The day after last week?s primary, Lt. Gov. Michael Steele wrote Rep. Ben Cardin and Green Party candidate Kevin Zeese, suggesting a series of debates. Steele didn?t get a response until Cardin e-mailed a letter suggesting he and Steele ? but not Zeese ? debate Social Security issues Thursday, and then meet twice a week after that.
Now Cardin and the Democratic Party are saying Steele “ducked” Thursday?s debate, which he never agreed to attend. Steele and Cardin have agreed to appear on NBC?s “Meet the Press” Oct. 29.
Listening or Ducking?
Steele may not be ducking Cardin as he?s tooling about in his “Wheels for Change” RV “listening to voters.” Listening to reporters is another thing. After an event, Cardin will hang around talking to the press corps until the questions run dry. At Steele events, a campaign flack usually tells the media there will be only “one or two questions.” This sometimes stretches into four or five, and then Steele scoots out the side door or into his RV.
He did some listening in Ellicott City Tuesday, mainly chit-chat with shop owners on Main Street, where Steele bought two pair of the antique cufflinks he collects. One was a 1950s flashy cut-glass job, like a pair he broke a while back, and another set was made from “tiger?s eye” ? a silky brown gemstone with bands of gold. “Eye of the tiger,” Steele called it. “Don?t you think that?s appropriate?”
That Doesn?t Take the Cake
Comptroller William Donald Schaefer wasn?t even aware that Ehrlich?s staff was about to present him with a cake at Wednesday?s Board of Public Works meeting. But after the cantankerous Schaefer began ripping into Ehrlich and his staff over the inept handling of the voting process, the cake disappeared.
Told about the gift cake as he was leaving the State House, Schaefer, who had previously accepted cakes from Ehrlich and the first lady, said he didn?t want any more cake, and the governor could “shove it,” describing how he might go about doing that. Then he trundled off toward his office, grumbling an unprintable slur.
Political Football
Got $500 spare cash? As the season kicks off, you can get your very own “regulation-sized NFL football” personally autographed by the gov. himself, who played the game at Princeton and coached it at Wake Forest during law school.
With millions already in the coffer, don?t be fooled that your contribution won?t make a difference, Team Ehrlich pleads. “Our well-financed opponent and his liberal puppeteers [Senate President Mike Miller and Speaker Mike Busch] in Annapolis will stop at nothing to defeat us.”
Len Lazarick is the state house bureau chief of The Examiner. He can be reached at [email protected]
