Last month, I wrote about my chance meeting with a herd of cows on Main Street in Ellicott City, expressing my hopes that the cows were planning to take over the world ("Moooving," May 2005). Imagine my surprise and chagrin when I discovered that the cows were in the employ of the Maryland State Lottery in a $1.8 million publicity stunt that is evidently designed to kick off Governor Ehrlich's reelection bid. 1

In retrospect, I should have realized that the cows were Republicans.   For one thing, their business cards and website were obviously expensive; no noble cause has that kind of money to throw around on trendy design.   For another, their website 2 was full of Fake News: videos of the cows' "uprising," a blog with fake entries by the cows, and a press conference of a very deadpan Ehrlich discussing recent events that are thought to be tied to "an underground revolutionary movement" called Bovine Unite.   (It is abundantly clear that this press conference was fake, since in it, Ehrlich is seen speaking freely to reporters.)

In recent months, many incidents involving Republican manipulation of the media and creation of Fake News have come to light, most interestingly, the story of GOPUSA and Talon News "reporter" "Jeff Gannon" (real name James Guckert) who evidently had unfettered access to the White House and press credentials that enabled him to ask pro-Republican questions at news conferences, file "news reports" that were lifted from Republican documents, and, in his spare time, work as a prostitute.   The Bush administration has also paid conservative columnists to write in support of their views without disclosing their financial incentives, and has hired PR firms to create fake television news reports that espouse their policies. 3

Clearly, the cow campaign had the hoof-prints of the Republican playbook all over it, and I should have picked up on this immediately.   Instead, I was so charmed by the cows, their sweet, sad eyes and their soft, mottled fur, that I lost my journalistic objectivity.

Voice readers, I am mortified; as one of my co-workers used to say, "I cannot sufficiently castigate myself."   I cannot believe that I, one of the small, sad voices of Independent Media, allowed myself to be hoodwinked by a Republican ploy into giving Governor Ehrlich, whom I loathe, free publicity.

To compensate, I thought I should take this opportunity to reflect on all the objectionable things Ehrlich has done to the state of Maryland during his short tenure in Annapolis, starting with the pricey cow campaign.   Do the people of this state really need a $1.8 million P.R. extravaganza that urges them to gamble?   (On the positive side, the cow campaign created some jobs, but only for professional animal impersonators.)

  The sins of Bob Ehrlich

·   During Ehrlich's reign, he has dramatically cut funds to higher education, forcing draconian cost-saving measures and huge tuition hikes on the University of Maryland system and community colleges. 4  

·   He has tried continually to legalize slot machines, despite consistent opposition, especially from people living near where slots were proposed to be located, and when slots were defeated, he has petulantly retaliated in various ways, including refusing to sign Maryland House bills, while passing their Senate equivalents, to get back at House Speaker Mike Busch, slots' most vociferous opponent. 5

·   He has refused to support closing corporate loopholes that allow Maryland corporations to create holding companies in Delaware to avoid their tax obligations here. (Two such bills passed without his signature.) 6

·   He has staffed the state with his cronies. 7

·   He has forbidden "tens of thousands of state employees" to talk to two Baltimore Sun reporters he doesn't like, which the New York Times called "an extraordinary ban" that seemed to be the result not of malfeasance on the Sun 's part, as Ehrlich alleged, but anger at the Sun 's revelation of his plan to sell 800 acres of state-owned land to a developer.   "An embarrassing display of hubris," says the Times . 8

·   Ehrlich's aide, Joseph Steffen (nickname: "The Prince of Darkness"), was forced to resign from his state job after he spread ugly false rumors about Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, who will most likely be Ehrlich's opponent in the 2006 election. 9

·   Ehrlich has called multiculturalism "bunk." 10

·   He is "unsure" about gay rights legislation. 11

·   If you draw a little mustache on Ehrlich's picture--and I have--he looks exactly like Hitler.  

I could go on about Ehrlich's strange career, but I'd rather focus on something even more frightening than Ehrlich's assault on Maryland: Karl Rove.

That's right--as if having Maryland's first Republican governor since Spiro Agnew wasn't enough for the Bush administration, the Republican party is apparently sending Bush's Brain here to make sure we have a Republican senator, too. 12  

Ehrlich's Lieutenant Governor, Michael Steele, has been recruited by the GOP to run for the U.S. Senate seat about to be vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Paul Sarbanes.   The Republicans have vowed to give Steele $15 million for his campaign and to crank up the Rove Machine.   As you may recall from the 2002 election, the Ehrlich campaign has already been accused of some Rove-like moves, such as illegally hiring poll workers, setting up a dodgy organization called "Democrats for Ehrlich," and of course, attempting to smear Mayor O'Malley as a prelude   to 2006.  

We can expect our Senate race to ramp up with the kinds of techniques that have done so well for Rove in the past: 13

·   In 1994, Bush "pollsters" called Texas voters during their gubernatorial election and asked them such allegedly neutral questions as, "Would you be more or less likely to vote for Governor [Anne] Richards [Bush's opponent] if you knew her staff is dominated by lesbians?"

·   During the 2000 election, during the Florida recount, Rove apparently hired a busload of Republican operatives and sent them to Florida to act as an "angry mob."

·   Rove was allegedly behind the whisper campaign saying that then-candidate John McCain had fathered a black child out of wedlock, a false story that has consistently been taken out of mothballs and repackaged for other candidates.

·   During the 2004 election, the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" who smeared John Kerry's war record were widely thought to have been spawned by Rove.

·   Rove was probably behind the rumors that John Kerry looked French.

·   Rove is reputed to have outed CIA agent Valerie Plame to journalists.

·   According to Dotty Lynch of CBSNews.com, when the "Jeff Gannon" story broke (see above), "the leap to a possible Rove connection was unavoidable." 14

·   There are suspicions that Rove was behind the forged documents of "Rathergate."

To sum up, as Eleanor Clift of Newsweek put it, "Karl Rove makes Chuck Colson [of Watergate] look like a girly man." 15

Meanwhile, seen through the lens of Republican political operations, the cows on Main Street, who were so charming and whimsical, who comported themselves with such bovine panache that I vowed never to leave the state of Maryland, now seem rather sinister.   Readers, again, I apologize for my previous pro-cow position; you might say that I voted for the cows before I voted against them.

All I can say is, moo-a culpa.

This just in...

On May 21, 2005, Governor Ehrlich vetoed 24 bills.   One of these bills would have granted rights to same-sex couples, enabling a partner to "be treated as an immediate family member during hospital visits, to make health care decisions for incapacitated partners and to have private visits in nursing homes." 16   Even the Washington Post had a tone of mild umbrage at the veto, citing the case of a heart patient whose partner was shoved out of the way by a nurse.

Another of the 24 bills would have required Wal-mart to improve employee benefits, and still another would have raised the state's minimum wage.

My guess is that Ehrlich is taking another page from the Bush playbook by attempting to shore up his hardcore right-wing support in preparation for the next election, choosing the time-honored method of oppressing homosexuals to polarize the electorate.   Hopefully, Marylanders are too smart and too compassionate to fall for this ploy.

Meanwhile, however, a group of news organizations, including the New York Times and the Washington Post , has filed an amicus brief supporting the Baltimore Sun in its lawsuit against Ehrlich's ban on state employees talking to the press.   According to the brief, this kind of boycott against journalists "is characteristic of repressive regimes, but it is alien to nations founded on principles of free speech and free press...It is abhorrent to our Constitution and should be repudiated by this Court." 17

Footnotes:

1 "Erhlich Marketing; Dems Aren't Buying," Thomas Dennison, Gazette (http://www.gazette.net/200519/weekend/a_section/275080-1.html)

2 www.bovineunite.com

3 Media Matters for America, http://mediamatters.org/items/200501280011

4 Tuition at UM "has gone up nearly forty percent since 2002 [the year Ehrlich took office], turning Maryland's public university system into one of the 10 most expensive in the nation." University Business Magazine January 27, 2005 (qtd. from Washington Post) (http://ubdaily.educatorsportal.com/index.php?news_date=2005-01-27&news_id=2330 )

5 "More Fun With Pens," Steven T. Dennis, Gazette (http://www.gazette.net/200320/weekend/a_section/159207-1.html)

6 http://www.governor.maryland.gov/no_sign_legislation/2004/message_SB187_HB297.html

7 "Firings Decried as Partisan Politics," by David Nitkin, Baltimore Sun, February 9, 2005.   ( http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.gardina09feb09,1,4442876.story )

8 "Marylanders' Right to Know" (Editorial) New York Times, January 22, 2005. (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/22/opinion/22sat2.html?ex=1116302400&en=
4f666370733c7f0b&ei=5070&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position= )

9 "Ehrlich Associate Targeted O'Malley," by David Nitkin and Andrew A. Green, Baltimore Sun, February 9, 2005. (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-te.md.resign09feb09,1,7604723.story)

10 National Association for Multicultural Education, http://www.nameorg.org/photogallery/pressreleases/ehrlich.html

11 "Ehrlich Still Unsure of Gay Rights Legislation," by John Wagner, Washington Post, May 14, 2005. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-yn/content/article/2005/05/13/AR2005051301497.html?sub=AR )

12 "GOP Makes Push to Get Steele into Senate Race," by David Nitkin (by the way, Nitkin is one of the two Sun journalists banned by Ehrlich) Baltimore Sun May 14, 2005 (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.steele09may09,1,4696897.story )

13 "The Brains," by Julian Borger, The Guardian March 9, 2004 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1165126,00.html);

14 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/18/opinion/lynch/main675050.shtml

15 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5843033/site/newsweek/

16 John Wagner, "Ehrlich Vetoes Bill Extending Rights to Gay Couple," Washington Post (May 21, 2005): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/20/AR2005052000862.html.

17 Stephen Kiehl, "Sun Backed in Lawsuit Challenging Ehrlich Ban," Baltimore Sun (May 23, 2005): http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-ban0523,1,94045.story?coll=bal-local-headlines.