Senate chief 'arrested' for subversive activity

In what appeared to be the answer to many Republicans' prayers, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller was "arrested" Thursday night and charged with aiding the enemies of the United States government.

The mock arrest took place at the annual dinner of the Society of Senates Past, which brings together former and current members of the upper chamber of the General Assembly. After former Sen. Robert R. Neall gave what was shaping up as a rather academic account of Maryland's role in the Civil War, including the arrest of state legislators suspected of secessionist leanings, drums could be heard from a hall outside the conference room in the Miller Senate Office Building.

Four actors in Union Army uniforms barged into the room and rounded up Miller, Senate Secretary William B. C. Addison and former Sen. Raymond E. Beck and led them off as Neall wound up his presentation with a plug for a Civil War exhibit at the Maryland Historical Society.

Miller, a Democrat from the rebel hotbed of Calvert County, and the other culprits were released on what appeared to be their own recognizance.

Among the former senators in attendance: former Gov. Harry R. Hughes and former Attorney General J. Jospeh Curran Jr.