Have you heard the joke going around about the James Kraft doll?
Wind it up, and Mayor Martin O'Malley will talk for 15 minutes. If the doll happens to be talking to State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy, it'll talk 10 minutes and then walk out.
I got a million of 'em.
Kraft is the 1st District city councilman who heads the public safety subcommittee. It is now Day 3 after the eruption between Jessamy, Kraft and City Council Vice President Stephanie Rawlings Blake, the chairwoman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. Kraft and Rawlings Blake left a council hearing Wednesday night as Jessamy tried to answer questions about budgeting for - and the effectiveness of - her office.
After leaving, Kraft went before television cameras and did a great deal of harumphing in the hallways.
"She's not a prosecutor," Chairman Harumph-Harumph snorted.
Kind of sounds like O'Malley, doesn't it? Only without the cuss words. It's been a few years since O'Malley chided Jessamy, urging her to get off her derriere and prosecute a case against a corrupt cop. Only problem was that evidence against the cop was stolen. And it wasn't stolen from Jessamy's office. It was stolen from an office run by the Baltimore Police Department.
O'Malley's outburst drew protests from quite a few folks. About 100 black women - some of them elected officials - gathered outside City Hall within days of the mayor's tirade to let Hizzoner know he had made an egregious faux pas. Now O'Malley no longer needs to criticize Jessamy. He can just let Chairman Harumph-Harumph do it.
And Chairman Harumph-Harumph did exactly that - in an executive summary of his and Rawlings Blake's committees that was part of a 50-plus page report of "background materials" for the hearing.
"The Baltimore City State's Attorney's has received record high funding from the City of Baltimore with record low results," the executive summary begins. "The Budget and Appropriation Committee and Public Safety Committee ... have learned that the Office of the State's Attorney has not produced a violent crime fighting plan since the late 1990's. Additionally, the Committees have not been provided with responses to their questions from a letter to Mrs. Jessamy dated March 2, 2006, nor has the State's Attorney provided the Committees with any benchmarks or goals for 2006.
