MARTY O’MALLEY, IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME???

While there does still remain a majority, albeit a shrinking one, on the left of those who at least appear to be enthusiastic when it comes to Hitlery Clinton, but the size of that majority would now seem to be shrinking on what is, at least, a weekly basis.  The more her email problems remain the topic of discussion, as well as the rather sizable donations made to her family’s foundation that have come from some very questionable, to say the least, sources, the less Hitlery ‘appears’ to be ready for primetime.  Enter Marty O’Malley, the former governor of the People’s Republic of Maryland.  Marty who it would seem to standing at the ready to portray himself as a viable alternative should Hitlery falter.

And so it would appear that Marty just might be having a bit of a moment for himself.  But make no mistake, it’s not because of anything that he, himself, might be doing.  What his sudden spike in popularity has much more to do with is a growing level of anxiety regarding Hitlery’s readiness for a presidential campaign that has some Democrats looking around for potential alternatives.  And the only person standing there right now is Marty, who recently passed up a run for his state’s open Senate seat, making it even clearer that he’s serious about a presidential run.  And he did get some national coverage from as speech Wednesday the Brookings Institution and he has recently turned up on MSNBC.

But let’s not be too quick to affix the rising-insurgent moniker to Marty just yet.  After all, it remains difficult to imagine Marty playing the part of progressive challenger, a role played in prior Democrat presidential primaries by such notable characters from the left as Gene McCarthy, George McGovern, Gary Hart, Bill Bradley, and, especially, Howard ‘The Screamer’ Dean.  While O’Malley carried out a staunchly liberal agenda in Maryland—legalizing same-sex marriage, ending the death penalty, and much more—and while he has proven feisty at partisan sparring with Republicans, it is hard to envision him as being able to stir liberal hearts and minds the way previous insurgents have been able to do.  

And it’s not just because he’s a notoriously leaden public speaker; it’s that, as progressive as his governing record is, on more than a few occasions he’s been oddly reluctant to champion liberal values in the terms many on the left crave.  It was during the Obamacare debate that he chided Democrats who “immediately run to the values of caring and fairness” instead of focusing on the economic case for health care reform.  His idea of visionary language is calling for America to be an “opportunity-expanding entity.”  He’s more likely to quote Thomas Friedman than Thomas Frank.  And he is, even by his own account, not a tribune but a technocrat, not an orator but a doer.

And that’s where Marty’s other and, potentially, more significant challenges comes in. His supposed record of accomplishment as a governing executive between mayor of Baltimore, and governor of Maryland, has him taking already one of the more prosperous and well-educated states in the nation, a better place to live. But his ‘legacy’ is now at risk of being at least partially dismantled. His chosen successor and lieutenant governor, Anthony Brown, succumbed in what was surely the biggest Republican upset last of November’s election. In a state that Barry won by 26 percentage points in both 2012 and 2008, Brown managed to lose by four points to Larry Hogan, a conservative businessman who’d never even held elected office.

While the responsibility for this ‘debacle’ ultimately lies with Brown, Marty can also be said to bear some of responsibility as well for the fact that the governorship of Maryland now lies in the hands of those who are seen by many, in this very blue state, as the opposition.  It was Marty who chose the rather underwhelming Brown as his successor, and then proceeded to make himself quite scarce during the race, choosing to spend more time in Iowa and New Hampshire than Arbutus and Aspen Hill.  Gov. Hogan is now hard at work trying to clean up the mess that Marty left behind. And that would be the mess that so many on left describe as being Marty’s wonderfully progressive legacy.

But some of the things that you will rarely, if ever, hear Marty or his allies make mention of, is how he set about the increasing of sales taxes, income taxes on high-income earners and how he even went so far as to create entirely new taxes on services.  He also raised the gas tax for the first time in more than two decades and increased the corporate tax rate.  Joe Cluster, executive director of the Maryland Republican Party, said, "O'Malley's legacy is the strongest Republican Party since the 1920s."  Mr. Cluster went on to say, "He was a strong campaigner, he won two elections, but in the end, his policies created an environment that will bring this state closer to being a two-party state."

And even some Democrats agree that the Republican wave that took the governor's mansion and a record number of House of Delegate seats was sparked, at least in part, by Marty's insatiable appetite for higher taxes. It was House Economic Matters Chairman Dereck Davis, a Prince George's County Democrat, who said, "We were, in retrospect, a bit too aggressive in that department."  Davis said, "The party led by the governor, point blank, was too aggressive in trying to maintain the status quo."  He added, "You have to make tough choices, even if they're just temporary, you have to make those [budget] cuts. You have to slow things down. We were unwilling to say no to anybody, about anything."

But Marty and his defenders will argue that those tax increases were necessary to keep investing in schools and to stave off painful cuts during the nationwide recession.  We’re told that he inherited a $1.7 billion structural deficit when he took over from Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich in 2007, a deficit, which this year, stands at an estimated $750 million, or a reduction of nearly a billion dollars.  But, I can’t help but wonder, wouldn’t you think that after eight years of being governor that Marty could have done a much better job?  Perhaps, had he been a just a bit more interested in cutting spending he might have been able to, like Scott Walker in Wisconsin as a for instance, he could have ended up with a surplus.

In then end though, we shouldn’t be too quick to assume that Hitlery’s current troubles will, in the end, prove to be fatal to her political ambitions which obviously include her desire to enter the 2016 presidential contest.  Because to make that assumption would require us to also assume that Hitlery’s supporters to put the country above their politics.  The truth is that it’s going to take a whole lot more than some emails and questionable donations to her, and ‘Slick Willie’s’, foundation/charity to cause enough Democrats to desert her.  I mean short of being convicted of murder, and even that might not be enough for many, there are those who will remain steadfastly by her side no matter what.