The champagne had not stopped flowing from celebrating big wins for gay marriage and the Dream Act (the in-state tuition bill) before Governor O'Malley told WBAL that it is "a little too easy" to petition a law to referendum. (Both laws had been passed in the General Assembly and were pushed to the ballot via the referendum process by opponents.) "We've been best served in our state over the 200 or more years of our history by a representative democracy, rather than plebiscites," he said.
The O'Malley administration supports State Center, a $1.5 billion taxpayer-financed project in Baltimore City whose developers happen to have hired some allies of the governor. A group of plaintiffs sued to stop the project, claiming the process for selecting the developers violated competitive bidding laws. The O'Malley administration tried to dismiss the case, failed, then countersued plaintiffs for $100 million and lost. Plaintiffs are still waiting for the state to turn over documents in the case as ordered by court. In the meantime, the O'Malley administration tried to push through legislation in the General Assembly that would have rewritten the law for the project retroactively and circumvented existing rulings.
How many more examples are necessary to show that Mr. O'Malley's inclusive, tolerant veneer chips easily and reveals a man who, whether through temperament or proximity to power, sees the law as something to use or disregard for his own good?
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opi...2173154.column