Oh, did you hear Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley use the phrase “Republican obstructionism” on his recent “Face the Nation” appearance?
What exactly does O’Malley mean by “Republican obstructionism”? Why, what all Democrats mean, of course.
They mean how dare Republicans form some kind of opposition party. (Maryland Democrats especially seem dismally unaware that we have a two-party system for a reason.)
They mean how dare Republicans keep them from riding roughshod over the electorate, abusing the Constitution and raiding the taxpayers’ wallets at will.
It’s particularly galling — yet quite revealing — to hear O’Malley talk about “Republican obstructionism.” He knows, better than most Democrats, the kinds of abuses, monkeyshines and chicanery that can happen when there is no “Republican obstructionism.”
Let me return you to those days before O’Malley became governor of Maryland, when he was mayor of Baltimore. There was no “Republican obstructionism” in Baltimore then, and there is none now, because not one Republican holds an elected office in the city.
What were the results of a lack of “Republican obstructionism” in Baltimore?
O’Malley implemented an anti-crime strategy that called for police to arrest anybody and everybody for even the pettiest of crimes.
Police officers who would routinely write citations for these minor offenses found themselves pressured to make arrests instead.
So we had a situation where some people were arrested for “loitering” on the front steps of their own residences. One student at the reputable Baltimore Polytechnic Institute — one of the finest high schools in the state — was arrested for loitering after merely walking out of a neighborhood store.
It got so bad beat cops had to go to their union leaders to have them demand that O’Malley cease and desist. But with no “Republican obstructionism,” and few Democrats willing to challenge O’Malley’s draconian crime-fighting strategy, he never did.
The result of that strategy was a disproportionate and negative effect on the city’s young black male population, many of whom ended up with arrest records when they had none previously. Democrats in the city and state knew this, and said nothing.
They should have been appalled when, during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign that pitted O’Malley against former Gov. Robert Ehrlich, O’Malley had the nerve to accuse Ehrlich of racism. But we didn’t hear a peep out of them.
“Republican obstructionists” would have at least questioned O’Malley’s crime-fighting strategy, if not challenged it outright.
When a Baltimore district court judge chided police for not properly documenting Terry stops — which allow police to stop and frisk people they think are acting suspiciously — Baltimore Democrats said nothing.
Let’s be clear here: When police don’t document Terry stops, they’re breaking the law. And when police break the law, the buck stops at the top, not the bottom.
O’Malley, as Baltimore’s chief executive, was at the top. “Republican obstructionists” would have called him on the cops breaking the law and laid the responsibility for it squarely where it belonged, at the feet of one Martin O’Malley.
During his mayoral tenure O’Malley had several police commissioners. The first resigned inexplicably after only 90 days on the job. Another, Ed Norris bolted to take a job as superintendent of the Maryland State Police.
A third, Kevin Clark, O’Malley fired. Clark filed a lawsuit, claiming that O’Malley had fired him illegally. A Maryland appeals court agreed with Clark that O’Malley did indeed fire him illegally.
In other words, O’Malley broke the law when he fired Clark. Were there even one “Republican obstructionist” on the Baltimore City Council at the time, I’m sure he or she would have been quick to point that out.
With no “Republican obstructionists,” O’Malley ran roughshod over Clark’s rights, and the rights of hundreds of Baltimoreans who were doing nothing more than minding their own business.
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
