TU employee, Ehrlich clash over job renewal (MD4Bush/NCPAC)

The Towerlight ^ | 03/28/05 | Brian Stelter

[conservative in nyc]

Towson nursing faculty member Michelle Lane believes the administration of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich pressured the University not to renew her contract, her lawyer asserted last week.

Attorney Daniel Clements said the governor believes Lane was instrumental in exposing the actions of longtime Ehrlich aide Joseph Steffen, who was fired in February for spreading rumors about Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. Clements wouldn't comment on whether or not Lane played a role in exposing Steffen.

Despite the alleged interference, Lane is still scheduled to teach three courses in Fall 2005.

"She came to understand that people in the administration were attempting to get Towson University not to renew her contract," Clements said. "As a result of that, she wrote an e-mail to the governor basically saying 'cut it out.'"

That e-mail, released by Ehrlich Thursday, has raised questions about backstage political operatives, and state hiring and firing practices.

In the message, which Lane sent to Ehrlich four days after Steffen was fired, she threatened to "release information" as retaliation for circulating rumors against her. "As a result of your whisper campaign (assassination politics) which is outrageous and completely false, I am releasing four e-mails," Lane wrote, according to the Washington Post. "Every time I hear about Ehrlich people engaging in this whisper campaign about me, I will release information. These e-mails are merely the tip of the iceberg."

Lane was apparently threatening to release details about the administration's hiring and firing practices.

Critics have accused the governor of firing political opponents in state agencies and replacing them with Ehrlich loyalists.

At a news conference, Ehrlich characterized Lane's messages as "blackmail e-mails." Lane, a registered nurse, is a lecturer at Towson, according to the University directory. She was fired from the Governor's Office for Children, Youth and Families in June of 2004. At the time, she was the director for the Maryland Children's Trust Fund and the Commission on Infant Mortality Prevention.

Formerly, Lane had served as a director at the Department of Human Resources. She also volunteered in Ehrlich's congressional office as a health care policy fellow for several months, and was part of Ehrlich's transition team when he became governor in 2002.

"She was never told why she was fired by the administration," Clements said. "She has a belief that it has to do with certain information that she was making public," claiming that the state was inadequately protecting children in foster care.

Lane had expressed concerns that the state's child welfare system was being mishandled.

"She was attempting to...bring to their attention the continued failings of those areas, and everybody was basically ignoring her," Clements said.

Lane declined comment, and referred reporters to her attorney.

According to Towson's schedule of classes, Lane co-taught three courses in Fall 2004: Professional Nursing I: Introduction, Nursing Practice II: Adult Health, and Nursing Practice V: Child Health. She is not listed for any courses this semester.

"My guess is that Ehrlich thinks there's a Democratic connection" to the Steffen case, TU mass communication and communication studies professor Richard Vatz said. "And he thinks that it's pretty peculiar that he'd get an e-mail from an ex-employee threatening him."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[conservative in nyc]

The Towerlight is Towson University's newspaper. Michelle Lane was and apparently still is a lecturer there.

The paper reports that Ms. Lane's lawyer refused to comment on whether Michelle Lane played a role in exposing Freeper NCPAC (Steffen's) rumormongering. I thought the lawyer denied she was MD4Bush. Did she give information to Clements? Is Clements MD4Bush? Why hasn't the MSM asked if he is?

[conservative in nyc]

MD4Bush Ping!

(FReepmail me if you want on or off the list)

[conservative in nyc]

By rumormongering, I mean commenting on rumors posted here. That's all we know NCPAC did. Even the Washington Post admitted that there's no evidence NCPAC did anything more to spread the rumors here or elsewhere.

[Anti-Bubba182]

"..Why hasn't the MSM asked if he is?"

They haven't asked because they already know who MD4Bush is. At least the WP does.

[Mo1]

Well this sure does keep getting interesting

[conservative in nyc]

The WaPo claims they don't know who MD4Bush was, as of last week. It sounds like the Baltimore Sun received an anonymous package from someone with the MD4Bush FReepmails. I don't know how the Washington Post got its story.

Although I have a few theories, I honestly don't know who MD4Bush is. But any politically connected Democrat lawyer representing a number of disgruntled politically connected former state workers has to be a suspect. His clients have a lot to gain by poisoning the jury pool with the vision of "Grim Reaper" NCPAC firing "innocent" employees at the governor's request.

[Anti-Bubba182]

I don't believe the WP would run the story without knowing.
Whatever they claim, they know.

[conservative in nyc]

Here is what the Washington Post had to say about how they identified NCPAC in a correction to their big NCPAC piece last Monday:

Between the first and second March 21 editions, a paragraph was dropped from a Style article on Joseph F. Steffen Jr., a former political aide to Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. The story described e-mails posted on the Web site FreeRepublic.com under the name NCPAC, which is short for National Conservative Political Action Committee. The paragraph that should have appeared said:

"Steffen confirmed to The Washington Post last month that he is NCPAC (pronounced 'nik-pak'). He canceled a meeting scheduled for this article and did not respond to further requests for comment. No one else could post messages as NCPAC without NCPAC sharing his password, according to a spokesman for FreeRepublic.com. NCPAC posted about a thousand messages between January 2004 and early last month. They were sprinkled with autobiographical asides that a reporter independently verified as facts of Steffen's life."

Sounds like they lurked here to prove NCPAC was Mr. Steffen and called him to confirm.

[advance_copy]

"My guess is that Ehrlich thinks there's a Democratic connection" to the Steffen case, TU mass communication and communication studies professor Richard Vatz said.

Michelle Lane's lawyer, Daniel Clements is the top Democratic lawyer in Annapolis whose clients included former Governor Parris Glendening. The personal attorney for a former Democratic Governor represents Lane. Who referred Lane to Clements and why did Clements take the case? His fees aren't cheap.

Among threatening letters the Governor received on behalf of Michelle Lane was one from Gilbert Genn. Genn is a former Democratic Delegate from Montgomery County. Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan is expected to challenge Martin O'Malley for the party nomination in 2006. O'Malley is the subject of the MD4Bush/NCPAC private FReepmail exchanges that got published in the Washington Post. Duncan could only gain from the spread of O'Malley rumors, particularly if Joe Steffen (NCPAC) got blamed for it.

Democrats in the state legislature called for an investigation into Steffen based on his FReepmail reported in the WaPo. Yet they're trying focus the scope on hiring/firing by the Ehrlich administration, not on the exchange between NCPAC and MD4Bush, which would reveal the identity of MD4Bush.

So, yes, Ehrlich thinks there's a "Democratic connection". And he is right about that.

[advance_copy]

Sounds like they lurked here to prove NCPAC was Mr. Steffen and called him to confirm.

The important fact here is that direct quotes from private FReepmail between NCPAC and MD4Bush got published in the Washington Post. There is no way WaPo could have gotten that from lurking, despite the fact that MD4Bush published the quoted FReepmail in public threads. Timestamps showed MD4Bush posted it at precisely the same moment, not before the WaPo published its article quoting the FReepmail. WaPo was working in cahoots with MD4Bush, either that or MD4Bush works for WaPo.

[Anti-Bubba182]

""Steffen confirmed to The Washington Post last month that he is NCPAC (pronounced 'nik-pak'). He canceled a meeting scheduled for this article and did not respond to further requests for comment. No one else could post messages as NCPAC without NCPAC sharing his password, according to a spokesman for FreeRepublic.com. NCPAC posted about a thousand messages between January 2004 and early last month. They were sprinkled with autobiographical asides that a reporter independently verified as facts of Steffen's life.""

We are to believe from the bold that they originally divined the identity of NCPAC from these minor clues. Baloney! This would only serve as confirmation IF you already knew who you were looking at.

[maggief]

EXCERPT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5681-2005Mar27.html

Editorial
Mr. Ehrlich's Distractions

Monday, March 28, 2005; Page A16

AS HUNDREDS of pieces of legislation head into the crucial home stretch of the Maryland General Assembly's 2005 session, one might think Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) would be busy fighting for bills he likes and against those he doesn't. Instead, he is engaged in scandal damage control. That's the impression the governor gave when he suggested to reporters that he is the victim, first, of an "orchestrated" Democratic campaign to leak embarrassing material about his Republican administration, and, second, of a former aide who he says tried to "blackmail" him. His extraordinary remarks reinforced the impression of an administration that veers from one bizarre gambit to the next, without much attention to the major debates facing the state.

(snip)

[GOP_1900AD]

I think you are onto something with this assessment. There's the motive.

[GOP_1900AD]

I agree. I think that someone who worked with or otherwise knew Steffen, and suspected that he might post at FR, came to FR, then used his or her knowledge of Steffen to lay the trap. Either MD4Bush knows Steffen, or, got inside info on Steffen from someone who knows him.