As I wrote last time, I can not find anyone who will admit to voting for AND supporting Maryland O’Governor Martin O’Malley and his actions in office, namely his ramrodding a tax hike through a special session of the legislature with the help of his two goons over there.
Now, the increasingly shitty local fishwrap has taken a series of polls and has discovered that O’Gov has an approval rating almost as low as George Bush’s, there is no clear front runner in either party for state presidential primaries, and that a majority of those polled wish to keep the death penalty in Maryland, which O’Gov is a huge opponent of and which he couldn’t say fast enough that it should be banned here immediately after it was banned in New Jersey (I like how the article’s subhead tells how many want to do away with the death penalty rather than how many want to keep it, which is what the story is about).
People can say what they will, but the previous governor, who was the first republican governor in a generation, never dropped below 50% in his approval ratings, and I will say this forever: the only reason he was ineffective in his job was because he couldn’t even get the legislature to bring his ideas up for debate (Exhibit A: slots, which wasn’t approved in the special session, but was brought up for debate and which is going to a statewide referendum; the last governor couldn’t get the issue to even be talked about for four years unless he was willing to tie slots with a tax increase, which he wouldn’t do). He was stonewalled at every turn. Now that there’s a governor in office to get stuff done, it turns out that his getting stuff done is driving people to consider moving out of state.
In other news, here are some recent headlines regarding O’Gov:
O’Malley vows UM tuition freeze
O’Malley to offer energy package
O’Malley wants to expand DNA testing
O’Malley plays down prospect of more cuts [NOTE: Budget cuts totaled $200-300 million; new taxes are bringing in $1.5 billion. $5 says the state magically comes up with hundreds of millions in budget surplus and that money will buy off all the stupid voters in this state just in time for him to be re-elected. Dumbfucks.]
What is the common denominator with all those headlines? That each one of those proposals will cost a fortune. But we just suffered a massive tax increase to close a supposedly huge budget deficit. So where will the money come from to pay for all this stuff? And this is our new day in Maryland.
DISCLAIMER: I hate using polls and statistics as ways to make points because either can be massaged to say whatever those polling or compiling want them to say. However, if The Sun — O’Gov O’Malley’s personal P.R. rag — can’t skew numbers in a way to make the O’Gov look good he’s probably even more out of touch with his constituency than the fishwrap is reporting.
DISCLAIMER: I personally believe in the death penalty, but I can appreciate the arguments of those who don’t and can understand why they believe the way they do about it. The death penalty issue in Maryland where the O’Gov doesn’t want it and the populace does just helps show that people who voted for him thinking he was looking out for their interests are morons.
I voted for that douchebag and I want my vote back.
No, Ehrlich just sucked, too. He was governor of a Democratic-controlled Congress and state, yet acted like he wasn’t. He deserved what he got. I called his office and he was totally unresponsive, so it wasn’t just about Dem blocking.
I’m withholding judgement on O’Malley, who I haven’t been a fan of for years, but want to see about these taxes, whether they’re needed or not. But I’m not embarassed to say I voted for him (nor do I know anyone who is, by the way).
Forgot to say: good job with the headlines, though! The Sun does, indeed, suck.
epiph: If even a dyed-in-the-wool lib like yourself is taking a wait and see approach with O’Gov, I think that shows even more conclusively how bad he put us over a barrel.