[UPDATED] Done with Dann

Drip, drip, drip....

From the Columbus Dispatch, we learn that Dann's scheduler, Jessica Utovich, had planned on attending a four-day conference in Turkey with Dann when his wife was unable to go.

The scheduler, 28-year-old Jessica Utovich, obtained a plane ticket to accompany 46-year-old Dann on a law-enforcement conference in Turkey last June 12-16, said Gary Vest, the Powell police chief who headed the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police at the time.

Utovich, who has been the subject of much speculation over her relationship with her boss, never made the trip, Vest said.

Vest said Utovich was having some difficulty obtaining a passport to make the trip and ultimately canceled. The police chiefs association -- which sprung for Dann's $1,425 in airfare – also bought Utovich's ticket, but Vest said he did not know whether she reimbursed the organization.

And, of course, the kicker:

Dann's office did not have any immediate comment today about Utovich's aborted plans to join her boss on the trip to Istanbul.

Of course, not.  Because how could you possibly explain why Dann's scheduler would need to attend an international conference with Dann?  In my experience, most schedulers don't actually attend the events they schedule for their boss.

[UPDATE:]  Schmennis pointed out in the comments, the Dayton Daily News story now has a response from the AG's office.  Yeah, I think silence was actually better.  The official line is that Utovich was planning to attend the trip with Dann until "senior staff killed the idea."  As to why she was going in the first place? She was going to "help the attorney general stay on schedule, stay on time" as well as keep in touch with the Columbus office, Hart said.  Because Dann can't call the Columbus office on his own?  He can't handle the time difference?  His schedule was so complicated that he couldn't follow the schedule of events at a conference?   What?

And if Dann has or ever had a romantic relationship with Utovich, how could he be so transparent as to have another organization pick up the tab for her flight so she could travel with him?

I'm really sick of this steady drumbeat of stories about the Attorney General's office and the general lack of any meaningful defense coming from his office.  It's reached critical mass that absent an amazing cascade of events that I cannot presently even imagine, I don't see how Dann can shake this any longer.  Dann's mismanagement has terminated any obligation we as a party had to be loyal to him or sit on the sidelines.  He has, through his own deliberate actions, brought embarassment to his office and his party.  And I no longer see any reason why I should support him, not even blind partisan loyalty is enough.

Yeah, I think I want to see a new Attorney General.  And, yes, Marc, it was you, not me.

(Dear Chris Redfern, and anyone else in the party's statewide leadership, please end this now.)