Steele Disses His President; Ehrlich Is An Environmentalist

Mr. Steele likes the money. So, he's happy to open his wallet when Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney come to town. But, now we are to believe that, despite their efforts to get him elected, Steele has NO CONNECTION to Bush and Cheney. No no, he's quite different really. He's signaling his independence by bashing No Child Left Behind. He's gone out on a limb and argued that maybe, just maybe, we should do something about genocide in Darfur. He has "talked" about withdrawal of troops from Iraq (no plan, just talk methinks).

He's so independent, in fact, that when Mr. Bush comes to town to raise a million dollars, Steele has to go all the way to Sin City, Las Vegas, Nevada to avoid him. Now, something strikes me as hilarious that the upright Mr. Steele is raising money in Nevada, home of a different sort of legalized prostitution, but that's not really the point.

As the Sun rather gingerly put it:

[W]ith his absence tonight, Steele is sending a signal to Maryland's overwhelmingly Democratic electorate that he will not move in lockstep with a Republican leadership that faces dwindling approval ratings and growing criticism from party members.

Not move in lockstep! Steele will positively flee cross-country! No pictures, please. But thanks for the cash, all the same.

But Michael and George will pose together next time, right? Well, according to Steele's spokesman, that's not clear either: "I don't know if the president is going to have any more events scheduled in Maryland." Personally, I'd check with the Secret Service - they tend to plan out when the President is coming to town.

In other news, we learn that Our Governor is an environmental guy:

"Governor Ehrlich fought for and signed into law the most far-reaching and ambitious air pollution controls in Maryland history," Fawell said. "The governor is a national leader in air- and water-quality improvement efforts."

Now, "fought for" surely has a very specialized meaning here: Ehrlich lobbied against this bill. So, his crowning environmental achievement appears to be the fact that he did not veto the thing. Kudos, Robert! Now, one wonders if you will find it appropriate to enforce the shiny new law.

In other, other news, more needs to be said about the city's victory in the litigation over the rate increase. Here's a link, at least.

Crossposted at Free State Comment