The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

After months of Maryland Democrats complaining about the Governor's selection for at-will positions in his administration, the Democrats are firing back by holding up the Governor's appointees for partisan reasons.

"This is the only leverage we have," said Sen. Philip C. Jimeno, an Anne Arundel County Democrat and chairman of the Executive Nominations Committee, which votes on appointments. "It's all part of the legislative process of maneuvering."

Among the 82 nominees caught in the crossfire are former Baltimore County Sen. Francis X. Kelly Jr., named by Ehrlich to the university system's Board of Regents, and Robert A. Rohrbaugh, appointed last year as state prosecutor.

Kelly, who switched parties and now is a Republican, said yesterday that he spoke to Miller and urged him to move forward with the appointments. "This is very unusual. It never happened before," said Kelly. "I'm not taking it personally, but it is disrespectful to the 90 private citizens brought into the middle of an Annapolis food fight."

The House Appropriations Committee also decided to nitpick by cutting the salaries of some executive appointees, according to the Sun article.

As a constituent, I am extremely disappointed that Senator Jimeno has involved himself with this. It is getting to the point where he is no longer representing the views of his constituents: a constiuency that delivered roughly 69-percent of their votes to Governor Ehrlich in the 2002 Election.

The partisanship of some Senate Democrats is starting to sound more and more like political despearation everyday, and that is not conducive to good governance from either side of the political aisle.