A Big Whiff

What is that breeze you feel?

It is Delegate James King striking out in his lame attempt to smear bloggers as a defense for his vote on the slots bill during the special session.

King said the blogs denigrate into personal attacks instead of providing factual commentary. The blogs ‘‘have no ethical standards, no legal standards. They are not bound by any [responsibility] to be factual,” ...

‘‘My experience is that actual bloggers are individuals who ran for office in the past ... they were unable to get elected and this is their way to feel relevant in any way shape or form,”

Forget for a moment that King is responding to comments, not the actual posting that generated the comments. King's "way to feel relevant" jab, is a back-handed personal attack on me or my fellow Red Maryland colleague Greg Kline.

I can't speak for Greg, but Delegate King, if you were talking about me; try running in Baltimore City as a Republican in your next run for office instead of a safe Anne Arundel County district. Furthermore, I was blogging well before I took one for the team.

Delegate King is upset that some of us in the blogosphere dared to criticize his vote for the slots bill.

King's feeble explanation of his slots vote shows two things:

1. Delegate King is deliberately deceiving his constituents or ignorant of how the legislative process works.

2. Intellectually, King can't play ball with those who wear long pants, which is why he only takes on anonymous commenters instead of the substantive arguments of his blogger critics. Delegate King has engaged in the same "argument" in print and talk radio. That is, he has not really made an argument, rather he merely repeats his flawed position in the vain hope that if someone hears it enough they will believe it.

Delegate King also has some splainin to do regarding his involvement with Citizens for Better Government, a shady PAC using the name of Ronald Reagan to build a political slush fund.

CBG bills itself as a fund for candidates who "exemplify, for example, fiscal restraint, transparency in government, honesty and integrity." Delegate King, through his vote for slots, disingenuous explanation for that vote, and ad hominem attacks, is an example of none of those qualities.