Ben Cardin

Before you make up your mind in the U.S. Senate race, consider Ben Cardin's stance on high-heeled women crushing small animals to death for sexual kicks. (He's against.) What a fuddy-duddy! But what do you expect from a guy who married his high school sweetheart? He hasn't been out there for decades. Cardin's 1999 anti-fetish vote came up the other day, when the Humane Society Legislative Fund endorsed the congressman -- over the guy running with a dog by his side. "He supported legislation which successfully banned the commercial sale of so-called `crush' videos, in which scantily clad women in high heels slowly crushed small animals for the sexual gratification of viewers," the fund said in a press release.

The top two Democrats in the U.S. Senate race were gentlemanly to the point of boring. Now one of them is gentlemanly to the point of startling. As in, "Ben's a friend" and "I think Mike Steele's a great guy." As in, "I wish them both well." That's what Kweisi Mfume told me yesterday, when he also mentioned that he wasn't conceding the race to Ben Cardin. He wouldn't say who - if anyone - he'd endorse if he still falls short after all the ballots are counted. "I'm going to have something to say about that," was his only answer.

Most open their doors a bit confused, even quizzical. For Catherine Benton, 85, the tall man standing on her driveway one recent afternoon was recognizable as the "medical guy" from Baltimore. But like many Anne Arundel voters in the sprawling 3rd Congressional District, the details of the race are not so clear. "I may vote for Beilencome. Am I saying that right?" she asks, moments after Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, one of the many contenders for the Democratic nomination, leaves her driveway.

Is Ben Cardin looking toward Annapolis yet again?The Democratic congressman from the 3rd District has commissioned polls presumably to test his potential strength in a 1994 race for governor. No other candidate would bring to the contest more experience or greater respect among his peers. And, some would say, less electronic sex appeal.As a state legislator who served two terms as House speaker, Mr. Cardin was the Assembly's pre-eminent fiscal expert, a consensus builder of consummate skill who made legislators feel a part of things even when they were not.As a practitioner of the charismatic arts, on the other hand, he was less than masterful.

Now that Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin has completed his torturous journey to non-candidacy, Maryland Democrats must endure yet another period of waiting and watching to see if someone else dares to challenge Gov. Parris N. Glendening."

William Donald Schaefer turned 85 yesterday, and he celebrated at the main Pratt Library with hundreds of friends and cake. A lot of cakes, actually. Eight-five of them. That's enough cake to keep a team of six bakers whipping and folding for a day, and sink six decorators up to their elbows in buttercreams, cream cheese frosting and chocolate drizzle for two and a half more. Lots of times at big events like weddings, there's one fancy cake for show - and a plain sheet cake back in the kitchen.

Now we're talking. "Our city has been in crisis for decades," Baltimore's new archbishop, Edwin O'Brien, said shortly after his installation yesterday. From using "our" in reference to his new city, to bluntly noting the drugs, violence and poverty that beset it, O'Brien sent off signals as loud and clear as the pealing church bells that ended his official induction as Baltimore's 15th Roman Catholic archbishop: This was a church leader who would not retreat behind the cathedral doors but would emerge to mix it up a bit. Good for him. If it's not too sacrilegious, let me say to his Excellency, "Welcome to Baltimore, hon."

Havre de Grace. -- The presidential primary election campaign in Maryland brings back a lot of memories of another campaign 16 years ago, and some of them are unsettling to a voter trying hard to make up his mind in the spring of 1992.In 1976, the Democratic powers-that-be let events get away from them, and before they knew it, the little-known Jimmy Carter was well on his way to winning the nomination. Many party big shots hated the prospect. Here in Maryland, Gov. Marvin Mandel went bananas.

Everybody I know can't believe the news about Andy Barth. He is the longtime television reporter who is now pondering a run for the U.S. Congress. I saw the item in Laura Vozzella's column the other day and immediately called Jack Bowden and Susan White Bowden, who go back to the beginning of all time in Baltimore TV news. "You heard about Barth getting into politics?" I asked. "We did," said Jack Bowden. He and his wife worked alongside Barth at WMAR-TV for about two decades. "What do you think?"

WASHINGTON - Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin will cast his first vote against a trade agreement during almost two decades in Congress this week, when a pact with several Central American countries comes up for what is expected to be a close House tally. Cardin, the top Democrat on the subcommittee that oversees trade, said he would break a long streak of supporting free-trade arrangements because the Central America Free Trade Agreement - known as CAFTA - doesn't do enough to promote the rights of overseas workers.