The Toledo Blade's fantastic team of James Drew and Steve Eder report today on the possibility that Ohio's Republican Governor Robert Taft could be charged criminally.

Gov. Bob Taft could learn today whether he will face criminal charges for violating Ohio law by failing to report roughly 50 golf outings and other gifts on his ethics forms, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said yesterday.

Mr. O’Brien said prosecutors will meet today to review a report from the Ohio Ethics Commission identifying about 50 occasions when Mr. Taft might have broken the law, and they will “report what, if any, charges” are appropriate against the governor as early as today.
If prosecutors find wrongdoing, Mr. Taft would become Ohio’s first governor to be criminally charged.

Franklin County and Columbus city prosecutors yesterday received a hand-delivered report from the Ethics Commission, which last week concluded a two-month investigation into the governor’s alleged infractions. The inch-and-a-half thick investigative report includes a six-page letter summarizing the commission’s findings.

[...]

Mr. O’Brien, a Republican, said he and David Buchman, chief of his white-collar crime section, plan to meet today with Columbus City Attorney Richard Pfeiffer, a Democrat, and Lara Baker, his chief legal counsel, to review the investigative report.

They plan to determine if misdemeanor charges are in order, how many would be filed, and whether a plea agreement would be considered. Mr. Pfeiffer would handle any charges brought against the governor.

State law requires officeholders to list each source of gifts over $75. It is a first-degree misdemeanor to knowingly file a false ethics form, with a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.

Is there anyone who actually believes this won't open up a handful of Congressional races in Ohio, not to mention next year's Senatorial? That this won't hurt Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's shot at becoming Governor next year?