My take on the (Baltimore mayor) Martin O'Malley (twin) flaps

[Stinky The Clown]

Flap number one: A top aid to MD Guv NaziBob Ehrlich admits to using Freeperville to start and spread infidelity rumors about O'Malley.

Flap number two: O'Malley rails on Chimpus Khan about his stiffing cities out of fed funding, terming the action as bad an attack on cities as was 9/11.

Here's how I see this. O'Malley (and probably other people in other states) is a Dem with balls and a real potential for future greatness. No sure thing, mind you, but a definite possibility. Like in 2016, maybe. he's 42 and a real star.

So .... the GOP Dirty Tricksters From Roveland paint a target on his young ass. And they go after him. In any way, shape, or form. Even while they go after Pelosi or Reid or Dean or Clark or Boxer or ???? with their first team, they go after the future stars with the second team.

The guy who posted the original rumor to FR is a guy named Joseph Steffan, formerly of the National Conservative Political Action Committee, and until yesterday a $75K aid to NaziBob. Tell me he's not a professional hit man-in-training.

So ..... O'Malley gets slimeballed. But he also says something over the top that the right could latch onto (Bush is a 9/11-like city destroyer). But, given the timing of the revelations, it appears O'Malley's teflon jacket will continue to be operative. Meanwhile, NaziBob looks bad.

But ...... at the core of it all, I honestly believe there's a coordinated effort from the right to decapitate the Dem rising stars before they go on to anything with national visibility.

Fore warned is fore armed

[hector459]

1. Hey, you've said it all. That's why we have to support our rising stars

by being vigilant and giving them props when they stand up against the power structure. We also have to help them be "smart" and not give the opposition any ammunition. I really didn't find anything wrong with what O'Malley said because it was true (hyperbole) but true. But knowing how the Freepers think, he should have known this would be the rallying point and a way to re-focus and re-define events surrounding him. The real issue, though, is that the aid to NaziBob has admitted spreading lies and has admitted to seeking out Dems to fire from their state jobs is they speak against Bush in any way. That being said, you summed it up nicely.

[Old and In the Way]

2. Used to be assassination by bullet.

But character assassination works just as effectively. So we end up with people running our government who use these tactics. Is it any wonder why this country is so messed up today?

[pamela]

3. O'Malley is definitely a rising star.

I was so pissed when the Democratic Party pushed him out of the Governer's race in favor of Kathleen Townsend. He would have beaten Erlich easily. Even my semi-republican sister loves O'Malley.

I'll bet the smear campaign goes higher than Erlich. I think O'Malley scares the right-wingers at the National level because he's outspoken, down-to-earth, attractive and very likeable. He has a lovely wife and adorable kids so it's particularly reprehensible that the pukes tried to hurt them by spreading rumors at the children's schools. I think this is backfiring on them big-time, though. O'Malley's getting national recognition and Marylanders are pretty disgusted with Erlich's dirty tactics.

[Shredr]

4. You're so right

It's frightening to think, but they're actually targeting young rising Dem. Thanks for the eye-opener.