Opinion

More from PolitickerMD.com:

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• Dixon: 'I wasn't the mayor then.'

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.

Consider this piece to be my no confidence vote in Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson (D). OK, to be fair, I never had confidence in Johnson in the six years he has been county executive. Thankfully for the first two years of his era, I lived on the Anne Arundel side of Laurel.

First let me discuss the main reasons that he was elected. In 2002, he was elected on his campaign to root out police corruption, in addition to being in a very crowded field to succeed Wayne Curry (D). Candidates that year included council member Jim Estepp, former delegate the Rev. C. Anthony Muse and then-delegate Rushern Baker III. Two years ago, Johnson won by running (literally) from Baker.

If you take a historical look at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s upgrade of the First district’s Frank Kratovil to their Red-to-Blue program two weeks ago, you may find yourself asking, ‘Why?’

Because outside of a self-funder or war hero, rookie candidates in red districts don’t get this kind of national attention.

There seems to be a positive correlation between oil prices and Rep. Roscoe Bartlett's popularity among conservatives.

“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.

There are increased efforts afoot to push the Senate Democrat Steering Committee, of which Barbara Mikulski is a member, to strip Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman of his committee assignments for his recent transgressions against the party that nominated him for vice president in 2000.

Yet it's unlikely to expect an action like that until the Senatorial math expands their majority, so what are vexed Dems supposed to do about it?

Simple: have other members of the caucus push Lieberman out of the hawkish-defender-of-Israel Democrat role that he has fashioned for himself.

Perhaps this is one of those situations where there is enough blame to go around.

First here is what we know. We know that Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon (D) is being investigated into whether or not she received gifts for approving city incentives that favor developers. In particular is developer Ronald Lipscomb. Lipscomb and Dixon, who were separated from their respective spouses for quite sometime, acknowledged that they had a personal relationship between 2003 and 2004. During the course of the relationship, they had spent a lot of time traveling and a lot of time shopping. Those shopping strips involved dropping a lot of money in a single store. Also a fact is that Dixon did not make full disclosures when she filed her ethics reports. This is where I begin.

Comptroller Peter Franchot was an early and fierce opponent of the fall special-session's tech tax, advocating and then celebrating its repeal.

But now that the Board of Public Works finally got around to cutting spending due to the lost revenue, Franchot's complaining about the hastiness of the process.

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.