Lima News calls Marc Dann offensive & dumb

From today's Lima News editorial:

We’re not sure an apology would mean much — it would only be an empty gesture — but Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann definitely should start thinking before hitting the send button. Dann has sent some questionable (and some outright stupid) e-mails during his first 10 months as the state’s top lawyer, The Dayton Daily News reported. The printed e-mails all show questionable judgment, but one stood out for its religious offensiveness.

According to The Dayton Daily News, “Dann, who is Jewish, e-mailed (Communications Director Leo) Jennings on April 6 about an editorial that ran in his hometown paper, The (Youngstown) Vindicator: ‘Bentley said there are six nasty posts after the Vindy editorial. All about you. Jesus had it better on good friday.’”

Dann told the newspaper he stays away from religious jokes, so he would be surprised about writing that. But it is there in black and white, and it fits in with other catty comments. Still, critics zeroed in on the Good Friday reference: The Akron-based Ohio Christian Alliance called on Dann to apologize for the remark, as did the Ohio Republican Party.

But Dann also used an expletive in an e-mail to describe a Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation agent and his supervisors. Jennings wrote in an e-mail to Dann that a speech the attorney general was to give “… is a total bj for the trial lawyers.” Poorly chosen comments appear to be standard operating procedure for Dann. Still, we doubt Dann would have any genuine remorse for one of many poorly chosen wisecracks, so what would be the point in offering an apology?

One does expect better from the attorney general and his staff. Dann owes it to Ohioans to add some maturity to his communications. To put it in a way he and his staff might better understand, crude and religiously offensive e-mails don’t make people very :-)