For 6 years I've covered the statehouse for ONN tv --and now i get to tell you --the rest of the video story.

The TV Tidbits, the extra moments, the observations that don't make air.

Thanks for jumping into the political blogging fray with me!

Dan

May 7, 08

I thought 2004 was crazy .. but 4 years later .. I wonder if it's possibly déjà vu all over again.

Or perhaps, some statehouse reporters were asking themselves in the last few days .. is it Noe redux .. maybe even Taft light?

However you see it, the Ohio political climate took a turn to the unusual this week as statewide Democrats and separately, statewide Republicans agreed on the ouster of the Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann -- a Democrat. Problem for them --Dann thumbed his nose at the idea.

Hop on board, politicos--the summer tilt-a-wheel ride is a turnin' again.

On Monday, I stood there, with microphone in hand on the steps of the statehouse, listening to Governor Strickland wax on about the reasoning to his call for Dann's resignation.

Normally a statewide politician does not exhaust a group of reporter's ability to ask questions --but Strickland routinely does --and seems to enjoy it. He even encouraged the hoard of cameras and reporters to "be kind to each other" as we initially crushed in to stick the microphone or digital recorders in his face.

But is this Dann scandal really a similar craziness that Ohio saw during the '04 presidential race? Or to the ethics scandal prominent in the Gubernatorial race of '06?

On Tuesday, TV crews flocked again to the statehouse, hoping the house session would generate an update on the impeachment proceedings. It did not.

A somewhat bewildered national Fox crew following around House Representative Josh Mandel wondered what was going on. The Fox crew (from DC, i think) had been embedded with Mandel as he served a tour of duty overseas and was shooting his return to the House as a civilian. Welcome to Ohio politics, boys! Flac jackets, optional