January 28, 2005
SOB of the Week - Gov. Robert Ehrlich
The best teachers I had at school commanded my respect and the respect of my classmates. They were sharp, knew the material, demanded hard work from students and generally engaged them, if not as equals, as equals-in-training. In retrospect, the joke teachers with the easy classes who gave everyone high grades ended up forgotten and inconsequential in the long run.
Worse than the easy but forgettable teachers are the domineering ones. When a class falls out of line, they appeal to you not as a source of useful or interesting knowledge, but revert to pulling rank and making threats. It may make the students shut up, but it does little to make them like school.
In fact, pulling rank and demanding respect for their authourit-a are the worst kind of leaders. They spend most of their time asserting their power and not much time actually leading. Maryland's Gov. Robert Ehrlich is just such a leader:
The Moonies on his latest hystrionics:
"Being treated with appropriate dignity when the governor appears before the legislative committees is about respect," the Republican governor told a joint session of the Democrat-controlled General Assembly."Being treated with dignity when I enter a chamber — thank you very much — is about respect," Mr. Ehrlich said.
[...]
Mr. Ehrlich has been irked when committees have set aside his bills and then have passed similar legislation introduced by Democratic lawmakers. When he was a delegate from 1987 through 1994, the legislature worked with administration bills, he said.
Ehrlich aides have said the governor has endured pointed questioning and rough handling that has gone beyond the bounds of respect that the office of governor deserves when he has testified before some committees.
The Washington Times reported this month that the Legislative Black Caucus last month refused to allow Mr. Ehrlich to address a meeting on medical-malpractice reform, forcing the governor to wait outside the conference room.
Waah waah waah. I could understand these sorts of complaints from the governor of some blood-red state with a few obstinate Democrats who the Governor feels secure in yelling at to score a few political points. But this is Maryland, and Ehrlich needs the Democrats if he wants to do anything, whether it's his insurance company coddling med-mal plan or his proposal to boost the pawn shop industry through slots. And even though they're near the bottom rungs of the national political structure, state legislators don't appreciate being treated like cranky middle schoolers.
UPDATE: As soon as I finish my missive on Ehrlich, I visit DCist an see these idiots have popped up again. Oh well, maybe they'll break something next week.
Posted by rj3 at January 28, 2005 3:32 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.smorgasblog.com/cgi-bin/mt/smorgastb.r740.cgi/1185