Del. Pat McDonough accusing Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of political pandering in his recent commentary ("Rawlings-Blake, Obama turn Baltimore into an 'amnesty city,'" Dec. 14) is the kettle calling the frying pan black. No one outdoes Mr. McDonough in appealing to people's base fears and ethnic insecurities for electoral gain.

And the Harford County delegate's concern for Baltimore would be touching if it weren't so incongruous. I guess there aren't enough hardworking "illegal aliens" in his neck of the woods to scare people. But why talk about income inequality, the declining middle class or the lack of affordable education when a scapegoat for all the anxieties generated by these problems is readily available?

If Mr McDonough is going to play on people's emotions, why not appeal to our better natures; don't further alienate an already fractured and fearful populace. He reminds me of Guildenstern in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" when the prince confronts his manipulating ways: "'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?"

John G. Bailey, Edgemere