The man who hoped to never need a speechwriter has hired one.

Richard J. Cross III will join the administration of Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. as a professional message-shaper and wordsmith.

But don't expect Ehrlich to lose his oratorical standbys, including "folks," "with regard to" and "a neat lady."

Ehrlich is a down-home guy and shall not be over-handled, his staff says. Nevertheless his speech will be supervised.

"It would be an exercise in futility for anyone to write a word-for-word speech and expect Governor-elect Ehrlich to follow it," said spokeswoman Shareese N. DeLeaver.

Cross, 36, of Timonium knows this as well as anyone.

"To date, [Ehrlich's] never had a speechwriter because he likes to speak off the cuff," he said. "I've known him so long I know the way he thinks. ... We'll look for a crystallizing phrase to make the policy point."

Cross helped write Ehrlich's speeches during the campaign. In large part, that amounted to giving Ehrlich talking points and then watching him change and correct them with his blue felt tip pen.

Cross's professional association with the new governor dates to Ehrlich's first congressional campaign in 1994. Cross was then his press secretary for three years on Capitol Hill.

And before that, as a senior at the Johns Hopkins University, Cross wrote a thesis on how the Maryland GOP could challenge the statewide Democratic monopoly. For it, he interviewed a state delegate whose energy made a strong impression on him: Ehrlich at age 31.

Cross will come to Annapolis after working four years as public relations director at the Downtown Partnership, a coalition of Baltimore businesses and institutions.

Myers supporters roll out the barrel to celebrate

The public talk about cooperation and unity at Saturday's Republican convention in Annapolis was all very mature.

But the night before, in Suite 682 of the Radisson hotel, a group of men organized a party that hearkened to sophomore year at college: Around a keg of beer, they gathered to gloat.

"Come Celebrate Delegate-Elect Leroy Myers Victory Over Speaker Cas Taylor," the poster-size invitations said. The lettering of the words "Cas Taylor" was dripping spookily, Halloween-style.

Del. Donald E. Murphy of Baltimore County, who actively supported Myers and was dubbed a "downstate carpetbagger" by Taylor, said he had a blast. (Murphy joined the campaign against Taylor because his own territory was chopped up in redistricting.)

Myers, though, was less effusive. "I don't drink," he said. "I didn't stay long."

O'Malley says he could have been a contender

For the first time since the November election, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley has said he believes he would have defeated Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in a Democratic gubernatorial primary.

In an interview a couple of weeks ago on John McLaughlin's PBS show, One on One, McLaughlin asked O'Malley: "If you had won -- if you had entered the race, do you think you would have won it?"

O'Malley: "Yes. And that was what was so ..."

McLaughlin: "Because you felt -- in your own words, you thought that the candidacy of Kathleen Townsend, her leadership was, quote-unquote, 'a vacuum?'"

O'Malley: "I thought there was a vacuum of leadership in the Democratic Party. I thought that no one had articulated yet the sort of vision of what our state could be and the role that the City of Baltimore had in that state's future."

McLaughlin then probed his future: "In 2004, your mayor's term will be up. If you were offered the vice presidential slot on the ticket, would you take it?"

O'Malley laughed, and McLaughlin pressed him. "Would you accept it?"

O'Malley responded: "Depends on the day offered. [Laughs.] It depends on what this job is doing to me."

Police superintendent possibilities abound

At least three names are floating about to replace State Police Superintendent David B. Mitchell, a gubernatorial appointee.

One is Col. Douglas DeLeaver, chief of the Maryland Transit Administration Police, longtime Ehrlich friend, and father of Ehrlich spokeswoman Shareese N. DeLeaver.

The others are Del. Thomas E. Hutchins, a Charles County Republican and former state trooper, and Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose, whose face was broadcast worldwide during this fall's sniper crisis.

DeLeaver (the daughter) said yesterday her father had not met with Ehrlich to discuss the job. Neither have the others.

Ehrlich stewing over restaurant endorsement

Don't expect to see Ehrlich eating out anytime soon. How else to punish those ungrateful restaurateurs?

The Maryland Restaurant Association endorsed Townsend's candidacy, and the governor-elect remains hopping mad.

The association reasoned that Ehrlich's support of gambling could hurt its business, since casino restaurants could eat into their profits.

Last week Ehrlich called that logic "phony." As a congressman he repeatedly voted against raising the minimum wage, and considers himself a champion of small business.

How he will get revenge is unclear, but he seems bent on letting the restaurant people know he's unhappy. "Extremely disappointing," he said twice, slowly and menacingly.