Day 2: O’Misery in O’Maryland

Day 2: O’Misery in O’Maryland

Well, New Year’s Day passed without any major hiccups.  All the new taxes are now in effect.  For those of you held captive to the new socialist tax regime because you are distant to a border with a friendlier, neighboring state, you have my compassion.

The Republicans are all atwitter because they will be able to finally depose Mary Monahan, the House of Delegate’s Chief Clerk, over discrepancies in the House paperwork on a Senate adjournment that appears to be in violation of the State Constitution.

Three brief thoughts: 

• This dog won’t hunt.  No judge in Maryland is going to overturn legislative work product over what amounts to a technical violation of the Constitution.  Even if Irv Kramer can make a case that a conspiracy existed to circumvent the Constitution, the remedy is not to invalidate legislation.  In fact, it is not entirely clear what the remedy is.
• I am hearing rumors out of Annapolis that Mary Monahan deliberately obstructed the ability of GOP lawmakers to review the logs and transcriptions of messages during the session itself.  Whether she did this under orders of House Speaker Michael Busch or Majority Leader Kumar Barve is unknown (if the rumors are even true).  But it seems that going after Monahan directly might be a better tack to take.
• The MD GOP needs really step up scrutiny of patterns and practices during this year’s session.  They should talk to some of their national friends to create an “emergency response team” to file immediate injunctions during the session.  They should create a team of bloggers and social media gurus to begin controlling the spin and the scum coming out of Annapolis.  One of the most damaging aspects of the Special Session was that by holding principal votes on Sundays, the Socialists were able to hide the bulk of their actions until after the fact.  DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN!