New Positions For Maryland Republicans

First at the National Level we have Michael Steele replacing J.C. Watts as Chairman of GOPAC

WASHINGTON, D.C. GOPAC today announced former Congressman J.C. Watts, Jr. will be stepping down after serving nearly four years as Chairman. Former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele will be named as GOPAC’s seventh Chairman.

GOPAC was founded by Delaware Governor Pete du Pont in 1978 in an effort to build a farm team of Republican officeholders who could then run for congress or higher state offices later. Other past Chairmen of GOPAC were: former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, California Congressman David Dreier, Arizona Congressman John Shadegg and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

We also have Fulton resident Louis M. Pope elected as RNC Vice Chair

As RNC Vice Chair, Pope will help steer the Party and provide oversight to the various RNC committees. He will also ratify any decisions of RNC Chairman Mike Duncan. Pope has pledged to work closely on issues such as candidate recruitment, fundraising and voter registration and hold a regional conference for all Republicans in the next year.

On the minus side, newly elected Republican Central Committee member Trent Kittleman as reported in the Baltimore Sun will be leaving the Maryland Transportation Authority.

The one agency head who is definitely out is Trent Kittleman, a staunch Republican who resigned as executive secretary of the Maryland Transportation Authority this week. She had earlier said she hoped to stay on.

In a second article, Trent Kittleman is quoted saying:

Kittleman said yesterday that her departure was the result of “a mutual meeting of the minds” after a conversation with Porcari. Though she had previously stated a willingness to stay on as head of the toll agency, she said the meeting was “very professional” and “very nice.”

Gov. Ehrlich dismissed 340 at will employees and the Democratic delegates and senators launched a year long investigation. (From the Washington Post)

“This legislative committee was pulled together to see if anyone was fired” illegally, Del. Jean B. Cryor (R-Montgomery) said afterwards. “But after months of testimony, the simple fact is that no one was fired because of their political party.”

Anyone keeping track of Gov. O’Malley’s numbers? Any sign that Del. Cryor is carefully monitoring this? Just asking.

Hillary Clinton’s Candidacy – The Grand Deceit?

(h/t Michelle Malkin)

From Gerard Baker and the London Times: The vaulting ambition of America’s Lady Macbeth

There are many reasons people think Mrs Clinton will not be elected president. She lacks warmth; she is too polarising a figure; the American people don’t want to relive the psychodrama of the eight years of the Clinton presidency.

But they all miss this essential counterpoint. As you consider her career this past 15 years or so in the public spotlight, it is impossible not to be struck, and even impressed, by the sheer ruthless, unapologetic, unshameable way in which she has pursued this ambition, and confirmed that there is literally nothing she will not do, say, think or feel to achieve it. Here, finally, is someone who has taken the black arts of the politician’s trade, the dissembling, the trimming, the pandering, all the way to their logical conclusion.

Fifteen years ago there was once a principled, if somewhat rebarbative and unelectable politician called Hillary Rodham Clinton. A woman who aggressively preached abortion on demand and the right of children to sue their own parents, a committed believer in the power of government who tried to create a healthcare system of such bureaucratic complexity it would have made the Soviets blush; a militant feminist who scorned mothers who take time out from work to rear their children as “women who stay home and bake cookies”.

And he closes with:

All politicians, sadly, lie. We can often forgive the lies as the necessary price paid to win popularity for a noble cause. But the Clinton candidacy is a Grand Deceit, an entirely artificial construct built around a person who, stripped bare of the cynicism, manipulation and calculation, is nothing more than an enormous, overpowering and rather terrifying ego.

Wow, somehow I don’t think Hillary’s offer to “Let’s Talk. Let’s chat” is going to change his mind.

Jane Fonda in DC, Will Jon Carry Be There Too?

The AP is reporting that:

WASHINGTON (AP) – Protesters energized by fresh congressional skepticism about the Iraq war demanded a withdrawal of U.S. troops in a demonstration Saturday that drew tens of thousands and brought Jane Fonda back to the streets.

A sampling of celebrities, a half dozen members of Congress and busloads of demonstrators from distant states joined in a spirited rally under a sunny sky, seeing opportunity to press their cause in a country that has turned against the war.

No word if Jon Carry is going to borrow some ribbons or medals and reenact his 1971 publicity stunt protest .

For those that want to compare Vietnam with Iraq may want to read The Vietnam history you haven’t heard by Mark Moyar. The closing paragraphs:

These are just a few of the numerous cases where the writings of Halberstam, Sheehan, and Karnow got it wrong. The record shows they were wrong, as well, to portray North Vietnam’s revolutionary leader, Ho Chi Minh, as a xenophobic nationalist who put national interests ahead of global communism’s interests. They were wrong to accuse America’s military leaders of employing faulty military tactics. And they were wrong to claim that the US could not have won the war.

So, has Iraq become another Vietnam? For all the apparent similarities – and differences – it is much too early to tell. For all the books on the Iraq war, many critical facts are not yet known. As with Vietnam, it may take 40 years or more to uncover them. Most important, we do not yet know how Iraq will end. Ultimately, it was the contest of wills – not predestination – that determined the outcome of the Vietnam War. A similar contest will determine whether Iraq is one day remembered as another Vietnam.

Read the whole thing.

Along the same theme, Mark Steyn writing about John O’Sullivan’s new book The President, the Pope and the Prime Minister

Now as then, America seems less a sleeping giant than a helpless one, ensnared by Lilliputians and longing for release. Some Republicans distance themselves from the President’s “surge” in Iraq, others dutifully string along with it, but without any great confidence it will make a difference. Democrats, meanwhile, are all but urging on defeat. Explicitly threatening to cut off funds for “Bush’s war,” Senator Ted Kennedy trotted out the old Vietnam “quagmire” analogies but added a new charge, bizarrely formulated: “In Vietnam,” he recalled, “the White House grew increasingly obsessed with victory, and increasingly divorced from the will of the people and any rational policy.”

“Obsessed with victory”? In the history of warfare, most parties have been “obsessed with victory” to one degree or another, ever since Caveman Ug first clubbed Caveman Glug. If you’re not “obsessed with victory,” you probably shouldn’t have got into the war in the first place. It would be more accurate to say that Kennedy and his multiplying ilk are obsessed with defeat, and they’re prepared to do what’s necessary to help inflict it.

Six Local Bills Approved by Howard County State Legislators

As reported in the Baltimore Sun Howard hopeful on state funding and a follow up to Park Funding, and Tax Credits, and Machetes. Oh my!

The Howard County State Delegation met on Wednesday and passed 6 of the 18 bills awaiting action. Keeping the numbers from the earlier post, the six bills that passed unanimously are:

1. Robinson Nature Center Bond Funding ($500 K)
2. North Laurel Community Center Bond Funding ($500 K)
3. Blandair Regional Park Funding ($500 K)
4. Historic Main Street Ellicott City Parking Garage ($500 K)
6. Property Tax Credit for properties jointly owner with HoCo Housing Commission
7. HoCo Annual Report Filing Date

Here’s what remains:

5. Zoning Regulations – Administrative Proceedings
8. Organic Beer / Wine Liquor License
9. Carrying Machete – Prohibited Hours
10. Local Aggregation of Public Utilities (withdrawn)
11. Union Service Representation Fee
12. Board of Education – Qualifications and Election of Student Member
13. County Superintendent of Schools – Termination of Contract
14. Auxiliary Police Officers Workers Compensation
15. Aging in Place Act – Senior Tax Credit

Apparently, some bills have been added to the agenda since the Jan hearing and will be discussed at the Feb 8th hearing:

16 Bond funding for the private Norbel School ($250,000)
17,18 Bargaining rights and expanded worker compensation for county sheriff’s deputies.

Each of the 6 bills must now pass the full General Assembly, but according to the Baltimore Sun, “though that is often perfunctory as a matter of local courtesy.” The delegation will meet Wednesday to consider the other bills.