the kibosh on the operation. She argues she didn't make the final call. Yet the trail of e-mail messages and the testimony of others lead persuasively back to her. Thus, the inspector general found that she did not tell the truth.

Why not just admit the decision was yours? The Highway Patrol falls under her command. Collins-Taylor performs in Clintonesque fashion to evade the impression that she meddled to protect the image of the governor.

One claim for halting the sting is that the operation raised security concerns, the prisoners possibly conveying a gun, or knife or even a grenade or bomb, as one witness put it (absurdly). Yet Collins-Taylor and others have stressed the contraband almost surely was tobacco. More, officials let safety slip long before — in their conduct of the prisoner program.

[...]

Why such an adversarial process? After all, Collins-Taylor and the inspector general both work for the public. A director of public safety should grasp the importance of cooperating fully with the inspector general.

As it is, Collins-Taylor has yet to be confirmed by the state Senate. Spare the governor embarrassment? Now would be the appropriate moment.

The calls for Collins-Taylor to resign grow louder and louder.

And the court of public opinion is quickly turning against the Strickland Administration.

But we all know Strickland won't budge in his defense of his Director of Public Safety. After all, her husband, a power player in the FOP, most assuredly would punish Strickland if he failed to support her. And Ted doesn't want to lose that endorsement.

Fortunately, the Governor's ineptitude has saved him this time. Because he forgot to send Collins-Taylor to the Senate for approval, she still needs to go through the confirmation process. Clearly, the GOP run Senate can't allow someone like this to continue serving the public. And now Governor Strickland doesn't have to be the bad guy.

Funny how things work out.

The question is whether the press will let him get away with it.