In a piece on Politico the day before the Maryland primary, former U.S. Rep. Martin Frost of Texas predicted that Barack Obama would have a tough time in the state. His reason: Maryland is full of racists.
"Though now considered a heavily Democratic state and a generally liberal enclave, Maryland has a long - but little-known - history of racial division that may cut into Obama's margin. It is not by accident that the Mason-Dixon Line (separating the North and the South) is the northern boundary of Maryland."
Mercy! Obama ran in a slave state?! He was lucky to get out with his liberty, much less 60 percent of the vote. Especially since, as Frost suggests, Maryland hasn't made much racial progress since the Civil War.
Frost reminisces about that not-so-Recent Unpleasantness, recalls Marylanders' fondness for segregationists George P. Mahoney and George Wallace in the 1960s and '70s, and then quickly brings us up to present day.
"Fast-forward to 2006," Frost writes after a bit about Wallace (who, he neglects to mention, was shot here). "Ben Cardin, a white Democratic U.S. representative, defeated Kweisi Mfume, former NAACP president and congressman, in the Democratic Senate primary. He went on to defeat a black Republican, then-Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, in the general election."
Well, that settles it. Cardin's in the Senate, so his state must be full of Klansmen. Obama never had a prayer.
So how did the Illinois senator manage to win so big? I'm sure Frost has the answer, but he didn't return a call seeking comment.
Who, him? We never saw him before
Silly me! Somehow I got the impression that Bo Harmon was John McCain's national political director. Where did that idea come from?
I know - when I saw Harmon at McCain's appearance in Arbutus last week and asked if he was there for McCain or Wayne Gilchrest. I knew he'd done work for both through Response America, a GOP marketing outfit.
"McCain," he said.
What's your title?
"Political director."
For Maryland?
"National."
And now that beep-beep-beep you hear is the sound of The Straight Talk Express backing up.
Harmon's involvement in the campaign is a little awkward because in 2002, McCain denounced TV ads put out by a U.S. Senate campaign that Harmon managed in Georgia. (The spots compared Max Cleland, triple Vietnam amputee, to terrorists.)
After I wrote about Harmon's role in the McCain campaign the other day, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked the McCain camp about it. Campaign spokesman Brian Rogers told the paper that Harmon is not national political director. He said Harmon was "an independent contractor" who runs "the phone operation to contact voters."
I called Rogers myself yesterday and got no reply.
But back in December, Politico's Jonathan Martin reported that Harmon was one of two "senior aides" to McCain just deployed to New Hampshire. He wrote: "Harmon, a veteran GOP operative, works for a direct mail and phones firm, but has been working with McCain's national staff as an adviser."
Who knew we had a Baltimore subway?
It's been around for a quarter century, but most Baltimoreans don't even know it exists.
Finally, the Metro Subway system gets its due - in Step Up 2 The Streets, a movie shot in Baltimore last summer. The film opened nationally yesterday, and the Maryland Transit Administration trumpeted the news like a proud stage mom.
"Metro Subway Performance a Must-See," read the headline on the MTA news release. The release noted, "The MTA has been the preferred mode of travel in other feature films including Live Free or Die Hard, The Invasion, Step Up and Ladder 49."
If only it would catch on with real commuters.
Honishness doesn't seem to translate well
One day this week, Mother jones.com's "Photo of the Day" showed a gal with a big, teased-up 'do, sitting under an even bigger cloud of hairspray.
"Annual Hon Fest in Baltimore's Hampden neighborhood," it read under the photo, shot by Washington photographer Bill Crandall.
Lefty Mother Jones' readers were left scratching their un-teased, un-sprayed heads.
"what is a hon fest?" one wrote.
Another responded: "After looking at honfest.net I still don't know what this is about except it has something to do with bad hair styles."