Maybe Gov. O?Malley should stay inside this Halloween. Based on responses to my costume contest, the governor could end up with egg on his face. Readers portray him as every villain from Dracula to Jack the Ripper to the scariest ? Hillary Clinton.
Unfortunately for the governor, folks in Maryland do understand the monumental stupidity of his billion-dollar-plus tax hike. In dozens of entries and calls during WBAL?s “Ron Smith Show,” Marylanders show they aren?t as foolish as some politicians believe. They know the Free State is about to become the most expensive state for taxes. (We already rank 16th, according to the Tax Foundation. O?Malley wants us No. 1.)
Last week I urged readers to pick the ideal costume for O?Malley to run the special legislative session that started just two days before Halloween. It?s one big money grab to feed the state?s ever-growing liberal kleptocracy. Since we probably can?t stop the mega-theft of our daily bread, we have to make the politicos earn every morsel.
“O?Malley should dress as Attila the Hun (Hon??) and carry a book with the title ?It Takes a Pillage,? ” reads the first entry. You have to like that. Political commentary, sarcasm and multiple puns ? a reader after my own ? writing style.
By the third entry, themes start to emerge. Several readers see the obvious similarities between O?Malley?s march on Annapolis and Hillary Clinton?s drive on Washington. One entry suggests the ideal Hillary-esque outfit to go with the tax hike: “A black pantsuit. A pink silk blouse. A simple, yet elegant, pearl necklace.” Yep, that?s what the stylish tax-hikers are wearing this fall.
O?Malley?s critics certainly are a literary bunch. Readers dig deep into the classics and even mythology to skewer the governor as Pinocchio, Fagin, “the character in ?Oliver? [originally ?Oliver Twist?] who teaches the ?kids? (politicians) how to pick a pocket,” Napoleon the pig from “Animal Farm” and “a combination of the Grim Reaper and a leprechaun” called the “Grim Leprechaun.” (I would say “Green Reaper,” but I?m quibbling.)
History also is well represented. Aside from Attila and my own Jesse James comparison, we have one of the most appropriate entries ? mad King George III. “It truly fits: the increase in taxes, which inspired the American Revolution,” goes that entry.
But winner Barbara Gilmour?s entry is the first of several to suggest the most appropriate image of our musician-turned-governor ? Nero. Emperor Nero has gone down in popular history as a tyrant who fiddled while Rome burned around him.
I can?t recall if O?Malley plays the fiddle, but readers and callers alike make that easy connection. They envision the governor in a toga, guitar in hand, watching while Maryland?s economy goes up in smoke.
Gilmour unmasks O?Malley as a combination of a Roman emperor and John Belushi from “Animal House.” From hero to Nero in a few short months. I?d add zero, but at a minus of more than $1 billion, O?Malley doesn?t rate that high.
Dan Gainor can be seen each week on Thursday afternoons on the new Fox Business Network. He is the T. Boone Pickens free market fellow at the Media Research Center?s Business & Media Institute, a career journalist and media commentator. He can be reached at [email protected].
