Posted on 02/11/2005 9:19:59 AM PST by advance_copy
Democratic legislative leaders, skeptical that a longtime aide to Governor Ehrlich acted alone when he spread rumors about Mayor O'Malley, say it will take more than an inquiry by the governor's legal adviser to resolve questions about the incident that has roiled state political waters.
But Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said Thursday Democrats won't rush into any investigation of their own.
"We are going to let the matter percolate for two or three days. We're going to see what else comes forth, analyze what steps the governor is taking," Miller said.
He said he and House Speaker Michael Busch will then try to come up with a way to resolve the matter that will be acceptable to Republicans and Democrats.
Ehrlich asked Jervis Finney, a former state senator and head of his legal staff, to investigate the role Joseph Steffen played in spreading rumors about O'Malley's personal life and whether his Internet postings were done with state equipment on state time. Ehrlich fired Steffen and asked him to apologize to O'Malley.
In an e-mail to O'Malley, which Steffen provided to The Associated Press Thursday, he said he was "truly sorry, ashamed and remorseful and I ask that you and your family please find it in your hearts to forgive me."
"I have no excuse for joining web (or other) conversations that are reckless, mean-spirited and personally damaging in nature," the e-mail said.
Raquel Guillory, spokeswoman for O'Malley, said the mayor received an e-mail "through the Baltimore City Web site allegedly from Steffen. The mayor has no further comment at this time."
O'Malley and his wife, Catherine, held a news conference Wednesday to say that rumors that the mayor has been unfaithful to his wife were untrue, with O'Malley describing them as "despicable lies."
Miller said an apology from Steffen was not sufficient and that the governor also should apologize for the actions of someone who was on his staff when he was in Congress and then came with him to state government.
"It happened on his watch. If he didn't know, he should have known," Miller said. "If he would apologize, maybe we could put an end to this."
Ehrlich said Wednesday he would not tolerate what Steffen did, but also would not apologize personally for Steffen's actions. The governor refused to answer questions about any topic at his one public event Thursday, a ceremony to dispense to charities $20,000 donated by state employees for tsunami relief.
House Majority Leader Kumar Barve, D-Montgomery, said he believes an inquiry outside the governor's office is needed to look at Steffen's actions and whether other members of the administration were involved, but he said House leaders had not discussed what form the inquiry should take.
But some key Democratic leaders, include House Speaker Michael Busch and Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chairman Bryan Frosh, also think an inquiry should be expanded to look into the way the Ehrlich administration has carried out what Frosh described it as "a statewide purge of people who are politically undesirable."
Busch said one of the Steffen's main duties was to go into state agencies and root out people who might not be loyal to Ehrlich so they could be fired.
"They removed long-serving employees, nonpolitical employees, put armed guards at offices, posted pictures of (fired) employees in the lobby of the building where they worked," the speaker said. "That's the police state mentality that state government is now in."
Busch said an independent inquiry is needed into whether Steffen had spread rumors on state time on state equipment and whether other people were involved.
"I certainly don't think it should be left to some kind of investigation done by the administration," he said. "That's the ultimate fox guarding the hen house."
Bump.
Interesting ....
MD4Bush, it's time to come out of the closet. Everyone knows you're a Doug Duncan operative.
And why have you been in hiding since February 8? Typical gutless Dimmycrap.
Jim, it's time to reveal this smear artist's identity.
Or as I just posted, a Doug Duncan operative. Duncan and O'Malley are going to square off in teh Dimmycrap primary and the winner gets to oppose Gov. Ehrlich.
Spreading the rumor, true or not, damages O'Malley, and trying to tie the Republicans to it harms Ehrlich. Who benefits? Duncan.
Duncan is the Washington Post's favorite politician in the region.
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