With DeWine, geographic handouts are critical

When the late Chuck Noll, the iconic coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers,  was once asked   why he called for an onside kick  that had failed in the team's loss, he crisply replied that winning football games do not depend on geography.

Ah, but Atty. General Mike DeWine,whose trained seals are in a defensive mode these days, do think geography is quite important in awarding debt collection work to companies with little or no experience in return for generous campaign contributions.

The AG's spokesman, Dan Tierney, put it in a way that only a few people could understand  by saying the winners of the lucrative debt collection business were picked on the basis of  "skills and geographic diversity," the Associated Press reported.

That odd explanation  described how DeWine's office chose Hudson businessman Pete  Spitalieri even though his newly formed company had no experience in such  work. The  only geographic relevance we could see in this mutated pay-to-play episode was Spitalieri's proximity to Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, who opened doors to DeWine's office to close the deal.