The OnLine State

We’ve catalogued Bob Ehrlich saying some pretty outrageous things in his right-wing shock jock gig on WBAL in the past three years, but this past week the former governor shocked Americans across the country by blasting Gov. O’Malley for visiting our troops.

At first we thought Ehrlich might have just gotten carried away and would change the subject. But then Ehrlich began running a full-scale campaign to attack Governor O’Malley for visiting our men and women in uniform.

Here are the facts: Ehrlich as Governor took trips to China, Israel, the Bahamas, Las Vegas and Philadelphia to watch Princeton play basketball versus Penn. But he has a problem with Martin O’Malley visiting our troops – unbelievable isn’t it?

No wonder WBAL-TV reporter Jayne Miller swiftly dismissed Ehrlich’s comments as “partisan, petty attacks.”

We’ll let Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown, a member of the Active and Reserve Components of the United States Army since 1984, have the last word:

“I thought that [Ehrlich's] comments were irresponsible.  Also, as a soldier, and I spent 26 years on active duty and in the Reserves, it was an insult to those of us who serve in uniform.

“I was in Iraq from September of ‘04 to July of ‘05.  When I was there, there were a number of delegations, congressional delegations, governors who came and visited.  In fact, it was a really exciting day when Congressmen Steny Hoyer and Ben Cardin came to visit, and I saw them in Baghdad.  Now they didn’t come to visit Anthony Brown, they came to visit soldiers and sailors airmen and Marines, but I can tell you it was a pretty exciting day to see their faces and to know that they were looking out for our well-being and trying to better understand what we were facing so that the decisions made back here at home are appropriate.”

Travis Tazelaar is Executive Director of the Maryland Democratic Party and a former U.S. Marine.