Rapid Response: Maryland politics, the First Amendment, and Ehrlich.

[madfloridian]

http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/006010.html
Rapid Response: Maryland politics, the First Amendment and "the Prince of Darkness"

SNIP..."Commenting on last week's court ruling upholding Maryland Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich's right to ban state employees from speaking to two specific Baltimore Sun reporters, Editor Tim Franklin said ominously "If any citizen was not paying attention before, I hope they're paying attention now."

The Sun sued Ehrlich, on the grounds that his ban discourages "speech by any citizen of Maryland who disagrees with the Governor." The Governor candidly admitted that in issuing the ban he intended to have a chilling effect. Franklin, called the ruling "scary:"

"Essentially, what the court is saying is that it's OK for a politician to create an enemies list... We're going to fight this.... It's not only unconstitutional, it's undemocratic."
This ruling occurs in an even more disturbing context. Just the week before, Governor Ehrlich was forced to fire longtime staffer Joseph Steffan after Steffan was caught spreading false rumors about Baltimore's Democratic Mayor Martin O'Malley, a possible opponent for Ehrlich's seat. Ehrlich desperately tried to create distance between himself and Steffan, calling him just one of 50,000 state employees. Turns out that Steffan was actually "Ehrlich's Lee Atwater:"

"When the man who described himself as "the Prince of Darkness" arrived at the Maryland Department of Human Resources two years ago and placed a Grim Reaper figurine on his desk, longtime employees were baffled. Though Joseph Steffen had no apparent role in the agency, he would attend meetings, conduct interviews with employees and make extensive notes on a legal pad. Then they started getting fired. "We realized he pretty much was targeting people... who weren't loyal to the governor."

—Liz Herbert
Pay attention. Speak up. Join Rapid Response.
(other embedded links at the blog.)

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.ban15feb15,1,1907434.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

Link to find contact info for your local paper:
http://www.capwiz.com/lwv/dbq/media/

[madfloridian]

1. A kick for the Baltimore Sun and First Amendment.

:kick:

[hootinholler]

2. Kick from a pissed off maryander

[KoKo]

4. How did Erlich even get elected. I thought Maryland was Dem..

Was it some kind of Redistricting or Gerrymandering by the Repugs? :shrug:

[ZombieNixon]

5. He barely won.

1) Kathleen Kennedy Townsend ran a rotten campaign.
2) Fmr. Gov. Paris Glendenning (D-Townsend was his Lt. Gov.) was all wrapped up in scandal by the end of his term.
3) Ehrlich chose an African-American as his running mate, which siphoned off some of the AA vote.

[KoKo]

7. Thanks....now I remember the whole Townsend thing...It was a

messed up campaign. I had forgotten in all the Bush crap...my mind can only handle so much bad news before it starts to rewrite the hard drive..:D

Hopefully Erlich has angered enough folks, you'll get him out.

[ZombieNixon]

8. I won't be one to get him out.

I don't live there anymore, but I still pay attention to the political scene there. All the Glendenning crap was surfacing at about the same time as my political awareness, just as I was getting ready to leave MD (about age 10). Here's to a Dem governor in MD! :toast:

[tom_paine]

3. Sounds like Bushevikls at all levels are Sovietizing

You think the Soviet version of Steffan was more scary? Probably, but only because the Soviet Steffan had the power to Gulag.

Poor Steffan. If he wanted to Gulag Enemies he should have been born 50 years later. Imperial Amerika 2050 will likely be quite welcoming to, shall we say, "more direct methods of persuasion" than today, wheer roughly two-thirds of the people alive still have memories of a Free America.

[madfloridian]

6. "a clear case of a government official retaliating against people "

SNIP...'We believe that this is a clear case of a government official retaliating against people based on what they write and say, and in a democracy, where government should be transparent, that is a very troubling thing," Franklin said."