Robert Engle, recipient of the the 2003 Nobel in Economics, is also a competitive ice dancer.

The question is how many high school grads do you know that have $70K a year government lobbying jobs?

RCD, well Bill Gates (the richest or is he now second richest) man in the world is a college drop-out.

Frankly, what does this have to do with anything? If he could do the job great, if not then you fire him.

The committee is a witch hunt established to simply smear the Governor during an election year, nothing more, and nothing elss.

And the ice skating attacks are similiar to the Bobby-hair attacks. The irony is that when it is against Governor Ehrlich the attacks are alright, but how dare anyone criticize O'Malley's Baltimore--that'd be Baltimore-bashing!! Don't bash the city (aka Martin's record)!

Actually, Bryan this issue has been boiling long before the election year. I think even the appearance of firing life long government employees and then replacing them with unqualified cronies is worth investigating. Ehrlich staked the deck on the PSC committee and had the self proclaimed "Prince of Darkness" fire Democratic employees. If a Democrat governer had done something similar it surely would warrant an investigation. We shouldn't turn a blind eye to shady dealings just because of party affiliation.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

May 12, 2006 -- GOP Scandal Scorecard Updated with Republican Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher's indictment late yesterday on 3 counts. He joins fellow GOP Governor Bob Taft of Ohio in the criminal docket.
The Republican governor's criminal chain gang gets a little longer. Kentucky's Fletcher (right) joins Ohio's Taft (left) in criminal court. An idea for the location of the next Republican National Convention: Alcatraz.

Thanks Che, the other O'Malley staffer already posted that on the Baltimore Sun's forums. Good to know you guys are operating under the same talking points though!

Mr. K-- the former Democratic Governor fired more personnel and created the at will positions as they are. It only became an issue when a Republican came into power. Anything to slap Ehrlich is the mentality--37 veto overrides, special investigative committes, dragging pintos up to the state house and on and on. Even the Washington Post via it's editorial pages is calling the MGA and the Democrats silly here.

I don't recall reading anything about Glendenning firing any non-partisan government employees and replacing them with his personal cronies a la Ehrlich. If you have an article or any evidence to the contrary, I would be interested to read it.

Furthermore, I don't fault the legislature for overriding some of Ehrlich's vetos on common sense legislation like raising the minimum wage. I'm sorry, but people can't live off of $5.15 an hour in 2006.

The Post's editorial staff has taken a hard turn toward the right in recent months so them calling the MGA silly is no big surprise. Frankly, with the right wingers doing a bang up job at the federal level these days, I'm glad we have liberals in control of things in Maryland. And have you noticed, unlike many red states, Maryland isn't in a fiscal crisis and is a great place to live!

Mr. Maddalone is an ice dancer; so what? I never received a college degree in my vocation and I am excellent at what I do and have gone pretty far. Does the irony escape everyone that while they are making these statements about Mr. Maddalone being unqualified, two of the so-called highly qualified PSC employees who were let go are currently working in low level jobs? While Maryland's economy is clipping along and the state's unemployment rate is running at a full-percentage point below the national average, these highly qualified workers had great difficulty finding gainful employement. One took fifteen months to find another job with the US Agricultural Department. How qualified could they have been? Sounds like someone intent on only working for the government. They other went from $75k a year to working for the an animal protection society for $8.70 an hour. Why isn't anyone questioning how qualified these individuals were, because they don't sound like they were so uniquely qualified to hold their positions at the PSC as everyone would like to portray.

Mr. K, that's because the minimum wage was never intended as a living wage. They are radically different terms. So the increase to what $6.85 is suddenly a living wage? Get real. The only effect of the minimum wage increase was to slam small business. A living wage is $11 something an hour or over.

Right, with Glendenning you read about his assistant at half his age becoming pregnant by him while he was married. However, if you did read more, you'd see Glendenning made all of these jobs at-will. And over the course of his administration he did fire people. Simply because you didn't read it in the BS or the WaPo, doesn't mean it didn't happen. You're talking about newspapers that have shown a historical bend for him.

These days the Post is simply reflecting some common sense. Especially with the veto overrides. You said they made sense--all 37 of them? Really? I think it is sad that the legislature couldn't develop a BGE rate plan but they could override 37 vetos--frankly I think they didnt want to come up with a plan because they clearly had the votes for it.

Yes Bryan, I do know the difference between a living wage and the minimum wage. I was reading the other day in USA Today that since the minimum wage has not been adjusted for inflation that $5.15 is worth about $4.05 in 1998 dollars. I don't see how you could think that is possibily fair for the millions of people who work low paying jobs. I highly doubt businesses will be hard hit by this modest imposition on them due to the tons of tax cuts and other pro-business benefits being handed over to them by the Bush administration.

Again, if you have an article or link about Glendenning, I would love to read it.

Secondly, there is a tad of hegemony between empolyer and employee with "at-will" employment. At-will employment is allowed to be in place because employees feel there is a fair understanding that they will not just be up and fired for no reason. If people were in a constant state of fear about their job security, at-will employment would be tossed. Frankly, I highly doubt that if you got fired from your job so that some crony could take your place that you would be singing the at-will employment tune you are currently advocating.

And no, the Post is not reflecting "common sense." Their editorial staff has taken an obvious bend to the right. On one day online I read an editoral condeming the MGA and then an article applauding them.

Please don't misquote me. I said, "Furthermore, I don't fault the legislature for overriding some of Ehrlich's vetos on common sense legislation..." The operative word there is SOME, please read thoroughly before commenting. I wish they had come up with a BGE plan as well and it's disappointing they didn't. I'm glad they did something even if it was just overriding 37 Ehrlich vetos, which is more action than I could ever hope for from our Republican controlled federal government.

Personally, I couldn't care less if the guy's former day job was prancing around in a pink leotard sprinkling fairy-dust on preschool kids. What I do care tremendously about is unqualified people filling jobs that should never have been "at will."

The number of at will jobs in Maryland is enormous, and comparisons to other states bares this out. The blame for this lays at the feet of the previous Democratic administrations, yet the problem is being perpetuated by a Republican governor willing to take advantage of that power. Sending around Steffen - the self-described "Prince of Darkness" - or Chesek - who referred to himself as "al Qaeda" when describing his role for eliminating others to make room for Ehrlich loyalists - is certainly both disheartening and disturbing. Simply, this is not how the system is supposed to work... even for "at will" employees.

The right thing to do is for the governor to transfer the bulk of these low and mid-level state jobs from "at will" to normal, qualification-based positions. While this at the very top on my list of issues, any candidate for governor that pledges to fix the system by reducing the number of "at will" jobs will certainly be helping himself for getting my vote.

Mr. K, if you want to be legalese about it, you also didn't specify disagreeing with any of their veto overrides. Agreeing with some does not necessarily reflect disagreeing with others. P->Q does not equal Q->P.

Anyway, my point was that the minimum wage was never intended to be a living wage. Thus to say it is unfair is to entirely ignore the point of it.

Mr. K,

From a 6/19/05 Post story on at-will employees:

Ehrlich's top advisers have said they fired 284 workers. That number, they say, is modest compared with what occurred when his predecessor, Parris N. Glendening (D), took office in 1995, replacing fellow Democrat William Donald Schaefer.

But Ehrlich has overseen the dismissal of four times as many workers as Glendening, according to state personnel chief Andrea Fulton, who reviewed state records at the request of The Washington Post. She said Glendening fired 65 workers during the first three years of his administration.

Phyllis, do enlighten us to how these 7,500 individuals became at-will employees?

Also, has the Post ran any stories indicating that the 'special committee' has found any of Ehrlich's actions illegal?

Have there been any charges?

Moderating the Post and seemingly answering select questions will lead to charges of indiscretion towards one side and I think you seem like a fair guy, but I'm already wondering.

Bryan,
Fair enough, I'll stay out of it. Mr. K had a specific question and I remembered that we printed a specific answer. But if I go down this road, I could be answering questions all day.