The on-again, off-again public spat between Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy is on again, prompted by a blistering letter Jessamy sent to Esquire magazine deriding its laudatory article about O'Malley.
Jessamy's two-page letter, sent to Esquire on Friday, is in response to an article in the magazine's "Best and Brightest" issue dubbing O'Malley "the best young mayor in America." The issue hit the newsstands last week.
The magazine piece says O'Malley is dashing, frenetic and constructively explosive, while it says Jessamy "embodies the old-line culture of excuses." It adds that the state's attorney "represents the momentum of a body long at rest."
In her letter, Jessamy excoriates writer Robert Kurson and the magazine for not giving her the opportunity to respond.
"His overt and calculated failure to interview me for this lengthy article, and his reckless reliance on innuendo and gossip without checking facts, missed the mark of true journalistic integrity," Jessamy wrote. "The end result was a self-serving account that sounded more like an insider's account of a sophomoric locker room, complete with four-letter words, to describe a pompous and arrogant boys' club."
O'Malley could not be reached for comment.
Jessamy's letter says the article "describes a petulant, impulsive deal maker, rather than a mature, seasoned and thoughtful public official -- yet this is considered, 'The Best and Brightest'?"
O'Malley, who became mayor in 2000, and Jessamy, who took office in 1995, have had a prickly relationship for years.
The height of their tempestuousness was last year when O'Malley launched a profanity-laden tirade against Jessamy for dropping charges in a police corruption case.
This summer, when Jessamy was campaigning for re-election, she fought back publicly for the first time after O'Malley berated prosecutors and a city District Court judge for allowing a man charged with shooting a 10-year-old boy to be released on $35,000 bail. Jessamy's spokeswoman Margaret T. Burns held a news conference in June, lambasting the mayor and accusing him of "hoodwinking" the public and "failing miserably" to reduce crime.
Days after that episode, the two had a publicized meeting to discuss criminal justice reforms, and appeared to somewhat repair their relationship.
But privately, their interaction seemed tense.
Kurson describes a news conference two months after the conciliatory meeting in which the two officials announced a big drug bust. Before the news cameras, Jessamy stood next to O'Malley listing the seized assets, including cocaine and a cutting agent called mannite.
The state's attorney explained that mannite is also used as a baby laxative, which O'Malley apparently found hilarious, according to the article.
"O'Malley's lips purse at the non sequitur," Kurson writes. "The corners of his lips quiver. He is engaged in a hellish battle to keep from laughing. When the cameras point elsewhere, he whispers to a detective standing near him, 'Did you search the house for constipated babies?'"
Burns, Jessamy's spokeswoman, said Jessamy responded to the article because it poked fun at her while failing to mention her accomplishments, including that she won the primary in September and was re-elected to another term.
"She felt like she needed to set the record straight," Burns said. "There were numerous errors and it was inaccurate. There was so much bias against her personally and professionally."