Dutch Ruppersberger

REP. C. A. DUTCH Ruppersberger stood outside the Walter Reed Army Medical Center last week for another megadose of celebrity. He was there for the latest expression of an idea that has vaulted the Maryland congressman way over his freshmen peers -- or perhaps the entire Congress. On the strength of air travel plans for American troops in Iraq and then for the families of wounded soldiers, he's earned press coverage some of his colleagues have worked at for years without success. The beauty of Mr. Ruppersberger's idea was a perfect convergence of public service and good politics.

U.S. Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger will be included in a "60 Minutes" piece Sunday looking at Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications equipment maker, that members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence see as a threat to national security. Here's the release from CBS News with a quote from Ruppersberger:            Huawei, a global Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer already doing business in the U.S., poses a threat to national and corporate security say members of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.  Those congressmen speak to Steve Kroft for a 60 MINUTES investigation to be broadcast Sunday, Oct. 7 (7:30-8:30PM, ET, 7:00-8:00PM, PT)

HUBRIS (hyoobris): n. Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger has got it. And a lot of explaining to do. In a Wednesday story, Sun reporters Walter F. Roche Jr. and David Nitkin pointed out the convergence of the public and private lives of the Baltimore County executive who is weighing a race for governor of Maryland. What is troubling about the disclosures is the degree to which Mr. Ruppersberger has shown arrogant disregard for the principle that a public official should avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.

I was dismayed to learn that my congressman, Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland's 2nd Congressional District, voted for an unconditional $2.4 trillion increase in the U.S. debt ceiling limit without instituting any fiscal controls or compromises. Fortunately, the motion failed 318 to 97. Providing that kind of credit increase without any concurrent spending cuts or caps would have signaled to the world that we Americans aren't serious about living within our means. Such a message is egregiously irresponsible.

THE CAMPAIGN to succeed Baltimore County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger is looking to be one of the greatest yawns in Maryland political history. State Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell, a Fullerton Democrat and the powerful chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, ended a year of speculation last week by saying he would not run, making him the latest in a string of high-profile politicians to take a pass this year. The race started early - Republican Douglas B. Riley, a lawyer and former councilman from Towson, declared more than a year ago, and Democrat James T. Smith Jr., a former councilman and Circuit Court judge from Reisterstown, started running in September.

C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger III has been Baltimore County executive for almost 16 months. The former prosecutor and county councilman came into the job with the county facing tough economic times and with continuing turmoil swirling about school superintendent Dr. Stuart Berger, who left in August.Meanwhile, the school board's recent selection of new superintendent, Anthony G. Marchione, was punctuated by protests sparked by the lagging test scores of African-American students.When he was elected to a four-year term in November 1994, Mr. Ruppersberger favored transferring appointment power over school board members from the governor to the county executive.

A photo caption on Page 1C yesterday transposed the identifications for Baltimore County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger and Gilbert Marsiglia, president of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors. Mr. Marsiglia was on the left.The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 5/30/98

Several paragraphs about endorsements from organized labor received by C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, the Democratic nominee for the 2nd Congressional District, were omitted from an article in yesterday's editions. Among those endorsing Ruppersberger are the state and local branches of the AFL-CIO, the International Association of Firefighters, United Auto Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers, United Mineworkers of America and United Steelworkers of America. Ken Allen, president of the Baltimore County Supervisory, Management and Confidential Employees, said he believes union members will support Ruppersberger because the race could help Democrats regain control of Congress, which he said would be better for unions.

PHILADELPHIA - Issuing its annual congressional report cards, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People flunked Maryland's two Republican representatives and gave top grades to all of the state's Democrats on Capitol Hill. Reps. Wayne T. Gilchrest and Roscoe G. Bartlett were both given an F for their voting records in 2003 in grades announced here at the NAACP's 95th annual convention, based on legislators' votes. Gilchrest and Bartlett voted against extending unemployment benefits and against increased funding for failing public elementary schools, according to the report.

Two years before the 2002 election, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend holds a commanding lead over her prospective Democratic and Republican rivals in the governor's race, according to a poll released yesterday. The survey of registered voters, conducted Aug. 23 through Monday by Gonzales/Arscott Research & Communications Inc., shows Townsend with a 52 percent to 29 percent lead over U.S. Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who is considered a possible Republican candidate. She was favored by 49 percent of Democrats, compared with 12 percent for Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, 10 percent for Baltimore County's C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger and 8 percent for Prince George's County's Wayne K. Curry

— Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger viewed a half-dozen photographs of Osama bin Laden's body Thursday and said the images prove definitively that the al-Qaida leader is dead. The Baltimore County lawmaker, the top-ranking Democrat of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, was among the first lawmakers to view the pictures at the CIA's headquarters in Langley, Va. His reaction was more muted than those of some of his colleagues, who described the photographs as gruesome. The White House has not released the photos, taken by U.S. special operations forces after the May 2 raid on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.

Thousands of investors bailed out on Legg Mason's Bill Miller last year as funds he manages plunged much further than the stock market overall. Not Steny H. Hoyer. The House majority leader from Southern Maryland proved as loyal to the famous Miller as he is to the pro-Israel lobby. He held on to shares in Miller's Legg Mason Value Trust fund worth $100,001 to $250,000 even as the value plummeted last year by 55 percent. A year earlier, the stake had been worth $250,001 to $500,000. Since Hoyer listed total assets worth only $148,000 to $447,000, he's taken a significant financial blow.

When government action does substantial harm to private property, the perpetrator's obligation to its victims is clear - undo the damage or, if that's not possible, make the victim whole. Such is the case with the Schneider family of Essex, whose seven-bedroom house on 1.4 acres of waterfront land was irreparably harmed by the construction of a Baltimore County sewer line. The conflict between the county and the Schneiders has been long and contentious. As District Court Judge Norman R. Stone III observed, the case (now on the verge of outright eviction)

Player's obituary not front-page fare The Baltimore Sun seems to have some seriously misplaced priorities about what constitutes news and where it belongs in a newspaper. While the death of a local basketball player, who went on from a successful college career at Morgan State to a pro basketball career, is sad, it is hardly front-page news. Thus the article "Human Eraser" (April 9) belonged in the Sports section or in the obituaries. The same day that article ran, a ship sailing under an American flag had just been attacked by pirates for the first time in 200 years, and that story was buried inside the paper ("Navy ship on site of pirate raid," April 9)

In a decision that had all the surprise of snow in January, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week gave conditional approval to the proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and pipeline at Sparrows Point. The agency's choice to side with AES Corp., despite significant environment and community concerns, could be predicted months, if not several years, ago. Certainly, the fact that the 98-page order was issued over the objections of at least two federal agencies that called for a delay, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was no shock.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has called on federal energy officials to delay a decision on the proposed liquefied natural gas terminal at Sparrows Point until questions about endangered and threatened species can be answered. The service, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Interior, has found that the project would be located in an environmentally sensitive area and could affect several species with habitats in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Those include the bald eagle, peregrine falcon and Delmarva fox squirrel.

On December 15, 2003, GEORGE ALVEY, beloved husband of Beverly Crosier (nee Reynolds), devoted brother of Ellen R. Silvers, C. Albert Ruppersberger, Jr. and his wife Peggy W. Dear uncle of Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, Reese W. Ruppersberger, Carol R. Norton, Dr. Damon L. Silvers, Jr. and Suzanne S. Stein. Loving step-father of Kimberly Crosier Crowley and her husband Jeffrey D. Crowley, fond step-grandfather of Payton C. Crowley. Also survived by a host of other relatives. A Memorial Service will be held at Timonium United Methodist Church, 2300 Pot Spring Rd., Timonium, MD 21093 on Saturday, December 20, 2003 at 1 P.M. Private Interment at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens.

A political advertisement in the 2nd Congressional District race identifies a waterfront home in eastern Baltimore County as one of the properties that would have been condemned under C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger's failed neighborhood revitalization legislation, even though the home was removed from the final version of the bill. The television ad is being run by Republican candidate Helen Delich Bentley, Ruppersberger's opponent. It shows Del. James F. Ports Jr. standing in front of the stone home at 101 Punte Lane and saying, "The county executive would have taken this home and torn it down and turned it over to a developer for a profit."

From office secretaries to elected officeholders, nearly 60 people sympathetic to former state Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell submitted letters in court papers yesterday ahead of his sentencing on bribery charges in federal court in Baltimore. In more than 70 pages of passionate and personal letters about the convicted Baltimore County Democrat, Bromwell's friends - from his dry cleaner to his congressman, Democratic Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger - wax nostalgic about his accomplishments during 23 years in the General Assembly and plead for mercy in the wake of the former politician's admission of guilt.

Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger is seeking $74 million for local projects in the fiscal 2008 federal budget, mostly for roads, mass transit and other infrastructure to accommodate growth at Maryland military bases, he said yesterday. Ruppersberger, a Democrat whose district includes Fort Meade and Aberdeen Proving Ground, said that improving mass transit to handle thousands of new defense workers coming to those installations "is one of our highest priorities." The congressman made his comments in Linthicum during the annual luncheon for the Fort Meade Alliance, the lobbying arm for the Army post.