Free Republic

The biggest political fight in years is underway in Annapolis, and Jervis S. Finney -- the courtly yet controversial chief counsel to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) -- is right in the middle of things. As the governor's lawyer, Finney also has been acting as his chief defender since Democrats launched a review of whether Ehrlich fired state employees improperly. In a series of letters, written in the formal, long-winded style his intimates call "jervieze," he has been scolding Democrats who he thinks are misbehaving. Critics say he is stirring things up with his efforts to intimidate. Others say...

In a day marked by partisan feuding and a sweeping dismissal of GOP concerns, General Assembly leaders voted Thursday to give subpoena power to a special committee examining the governor's personnel practices. The Legislative Policy Committee -- led by Democratic House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. -- also adopted a resolution allowing the special committee to hire any staff or consultants, possibly including legal counsel, that it deemed necessary. Sen. J. Lowell Stoltzfus, the Senate Republican leader, sharply criticized the actions of his Democratic colleagues. "This has all the trappings of an investigation...

Republican lawmakers say they won't participate in hearings on Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s personnel practices if the inquiry becomes overly partisan, and they are threatening to walk out of the proceedings if majority Democrats don't play fair. "If it's extremely egregious and partisan, and Republicans aren't given the opportunity to participate in it, then we won't be there," Sen. J. Lowell Stoltzfus, the minority leader from Somerset County, said yesterday. The warning comes as a 12-member committee is scheduled to launch its investigation Monday into Ehrlich's hiring and firing decisions. The effort -- the first major legislative probe into...

Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. asked legislative leaders yesterday to abandon their probe into his personnel practices and instead join his administration in an examination of the state's hiring and firing. "If you really want the best for the state of Maryland and its citizens, I suggest that the three of us work together to establish a bipartisan commission spanning the legislative and executive branches of government," Ehrlich (R) wrote in a letter to the state Senate president and House speaker. The four-page, sharply worded letter also accused Democratic lawmakers of ordering up the legislature's first formal investigation in...

Legislative leaders repudiated criticism yesterday of their committee to investigate Ehrlich administration personnel practices, saying that the probe is not a partisan exercise but an attempt to ensure the quality of the state work force. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch responded to a series of attacks by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s chief counsel, Jervis S. Finney, and other administration officials. Finney has accused two committee members of prejudging the administration's guilt and has demanded they resign. "There have been a number of politically motivated attacks waged against this committee even before it...

Introduction to The Five Pillars The Five Pillars represent the highest priorities of the Ehrlich-Steele Administration. Serious consideration of and improvements to these five categories will result in a greater quality of life in Maryland. From balancing the budget, to restoring the natural balance of the Chesapeake Bay, to increasing funding for K-12 education, these issues have the administration's highest attention as we strive to create a better Maryland for all.

The top legal counsel to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has accused a prominent Democratic state senator who will soon participate in a legislative probe of the Ehrlich administration's firing practices of "apparently withholding information" for partisan political purposes that could provide ammunition to the governor's supporters. Jervis S. Finney, Ehrlich's counsel, wrote to state Sen. Brian E. Frosh of Montgomery County last week, charging Frosh with engaging in "a concerted, yet totally unsubstantiated, attack on the personnel policy and integrity of the Ehrlich administration" and failing to disclose the identity of a participant on an online message board. Frosh,...

The lawmakers, Ehrlich said, have "questioned my integrity. I will not put up with that any time, any place, under any context, regardless of my position. . . . " SNIP During the radio interview, Ehrlich confirmed that his chief counsel had written Frosh to question his ability to be impartial during the investigation. Ehrlich also said he has "a strong suspicion" that Frosh knows the identity of the anonymous Web poster who prodded Steffen into discussing efforts to smear O'Malley. SNIP Frosh denied that and called the discussion of the anonymous Web poster, who used the handle MD4BUSH, a...

EXCERPT "When approached at a speaking event recently, Kendel Ehrlich said that she has made no secret of her contempt for the way the area's largest newspapers have covered her husband and that she agreed when the governor's press secretary advised her not to comment for this article. 'Frankly,' she said before walking away, 'There's no trust.'" EXCERPT "The chill between the O'Malleys and the Ehrlichs has intensified significantly since published reports showed that one of the governor's aides was spreading rumors about the mayor's personal life. Martin O'Malley decried the rumors as false and hurtful. The governor fired the...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Leading state Democrats authorized Tuesday a newly-created bipartisan panel to begin investigating the governor's firing practices. WBAL-TV 11 News reporter David Collins reported some lawmakers have called for a full-blown probe into alleged rogue firings based on political affiliation since the legislative session began. Whether there will be outside counsel, subpoena power, that will be determined by the special committee," House Speaker Michael Busch said during Tuesday's Legislative Policy Committee meeting. Six members from both the House of Delegates and the Senate will comprise this special committee. SNIP The Democrats -- using press accounts, large settlements with...

Legislative leaders decided Tuesday to appoint a 12-member, bipartisan committee to investigate personnel decisions made by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. The Special Committee on State Employee Rights and Protections -- to be co-chaired by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Thomas McLain Middleton and House Speaker Pro Tempore Adrienne A. Jones (D-Dist. 10) of Woodstock and made up of six members from the House and Senate -- will begin its work in coming weeks and deliver recommendations on its scope and other specifics in August. The committee will decide then if it needs to hire outside counsel and additional staff and...

"Suppose, however, that Deep Throat had orchestrated the Watergate break-in and then leaked to the Washington Post in order to frame his co-conspirators. Would his motives matter then? Judging by the Post’s recent reporting on a political scandal in Maryland, the motives of anonymous sources feeding information to the paper are not important if the result is a chance to relive the Post’s glory days of Watergate, if only in some small way ..."

Last week, Vanity Fair scooped the Washington Post when it revealed the identity of the Post’s legendary anonymous source Deep Throat. Once Vanity Fair had reported that Deep Throat was actually W. Mark Felt of the FBI, speculation began to circulate about his motives for feeding information to the Post. Bob Shieffer on Face the Nation Sunday argued that Felt’s motives were unimportant, because his actions had saved America from becoming “a nation of men, not laws.” Fair enough. Suppose, however, that Deep Throat had orchestrated the Watergate break-in and then leaked to the Washington Post in order to frame...

Joe Steffen--the former Ehrlich aide accused of spreading rumors about the personal life of Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley--broke his silence Tuesday. --Snip-- Steffen, who has remained silent since his firing, released a statement to the 11 News I-Team Tuesday directed at the mayor's accusation repeated last week that Steffen took part in a dirty tricks team intent on spreading dirt about the mayor's personal life. In the statement, [WBAL reporter] Miller said Steffen directly responded to what the mayor said last week when O'Malley accused the governor of continuing to conduct a smear campaign. The mayor referred specifically to what...

ANNAPOLIS, Md.- A former aide of Gov. Robert Ehrlich asked last year about removing Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's sister-in-law from her state job, according to e-mails obtained by The Washington Post . The aide, Joseph Steffen, was dismissed by Ehrlich for spreading rumors about O'Malley. E-mails from Steffen's computer show that in July he asked an Ehrlich appointments official about who had authority over Melinda O'Malley's job as a lawyer representing the Maryland Insurance Administration. O'Malley, who was on maternity leave at the time, told The Post that she was "kind of stunned" when she learned about the e-mail: "It...

A longtime aide to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. who was fired in February for spreading rumors about the mayor of Baltimore apparently did not use his state computer in the effort, according to an analysis commissioned by the governor's office. The analysis of Joseph F. Steffen Jr.'s state computer, made public by Ehrlich's press office yesterday, also found nothing conclusive that would link the governor or his top aides to rumors about Mayor Martin O'Malley's personal life. "Such rumors were not spread by Governor Ehrlich's staff or other advisors," Ehrlich's counsel, Jervis S. Finney, wrote in assessing the significance...

....In the days following Steffen's firing, Ehrlich pledged an internal investigation that would "get to the bottom" of Steffen's activities. More recently, the governor has urged the media to investigate how the story came to light. In particular, Ehrlich has suggested pursuing the identity of MD4BUSH, an Internet user who asked Steffen leading questions about O'Malley on the conservative Web site, http://www.freerepublic.com . Steffen, using the screen name NCPAC, had discussed the rumors before MD4BUSH appeared on the site. WBAL commentators yesterday stressed that Catherine O'Malley had raised the issue publicly long before Steffen had. Paul E. Schurick, Ehrlich's communications...

ANNAPOLIS -- A consultant's study of a computer used by Joseph Steffen found no evidence that the former aide to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. used the equipment to spread rumors about Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, the governor's chief legal adviser said today. Jervis Finney also said the consultant found no evidence on the computer to indicate that Ehrlich or any of his staff were involved in spreading rumors that the Baltimore mayor and likely candidate for governor next year had been unfaithful to his wife. "All aspects of the investigation are continuing," Finney said in a letter to House...

In some of his harshest language yet, Mayor Martin O'Malley charged Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. with orchestrating a taxpayer-financed smear campaign against him and demanded the governor cease his "cowardly abuse of power." [snip] Ehrlich said he had no comment on the substance of the mayor's allegations but said that "O'Malley points fingers." "Whining is not a leadership style," Ehrlich said. "I don't like whiners. I've never associated with whiners." He said his administration could not respond every time the mayor "acts out, every time he whines, every time he points a finger." [snip] O'Malley's comments came in response...

BALTIMORE - The mayor Wednesday accused Gov. Robert Ehrlich of "cowardly abuse of power," saying he's using a dirty tricks campaign to keep alive rumors of the mayor's alleged infidelity. An Ehrlich spokeswoman called the accusations "ridiculous, unfounded, groundless." The rumor mill began churning in February, when The Washington Post reported an Ehrlich aide was posting rumors on the Internet that Mayor Martin O'Malley had an extramarital affair. The Democratic mayor - a possible rival for the governor's mansion in Maryland in 2006 - denounced the allegations as "despicable lies" and the Republican governor fired the aide. The story flared...