One thing Ohioans of both political stripes have to concede is Gov. Ted Strickland has a sure eye for the smart move.

A story from the AP says, smart for the state, maybe, but just as smart for Strickland.

Exhibit No 1: the governor's announcement Wednesday that he was tapping Ohio State University law school dean Nancy Hardin Rogers to clean up the scandal-plagued attorney general's office.

This news won Strickland all kinds of political points, starting with the obvious but not-to-be-underestimated coup of putting a woman in charge of fixing the mess former Attorney General Marc Dann left behind in the wake of an affair with a female subordinate.

In all the speculation that buzzed around the Statehouse as pundits tried to guess Strickland's pick, Rogers' name never came up.

Yet as soon as the governor introduced the dean, a consensus quickly echoed through the capital: "Brilliant. Why didn't I think of that?"

It's headache material for Republicans trying to find a chink in the governor's armor ahead of the 2010 election.