John Leopold's Self-Love

Man, in today's Gazette John Leopold really pours the love on himself:

A review of his first year in office, however, shows an aggressive record of strictly enforcing environmental laws, slashing government spending, cracking down on panhandlers and illegal immigrants, and managing growth ahead of a major expansion of jobs at Fort Meade.

''The best campaign is a good performance in office and our first year record of accomplishment speaks for itself," he said. ''It's not a record to stand on, it's a record to build on."

It's not really a record that I would want to run on, because while Leopold claims to be slashing government spending, the fact of the matter is that government is continuing to grow in Anne Arundel County. Not only the size of government, but the scope of government as well. We have noted a lot of this stuff, his hypocrisy on panhandling laws, his seeming inability to manage the growth, his support of shutting citizens out of participating in the School Board process, and of course now jumping into bed with the developers who he said he would never accept money from. He raised taxes on seniors, tried to implement a rental car tax, and publicly supported Martin O'Malley's tax increases. Is this really a record that John Leopold is proud of? If you listen to Leopold's Self-love it is.

Of course, Leopold's Self Love-in didn't preclude him from proposing more tax hikes:

The county administration last night proposed an enormous increase to the fees levied on new homes and buildings, in some cases suggesting fees more than 10 times higher than those currently charged.

County officials say current impact fees are artificially low and the higher ones are needed to prevent taxpayers from further subsidizing new development's impact on schools, roads and public safety services - problems that helped lead to a $1.5 billion backlog of school construction and crowded roads.

Builders say the new fees are so high that it may shut down building in Anne Arundel.

Of course Leopold rights it off as being something that a "consultant" proposed. But get real, it's just Leopold doing what he loves to do: raise taxes.

What the Republican Party in Anne Arundel County really needs is not a liberal Republican to continue to defy our values as conservatives, but we need an honest-to-god conservative Republican to challenge John Leopold in the 2010 primary....