David Paulson's Blog

Better late than never. Well, some folks think so anyway.

The truth is, last weekend’s program featuring talk radio host Bob Ehrlich was pretty much a yawner. There was a half hour of the latest Republican talking point: “Drill Here, Drill Now. Pay Less – Drill off the Coast of Ocean City or right smack-dab in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay – We Don’t Care” (I made that last part up. But nobody said anything against it, either. Why is it always someone else’s backyard or beach off in the distance that needs to get drilled for oil?).

As best as anyone can figure opening up all this drilling might worth a few pennies off a gallon of gas – in five years. All this time BIG OIL already owns drilling leases over about 68 million acres of American land and they aren’t touching it, for some reason.

“Yeah, I don’t do cowering.” - Sen. Barack Obama

I am far from alone as an advocate of aggressive rapid response in politics. When someone gets in your face with a lie or an attack, don’t retreat. Get in his.

Do it fast. Do it now. Don’t be shy. Don’t let an attack go unanswered.

If you take a swipe at me or mine, you should expect to get the same or worse, in return.

Uh, oh. Someone has their nose out of joint. Apparently, radio talk show host Bob Ehrlich is upset with “Part 1” from last week. So, he devoted about a third of the “talk time” during his most recent show on one of the issues raised.

Apparently he doesn’t mind me telling you that he took a $9,962.60 junket to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2001. Or, that it was paid for by a “let’s drill for oil” lobby group funded by the state of Alaska while he still had a vote in Congress. He gives every indication of being sincere about ANWR oil-drilling. He wants it bad. He says so each week.

Yeah, I know it’s not Monday. I was busy this weekend, Father’s Day and all.

But, we might just make this a weekly event. Each weekend, I’ll catch a former Republican Governor on the radio for you and provide the highlights and the corrections on Monday. Or, when I get around to it.

Mr. Robert L. Ehrlich is now getting himself some attention - keeping hope alive or something like that. He’s been known to wax poetic and be very kind to himself and his record (Aren’t we all.). He’s been known to treat the facts with something less than precision. He’s been known to take swipes at people for political gain, including me on a rare occasion.

Besides, this is just good political fun. I know we’ll all enjoy it. (Warning: KKK/Skinhead alert below.)

Hey, I love good spin anywhere I can find it. Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, Ron Paul – anywhere. In the marketplace of politics the good stuff is interesting and educational.

But the worst is usually a product of what psychologists call “transference.”  That’s sort of like when you’re covered in mud and start pointing a finger at the other guy shouting in horror: “Look everyone, he’s dirty.”

Shout long and loud enough and someone will even believe it.

Chicago humorist Finley Peter Dunne coined the phrase “Politics ain’t beanbag” long ago. But, sometimes in politics no matter what you throw, beanbags in the dirt are all you get.

We don’t know what type of nasty Karl Rove/Newt Gingrich campaign to expect from our local GOP candidates this year. It’s possible they’ll change course. It’s possible they’ll grow up. It’s possible a wacky out-of-state third party will choose not to spend $500,000 or more in October. It’s possible they won’t have the money to do what they want.

But if it’s true that past performance is the best predictor of future behavior, we can expect the worst.

There are two very nervous Maryland Republicans today. Two very conservative, Bush-loving guys who look at their “safe” Republican districts right now and wonder how they can rescue their campaigns in the face of some really bad news, worse trends and outright voter hostility.

Roscoe Bartlett (R–MD6) and Roscoe Bartlett Jr., otherwise known as Andy Harris (R–MD 1 Wannabe), are two peas in a pod; two bizarrely ineffective lawmakers devoted to all things right-wing and virtually anything George Bush.

They see themselves as ideological lightening rods; angry, bitter and more comfortable pointing fingers than doing the hard work of serving their constituents.

It is easy to whine, gripe, attack and predict disaster is at the doorstep. Having the courage to solve real problems is hard and sometimes costly. After all, there is always someone or some group ready, willing and able to do what's easy.

Governor Martin O'Malley and the Democratic leaders of the General Assembly had the courage to build a strong fiscal wall against the $1.7 billion structural deficit they inherited. They built that wall in the open; publicly announcing solutions and the reasons for them in a series of news conferences held across the state. Then, they made difficult decisions in a widely reported, praised and criticized Special Session.