With another grand jury dissolving today and the mayor so far unindicted, we have to wonder: Has the dating defense worked? Perhaps grand jurors have bought the idea that in Dixon's case, gifts from Lipscomb would amount to tokens of affection, not bribes.
Even if it was romance and not business, Dixon shouldn't have voted on her lover's projects, however awkward it might have been to announce: "Gotta recuse myself on this one; I'm sleeping with the developer."
Dixon and Lipscomb were married, but separated from, other people at the time.
The Lipscomb-Holton affair, by contrast, appears to have been all business. After company Company Z sent her a bill, Holton didn't even hand it off to Lipscomb personally. The councilwoman, a CPA, asked Company Z to send another invoice over to Lipscomb's Doracon Contracting, the indictment states.
If grand jurors are more sympathetic to illicit lovers than to illicit associates, if Holton goes down and Dixon skates, does that mean there's no justice in Baltimore?
Or just no entertainment?
Gentlemen who lunch
State Sen. Brian Frosh lunched the other day at Rams Head in Annapolis with two of his friends, who just happen to be Gov. Martin O'Malley and Comptroller Peter Franchot.
Frosh proposed the get-together, and O'Malley and Franchot, who are often very much at odds, actually agreed.
If you're wondering what they ate: The governor had a tandoori chicken salad; the comptroller had a cheddar cheeseburger, holding, per his New Year's resolution, the fries; Frosh had a chicken Caesar salad.
If you're wondering what they discussed, keep wondering. Nobody's saying.
But Franchot spokesman Joe Shapiro said it went well.
"It was something good to happen, and I think it will be helpful as we move forward," Shapiro said.
Ain't love grand?
Love must be in the air in Annapolis. Either that or lunch with the comptroller really put the governor in a good mood.
Right afterward, O'Malley turned up at Annapolis High School with another one-time foe, Nancy Grasmick.
Just a year ago, he was trying mightily to give the long-serving state schools chief the heave-ho. But there was no sign of strain when they appeared together Wednesday, basking in the glow of an Education Week ranking that put Maryland schools first in the nation.
The two were all smiles and whispered back and forth.
Almost "canoodling," is how one spy described it.
