20060915 KDDC Harvard overrated

Harvard angst

For everyone that is in a tizzy over Harvard’s recent announcement that it will stop early admissions – just stop it already.

All the hand wringing and gnashing of teeth would be comical if this were to be a Saturday Night Live skit.

Maryland Conservatarian puts it all in perspective in their Tuesday, September 12^th, 2006 post: “Screw Harvard:”

“Stop the presses: Harvard Drops 'Early Action' Admissions.

“Despite having Ted Kennedy on its alumni roll, Harvard continues to enjoy an over-hyped reputation…and apparently its administration buys into its own press clippings.”

…

“Harvard, after experimenting with an early-action policy that allowed students to seek similar treatment from other schools, ultimately returned to a policy similar to Yale's and Stanford's.” No sanctions planned for schools violating early-admissions guidelines

Oh Whatever. I’m going to take a nap now. Wake me up when this is all over…

Read the rest of the MC’s excellent post here.

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20060915 KDDC Crablaw is staying on top of Maryland’s primary election fiasco

The eyes of the nation are on Maryland’s election process

© Kevin Dayhoff September 15^th, 2006

Crablaw is staying on top of Maryland’s primary election fiasco

Crablaw is staying on top of Maryland’s election fiasco. Please visit his site for the blow-by-blow and intelligent commentary. Bookmark his web site and check back with him in the coming days as hopefully the etiology of the mess is uncovered and measure taken to prevent it in the future.

To paraphrase one of Bruce Godfrey’s, Attorney and Editor in Chief, Crablaw Maryland Weekly, comments; we should all, no matter what political persuasion, support the right of each and very candidate in Maryland to be afforded a fair and honest election process.

Whether the candidate for office is a conservative or a liberal, the voters of Maryland deserve to have their collective decision respected – and each and every vote needs to count and be counted.

Maryland is once again on the keyboards and lips of political and business observers from throughout the nation and our great state is not being portrayed in a positive light.

We should all be ashamed.

Crablaw reports: 09/14/2006: The Election Fiasco - Beyond "Raging" Against the Machine

Yes, Maryland progressives and all fair-minded people are angry about the uber-fiasco in Montgomery County and similar farces in Prince George's County and the City of Baltimore.

Yes, we should be furious. But that is not enough

We should support and applaud all efforts to uncover the truth about what happened in the different jurisdictions that effected such a large disenfranchisement of literally tens of thousands of Marylanders, of American citizens.

We should support everyone who supports fair process and sunshine upon this fiasco.

Read the rest here.

14 September 2006:

Sun (AP): Montgomery County Election Board Hires Outside Consultant to Review Fiasco

In fairness to (Montgomery Elections Director Margaret) Jurgensen, it seems fair at first glance to allow the Elections Center to produce an independent report before anyone gets fired, unless that will put the reliability of the general election in meaningful doubt.

Read the rest here.

Sun: Maryland Election Day Fiasco Blame Game

Mr. Godfrey writes:

There is an article in the Baltimore Sun, September 15, 2006, on the current mutual recriminations regarding the Baltimore part of the election Fiasco between Maryland Elections Administrator (and long-time target of Bob Ehrlich) Linda Lamone, Ehrlich ally Gene Raynor, the Baltimore City Council and others. The article did not discuss the larger problems in Montgomery County.

WaPo article on Montgomery Election Fiasco

Mr. Godfrey writes:

This looks interesting.

Of Paul Valette, Mr. Godfrey writes: “Maybe this man deserves be fired. Maybe he does not deserve to be fired at all. I don't claim to know. Valette is a former military office and an attorney, two professions where standards and responsibility are supposed to matter. In Valette's case, sounds like they do matter to him. His straightforward response is most refreshing; it may or may not be sufficient.”

There are many more posts – check out his web site…

Thanks for the excellent work Crablaw.

Oh PS: The Baltimore Reporter also has a post worth reading: “The Mess in Montgomery.”

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20060915 KDDC Democratic National Party reserves $1Million in Steele attack ads

Democratic National Party reserves $1Million in Steele attack ads
September 15, 2006

The DNC is about to unleash $1 Million in Bush-Steele attack ads.

Apparently the Democratic National Part is quite worried about the real possibility that Maryland’s Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R) will put a Senate seat this fall in the hands of the Republicans.

So much so that they have reserved one million dollars worth of attack negative ads against the Lt. Gov. for the final two weeks before the November 7th, 2006 general election.

For some background, in a September 13, 2006 post by Chris Bowers on the My Direct Democracy web site: “

Senate Forecast 2006,” writes:

“Overall: Republicans currently control the Senate 55-43-2.

Democrats need at least a net total of six seats in order to take control, assuming both Senate Independents caucus with Democrats.

One incoming Independent, Bernie Sanders (I-VT), has indicated he will caucus with the Democrats. One Independent in a dogfight, Joe Lieberman (CfL-CT), currently indicates that he will caucus with Democrats.”

Mr. Bowers lists the Maryland Senate contest to go “Likely Democrat.”

Writing: “Maryland (Democrat: Ben Cardin). Cardin won the primary, but the campaign stays in this spot until we see post-primary information.

Maryland turnout was enormous for the primary, with over 500K voters and Both Cardin and Mfume easily outpacing Steele in terms of total votes.

Cardin also leads Steele in all polls. Further, Cardin had a lead despite having far lower name ID than Steele, something his recent ad blitz and primary win will fix. As tempting as it is to think that this race is now "likely Dem," I can't quite move it into that category until I see some post-primary numbers.

The primary did, after all, drain Cardin's cash a bit. Money race as of 6/30: Steele $3.1M, Cardin $1.6M
Latest polls: Gonzales Research, Cardin 44%, Steele 39%; Rasmussen (R), August 9th, Cardin 47%, Steele 42%, Washington Post, June 25, Cardin 49% Steele 39%

Meanwhile WBAL TV is reporting: “Steele Warns Marylanders In New TV Ad:”

WBAL TV
POSTED: 5:43 pm EDT September 15, 2006
UPDATED: 5:49 pm EDT September 15, 2006

BALTIMORE, Md. -- Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Steele is warning Marylander’s that he’s about to get slammed by the National Democratic party in a new TV ad campaign.

According to Steele campaign officials, the Democratic National Party has reserved an estimated $1 million dollars in air time, from Oct. 24 to Nov. 7, to trot out Bush-Steele attack ads.

The new ad is Steele's third TV commercial in which he's targeting conservative Democrats and Independents. Political analyst Barry Rascovar said, “The Independent voters are frustrated with government the way it is in Washington, and that's what Steele is trying to appeal to.”

In a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee memo, first reported by the Washington Post, Democrats declared "Steele is a unique challenge. Democrats cannot afford to wait until the primary to knock Steele down. A persuasion campaign should start as soon as possible to discredit Steele as a viable candidate for the community."

Republicans said that's a reference to the African-American community. Democrats choose all white males at the top of their ticket in the primary.

“I think a big question that comes out is, where will Democrats go, particularly black Democrats who now have an option of Michael Steele,” said political analyst Donnie Glover.

The results of the Democratic primary have Republicans touting their party as more diverse.

Audra Miller, spokeswoman for the state Republican Party, said “The Democratic power brokers in the back rooms continue to decide for the voters, and unfortunately it has left diversity and the majority of the state by the wayside.”

Many are questioning whether race will play a party in the Republic campaign against Democratic candidate Ben Cardin.

However, Ben Cardin doesn’t think so. “I just heard Michael Steele say a few minutes ago that it’s his strong desire for that not to be the case, and that's certainly my strong desire as well. So it seems to me that if both the senatorial candidates don't want to use race, they won't do it. But maybe I'm a little naïve about that.”

Michael Steele and Ben Cardin will debate on Meet the Press with Tim Russert next month.

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