I’ll state the news item first: a day after it was announced he had become vice-chairman of the nascent Maryland TEA Party Caucus in the House of Delegates, Baltimore City Delegate Curt Anderson withdrew from the group at the request of fellow Democrats.
Yeah, I bet it wasn’t fifteen minutes from the time the news hit the wire to Anderson being called on the carpet by his fellow Democrats. Perhaps Anderson forgot that bipartisanship only works one way in Annapolis.
Honestly, I was surprised Curt would be the one to cross the aisle considering he never scored well on the monoblogue Accountability Project – I would have picked a Delegate like Kevin Kelly or John F. Wood, Jr. as they were the top two most conservative Democrats during the last term. (Wood is a cosponsor of the sales tax relief bill, HB465, introduced by Delegate Justin Ready earlier this week.)
But the venom from his city cohorts, as noted in this Maryland Politics blog posting, is scathing. The TEA Party is the Anti-Christ to the Democratic party? Get a grip, Delegate Glenn. What a poor choice of words! Let me tell the Democrats I know who participate in the TEA Parties that they’re quite at home in your version of the party. </sarc>
This just goes further to show the arrogance and disrespect elected Maryland Democrats have for the common working person. But it also shows the character of Delegate Anderson that he returned to the plantation so soon – why stop now, when they’re still threatening to take away your delegation chairmanship despite the fact you stepped aside from the TEA Party Caucus? To me, principles matter.
And despite the best efforts to marginalize the TEA Party Caucus, they’ve scored a victory by attracting the attention of liberal Democrats. Delegate Maggie McIntosh is quoted in the Sun as saying, “(The caucus is) highly organized. We should take them seriously.”
Damn right you should take us seriously because now we have a full four-year cycle to recruit candidates and build a war chest to defeat the liberals who have taken Maryland a long way down a dead-end street of debt and overbearing government. We didn’t do too badly in basically one year of preparation and not a lot of help from the state Republican Party since we picked off six Democrats from the House and it took a ton of special interest money to eke out two of OUR Senate seats that are now simply on loan to their Democratic occupants. (Yes, that means you, Jim Mathias.)
Go ahead and try to redistrict us out of existence – it won’t work because there’s too many of us now. If they want war because they consider us in the TEA Party the Anti-Christ, well, I say give it to them.
But Delegate Curt Anderson’s not a victim of that war, nor is he even a casualty. He may be put in his place for a short while, but eventually he’ll be back in the fold because they’ll need his vote and all will be forgiven when he delivers. Most likely it won’t serve the rest of us well, but that’s how the game is played in Annapolis and that’s why it needs to change four years hence.
C’mon now. This is what rankles me most about partisan politics. The ability to vilify the other side for doing something while maintaining an almost pathological blindness to the same actions by your own side. Here, with all due respect, the alleged arrogance and disrespect with which you seem so concerned is exhibited in equal measure on the Republican side. This is no different than Allen Kittleman stepping down as Senate Minority Leader in the aftermath of his decision to support the same sex marriage bill.
I don’t know. I like taking individuals on their own merits, be they right, left, or somewhere in between, remembering that politics is but a small part of the totality of a person. To a great degree, I’ve checked out of the debating society when it comes to politics. So much wind and smoke, yet so little actually getting done . . .
But I had to call you on this one. Not because I support what went down with Delegate Anderson. But because you framed it as if such activity is a Democratic Party problem, when the Republican Party is equally involved in such ideological purification . . .
Gotta roll. Later . . .
Chris, that’s why I linked to the article about arrogance and deceit. It’s the Democrats who play the power games in this state.
I speak from personal experience when I tell you that Republicans do the same in other states; however, having said that, what we can affect here and now is the situation in Maryland.
The Republicans and the tea party are just as guilty on vilifying their own if they don’t disagree on issues. I use to be into the tea party at first. The reason that I am not a tea partier is because many told me that my ilk isn’t welcomed in their organization and the GOP. Many the tea partiers are ‘green’. I am prolife, anti-illegal immigration, pro-business. If that makes me a RINO, I don’t know what is.
“So much wind and smoke, yet so little getting done.” Amen, OS, Amen. And both, now possibly three {a political poison triangle instead of a two-poled magnet.} fringes can share some of the blame for not achieving common, far-sighted and brutally pragmatic ground. Too much time, and money, is spent ‘campaigning/politics’ to defeat, instead of proper ‘governing’ once you get the gig to improve.
MInd you, I like and respect Michael . . . he’s a great writer and political analyst . . .
Had to throw a positive in there . . .
Just my way these days . . . 🙂
Peace all . . .
If you republicans are such fiscal conservatives, how come three — Colburn, Eckardt and Haddaway-Riccio want to have the state fund a fake lighthouse at Cambridge?
Constituent service? I don’t care for it either, but the problem will exist as long as we have ‘bond bills.’