The Toledo Blade has his resignation speech here. What is great fun is that Dann still takes the time to attack so-called “predatory” lenders and pay-to-play politics in the Attorney General’s office. The speech is only about 2 minutes long, and I bet it is probably the worst 2 minutes of his life…. and he richly deserves that.

From The Dispatch:

In the end, the “culture of corruption” in state government that Marc Dann battled so fiercely to become attorney general consumed him, too.

It cost him his job, his reputation and probably his political career.

Dann, a Democrat elected in 2006, resigned yesterday, 51/2 weeks after The Dispatch published the first story about sexual-harassment complaints in his office and hours after Inspector General Thomas P. Charles and a dozen investigators raided attorney general’s offices in Columbus and Youngstown. They seized equipment, including the Blackberries of Dann and other top officials, as well as computers and numerous documents.

Authorities are expected to form a multijurisdiction task force to issue subpoenas, interview witnesses and gather evidence in the probe of Dann’s operation. The team will be similar to the one that probed wrongdoing in the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation — which led to Dann’s attack on the “culture of corruption.”

And the fun started yesterday when Dann’s spokesman claimed they never called a press conference, but all the reporters showed up anyway just in time to watch carts of computers being seized and carried off for the investigation. From The Toledo Blade:

Troopers closely watched the Rhodes Tower elevators leading to Mr. Dann’s office, checking identification of employees, but they insisted they weren’t preventing people from coming and going.

“[The inspector general’s people] are here,” said attorney general spokesman Jim Gravelle. “Exactly what they’re doing, I don’t know. They are talking to people on the floor, very casually I would say.”

Mr. Gravelle, early Wednesday, shot down a report that Mr. Dann planned to make a statement. A horde of reporters arrived at the attorney general’s office for a statement that never came.

“We did not call a press conference,” said Mr. Gravelle. “I don’t expect a statement from the attorney general.”

James Renner over at the far-left Cleveland Free Times gives us the details about Marc’s affair from 1988:

Her name is Charlanne Morris-Graham, and back in 1988, when she claims she had an affair with Marc Dann, she was a manager for Charlie Brown’s re-election campaign in Wetzel County, West Virginia. Brown was West Virginia’s AG, and Dann was one of his assistant prosecutors — and also a campaign manager, himself.[...]

They took tours of historic Wheeling. They took a carraige ride through Oglebee Park. They went to jazz clubs. He met her father. And eventually, the relationship became intimate. “I was thinking this guy was going to amount to something in my life,” Says Morris-Graham. “He seemed like a decent guy. He was thinner. He doesn’t look like it, but he could be very suave. He made you feel like the most important person in the room. He told you that you looked nice. He had a way of looking at you that made you feel special.”

And the media picks up on the irony of Tom Winters running the AG’s office:

Mr. Dann’s first assistant, Thomas Winters, will head the attorney general’s office until Mr. Strickland decides whether he will exercise his authority to appoint a replacement going into a special election on Nov. 4.

Ironically, Mr. Winters, a former lobbyist, once counted former Toledo-area coin dealer and GOP fund-raiser Tom Noe as a client. Noe hired Mr. Winters, a Democrat, in the late 1980s to convince the legislature to exempt investment coins and bullion purchases from the state’s sales tax.

Years later, Noe was convicted of stealing from two rare-coin investments he operated for the state Bureau of Workers’ Compensation during Republican Gov. Bob Taft’s administration. Perhaps more than any other successful Democrat in 2006, Mr. Dann rode that scandal into office, beating former Republican Betty Montgomery, a former attorney general and Wood County prosecutor.

And according to the Vindicator, disgraced Dann, Ohio’s former Attorney General, arrived home at 8:15pm:

Dann returned to his Liberty home around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday. He eluded reporters and photographers awaiting his arrival. A short time later, his wife, Alyssa Lenhoff Dann, a former newspaper reporter, brought out a hand-written note that read: “Dear Reporters, I feel very inhospitable by not asking you to come in and get out of the rain. But this a night we really need as a family.

“Marc is home, and I am sure that at some point he may be inclined to talk with you. But not tonight, and I’m truly sorry that we can’t be more cooperative. Please know that we understand that you are only doing your jobs. Thank you for respecting our privacy tonight.”

It will be interesting to see what becomes of the investigation, as Dann may be facing prison time.