There's a case to be made for the mayor who's delivered a huge dip in homicides, single-stream recycling and the most amusing Maryland political scandal since Bootsie Mandel holed herself up in Government House.
But isn't that comment a tad impolitic?
Dixon spokesman Scott Peterson said she was just promoting her record, as any good politician would do, not knocking her mayoral forebears. "That's a campaign statement," he said. "I think Governor O'Malley has every right to say he's accomplished more than his predecessor. Why wouldn't you say that?"
If O'Malley says stuff like that about Bob Ehrlich - and he does, so often that he's been called a sore winner - he's taking a swipe at a Republican rival. Dixon is talking about fellow Dems, one of them her so-called Partner in Progress.
This isn't the only internecine jab Dixon has made at O'Malley. (See "Snub, Obama whistle-stop.")
Dixon got another dig in at a meeting this month with the city's Annapolis delegation, The Baltimore Sun's Julie Bykowicz reports. Making the case that Baltimore mayors should have the right to hire and fire their own police commissioners, Dixon said, "Schmoke hired his. And O'Malley hired his several."
Laughs all around, except, presumably, in O'Malleyland.
Trouble in Democratic paradise?
"There's no conflict here," Peterson said. "There's no ill will between the mayor and the governor, nothing."
How's all this going over with the gov?
"The governor has always had a great partnership with now-Mayor Dixon and will continue to work with her on behalf of the citizens of Baltimore," O'Malley spokesman Abbruzzese said. "Working together in the city of Baltimore, Mayor O'Malley and Council President Dixon were successful in reducing violent crime by 40 percent. They had a very successful year last year, so that progress continues."
What does Schmoke have to say?
"No names were mentioned, but the numbers seem to fit some individuals we know," Schmoke said with a laugh.
"I think she's been a good mayor," he said. "I think she's done a good job, and it's likely some future mayor's going to say the same thing about his or her predecessors. We all serve at different times, with different challenges. I think for the time, she's been doing a good job."
If Dixon is really tops in the recent mayoral pantheon, who's better situated (and sufficiently impolitic) to say so than William Donald Schaefer? (He served 16 years, so Dixon didn't diss him .)
I asked: Is Dixon a better mayor than O'Malley and Schmoke?
"Oh, I'd never comment on that," Schaefer said. "I think they're both fine guys."
