The hand-wringing over the Gannon/Guckert scandal has been interesting to watch. Because there is a sex aspect, people are backing off.
Yet, just down the road from D.C., Republican officials in Maryland manufactured a sex scandal about a Democratic official. Made it up. A staffer to Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich resigned because of the rumors that were being spread about Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley.
There is an op-ed in yesterday's Baltimore Sun that does a good job of explaining the mess the Maryland GOP created:
Now we're waiting for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to say he's sorry because a member of his administration aggressively nurtured and spread repulsive lies about Mayor Martin O'Malley and a phony-baloney affair Mr. O'Malley did not have.So, on the one hand, we have a story about an apparent male prostitute, with close ties to the GOP, who had access to the Valerie Plame affair, working out of the White House press briefing room. But that's too much.
Relatively, that's not such a big deal. The casualties of Mr. Bush's war in Iraq are enormous. The casualties from the contemptible campaign of Joseph F. Steffen Jr., the Ehrlich aide who gleefully put the dirty talk on the Web, are not that many. But they are some of the most decent people in Maryland.
Mayor O'Malley, for one, has had to live with these rumors. He's a tough guy, and he probably can take it. But what about his wife, Judge Katie Curran O'Malley? I've met her only a couple of times, but from those encounters and from what I've read, I know her to be a sweet, decent lady. The woman has been abused by the behavior of Mr. Ehrlich's aide. And what about the four O'Malley children? They've been abused, too.
On the other hand, GOP operatives in Maryland are spreading false sexually oriented rumors about a Democratic Mayor. They create a story based on lies and the press savors it. The Gannon/Guckert scandal, which has implications for national security, scares people off.
Huh???
