Dispatch gets it right on Frankie Coleman

From Sunday's editorial page:

Frankie Coleman has a long and distinguished employment history that made her eminently qualified for the position she held as assistant manager for work-force development in the Ohio Department of Development.

She also has a debilitating disease that has caused her to stumble mightily in recent years and now threatens the exemplary career she has built over more than 30 years.

I couldn’t have put it better myself. And although we already knew that, I applaud the Dispatch for coming to the rational conclusion that, while Coleman made mistakes, she suffers from a disease and certainly was not unqualified for the job.

Undoubtedly, the righties will continue their brazen assault on the issue, conveniently forgetting that at the first reports of possible wrongdoing, Gov. Strickland ordered an investigation. It was exactly the sort of action that would never have happened under a Republican administration. I’m sure some heads at RAB and ORP exploded when they read the Sunday paper.

There is no reason, however, to think they will change their tune. It only took two days after the IG report was released for the Franklin County Republican Party, one of the most inept county parties in the state, to display their ignorance of the legal system:

Brad Sinnott, chairman of the county GOP Central Committee, also said yesterday that he thinks the county prosecutor's office should determine whether felony perjury charges should be filed against Frankie L. Coleman.

"I think that the community, indeed the entire state, would feel better about the investigation if someone other than a prominent Democrat were in charge," Sinnott said.

The city attorney’s job is to decide only whether any misdemeanor charges are warranted. If a review for felony charges is necessary, the county prosecutor will do it as prescribed by law. Unfortunately, law is a very hard concept for a Republican.

What the FCRP should be more worried about is the fact that their carpetbagger mayoral wannabe continues to accuse Mayor Coleman of a felony despite the fact that the IG report expressly indicates that those charges are false. When Coleman chaired Strickland’s transition committee, he did not violate anti-nepotism laws because John Haseley, not the mayor himself, hired his wife on to the transition team.

At best, we can hope that this is a signal that the Dispatch will not even bother reporting on charges that the IG report declared untrue. Frankly, I can’t wait to see how the other side of aisle tries to spin this. Cue right wing noise machine in 5…4…3…2…1.