Posted on 06/15/2005 7:29:09 AM PDT by kristinn
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Leading state Democrats authorized Tuesday a newly-created bipartisan panel to begin investigating the governor's firing practices.
WBAL-TV 11 News reporter David Collins reported some lawmakers have called for a full-blown probe into alleged rogue firings based on political affiliation since the legislative session began.
Whether there will be outside counsel, subpoena power, that will be determined by the special committee," House Speaker Michael Busch said during Tuesday's Legislative Policy Committee meeting.
Six members from both the House of Delegates and the Senate will comprise this special committee.
SNIP
The Democrats -- using press accounts, large settlements with terminated workers and employee complaints as evidence -- call a probe into the governor's firing practices justified, and they want the Ehrlich administration to preserve all documents related to firings.
SNIP
Collins reported Democrats have also charged that former gubernatorial aide Joe Steffen -- who the governor nicknamed "The Prince of Darkness" -- went to several state agencies to compile lists of state workers for termination due to their political affiliation.
They said employees complained that Steffen put a figurine of the grim reaper on his desk and compiled lists of people who should for replacement.
Democrats also pointed to one-time Ehrlich congressional aide Craig Chesek. They questioned whether the motives behind his nomadic tenure involved cleaning house at several state agencies, Collins said.
Republicans have pushed for subpoena power and some want to subpoena The Free Republic Web site in an effort to learn the identity of MD4Bush, an Internet screenname used to send messages to Steffen.
The panel will report back to the Legislative Policy Committee some time in August.
(Excerpt) Read more at thewbalchannel.com ...
Is MD4Bush a liberal who gained trust with Steffan and then outed him?
"Republicans have pushed for subpoena power and some want to subpoena The Free Republic Web site in an effort to learn the identity of MD4Bush, an Internet screenname used to send messages to Steffen."
Uhh. I don't recall using my real name to sign up!
And I'm sure MD4Bush didn't either.
No, but you were logged by your IP address (FR uses this to catch "retread" trolls).
This is true.
:0)
You posted another article with essentially the same story, but there may be some differences in the two articles.
I sure hope they do!
I seriously doubt the MD Democrats will allow it to happen.
Jim would respond quickly to a subpoena and interested parties must be aware of this.
I expect this political dance will continue but am not optimistic that anything will come of it.
Hmm ... Joe Steffen did ... and so did I
well if thuh gubner has bad firing practices, send him to the shooting range to improve them.
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