Posted on 03/28/2005 8:31:18 PM PST by conservative in nyc
E-mail messages detail a romantic relationship between two aides to the governor that abruptly ended before one was fired, the WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team has learned.
Michelle Lane once dated Joe Steffen, who was a longtime aide to Gov. Bob Ehrlich. E-mail messages between the two indicate they had an office romance that abruptly ended, WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team reporter David Collins reported.
Steffen resigned in February when it was revealed that he had spread rumors on the Internet about the personal life of Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, Collins reported.
The E-Mail Messages
Steffen called Lane "Chelle" and "sweetness." Acquaintances said Lane called Steffen "Steff-fawn," Collins said.
Steffen e-mailed one of his friends about working on his day off: not all business, he wrote, some pleasure. He also wrote that Lane was also working, Collins said.
--Snip--
The 11 News I-Team has uncovered that 11 months before the report broke about the rumors, Lane met with an O'Malley cabinet member under the auspices of foster care, speaking at one point in the conversation about Steffen.
Lane met with Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Peter Beilenson last March. Most of the conversation, he said, dealt with her concerns over the state's foster care system.
"She implied that (Steffen) was sort of, I guess the best term to be used would be like a mole" in the Ehrlich administration, Beilenson said. "I'm not sure why she brought him up to me, there's nothing I can do about it particularly."
Beilenson said he passed the information onto Michael Enright, one of the mayor's closest confidants at City Hall.
Just before 6 p.m. Monday, Enright said he indeed met with Lane. He recalls that she was looking for a job, Collins said. But Enright said the city did not offer a job to Lane.
(Excerpt) Read more at thewbalchannel.com ...
According to the report, NCPAC was romantically involved with Ms. Lane. And Lane met with the Baltimore City health commissioner and O'Malley confidant Michael Enright in part to get a job. She also implied that NCPAC "a mole", whatever that means.
According to the rest of the article, Mayor O'Malley said he doesn't know who MD4Bush is, but he'd like to "give that person a medal" because "they ended a lot of pain that the governor put [him] and [his family] through for many, many months".
MD 4 Bush Ping!
(Freepmail me if you want on or off the MD4Bush list)
This story needs midgets and a couple of explosions, but so does every other story.
Sure does!
mole = spy
As in, a KGB agent working in the State Deparment or the Pentagon.
So apparently, Ms. Lane thought that NCPAC, wherever he worked, was a spy for someone else or some other department.
Well, there it is. The Bard was right! In the modern age, he might have said "Hell hath no fury than an office boinking gone bad."
A couple of pies thrown in peoples faces never hurt either. LOL
Who would believe that a Governor appoints someone who actually works for him, the duly elected Governor of a state?
Here is a further clarification to that point as quoted from the story:
Enright said Lane also described to him Steffen as "a mole for the Ehrlich administration."
So let me see if I get this straight:
NCPAC has an office relationship with Michelle Lane, which goes bad. Ms. Lane then tells Mayor O'Malley's people that NCPAC is a "mole" in the Ehrlich administration - presumably that he's *GASP* working for the governor to determine which *GASP* at will employees to replace with people who will be *GASP* faithful to the Ehrlich administration. She gets fired from her state job and meets with a Democrat operative close to Mayor O'Malley looking for a new job. She also tells the operative that NCPAC is a "mole". Lane then hires the biggest Democrat lawyer in the state, Douglas Clement, to represent her in a wrongful termination action.
Sounds like this Ms. Lane may have been acting as a mole in the first place.
Of course, it's easy to wonder if Lane wasn't working with the DUbmocRATs all along. Maryland Mata Hari of the left?
"Curiouser and curiouser," said Alice.
I have been following this story and I still have trouble figuring out all the angles. Every time I think I have it sorted out, something like this story comes out and turns the whole bloody thing sideways again. Reminds me of a John le Carre mystery novel.
She says he was a mole for the Erlich administration. That's true, except that there was nothing secret about it, which would be the case for a mole.
His job was to go into the state bureaucracy and weed out the incompetents and the political hacks. Evidently she knew he was doing that with the child welfare agency, which other threads have suggested was corrupt and needed fixing.
The only thing strange about this is that possibly he fell for a woman who couldn't be trusted. It happens.
There can be no doubt that Lane must have known that Steffan was a FReeper, and might have even known his handle here. My theory at this point:
* Lane was, herself, a Dimocrap mole
* Based on the whole "grim reaper" conspiracy theory held by the lefty inter-adminstration careerists, she targetted Steffen specifically.
* Lane is not MD4Bush
* MD4Bush has been either the direct recipient of, or, end point user of, intel on Steffen collected by Lane.
* Lane was fired because she was exposed as a mole. But not wanting to overtly discuss it, the firing was done quietly and with no questions asked.
* Subsequently, someone has convinved Lane not to go down quietly, and has convinced her to play hardball.
* MD4Bush has connections at the Baltimore Sun.
Good point. We can't rule out MD4Bush being a user account for a group.
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