For weeks, Democratic activists and elected officials in this county have had plenty to say about Jimmy Dimora behind his back, but at the sight of a reporter, their own backs buckle.
Instead of saying publicly what they whisper privately — that the scandal swirling around Dimora has made him bad for the party and worse for the county — they sound like the enabling siblings of a brother they fear as much as they love.
http://www.cleveland.com/schultz/index.ssf/2009/06/cuyahoga_commissioner_dimora_c.html
It doesn’t matter that Dimora has so far escaped indictment. Federal agents raided his house. Recent documents make it clear that he is suspected of personally benefiting from public coffers, and sometimes at the expense of our poorest citizens.
Jimmy Dimora has lost his moral authority. Nobody with integrity trusts him anymore.
His fellow commissioners, Peter Lawson Jones and Tim Hagan, appear to be aging before our eyes as they attempt to rein in their colleague even a little. Last Thursday, Dimora scoffed at their request that he refrain from voting on public business until the federal investigation is resolved.
Dimora waits, and cronyism congeals. Longtime party insiders — County Prosecutor Bill Mason chief among them — see opportunity in Dimora’s demise and are already plotting to consolidate for themselves the kind of influence that has brought little good to this county.
The first few folks indicted have the opportunity to give up someone or something and plea bargain to a lighter sentence or better cell.....Last one indicted gets the full force of justice thrown at them....He’s just worried that he will be last...No one left to rat on.