Majority Leader

Don't do it, Virginia! Our neighbor to the south is weighing legislation that would allow lenders there to make car-title loans with triple-digit interest rates to consumers in Maryland and other states. This only four months after Virginia lenders were banned from making such loans out of state. Car-title loans, which allow you to borrow against the value of your vehicle, are such bad deals that more than half of the states, including Maryland, basically don't allow them.

There is one more election that will happen this year, the year history may one day call the "Great Democratic Realignment." It is the election for House majority leader between Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland and John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, set for today. The position Mr. Hoyer and Mr. Murtha are fighting for, which is one step below House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi, is the only contested Democratic congressional leadership race, and will serve as the first proxy battle in deciding the direction of the new Congress.

The investigations into anonymous leaks in the nation's capital could confound the symbiotic relationship between government officials and reporters, according to observers of the interaction between the press and the politicians they cover. The probes, first in the Valerie Plame case and now in The Washington Post's story about covert CIA prisons, have prompted questions about the benefits and pitfalls of leaking national security secrets, and whether the prospect of investigations into their provenance will mean the leaks could dry up. "What if the government starts enforcing the espionage statute whenever there's a leak?"

A key ally of Speaker Michael E. Busch expressed confidence that the votes will be there to pass Gov. Martin O'Malley's gambling expansion bill when it comes to the floor of the House of Delegates Tuesday. "I think we're going to have the votes. I think it's looking very good,"  Majority Leader Kumar Barve, a Montgomery County Democrat, predicted after House Democrats held a caucus behind closed doors. Barve said several large delegations have backed off earlier statements that they would try to extract concessions for their jurisdictions in return for their votes.

Roy Neville Staten, the old-line Dundalk political boss who as state Senate majority leader played a key role in Maryland legislative battles throughout the 1970s, died at a local nursing home Saturday of heart problems. He was 86.Mr. Staten had a storied career in Maryland politics, starting as the Depression-era chauffeur of Maryland Gov. Albert C. Ritchie and rising to become majority leader and power broker for figures such as former Gov. Marvin Mandel."Whenever there was any problem, I would call on him," said Mandel, who at one time appointed Mr. Staten to head the state's Democratic Party.

ANNAPOLIS -- House Speaker R. Clayton Mitchell Jr., D-Kent, has decided to replace veteran Majority Leader John S. Arnick, D-Baltimore Co., with a relatively inexperienced but up-and-coming Western Maryland lawyer, Delegate D. Bruce Poole.Mr. Mitchell, according to legislators familiar with his new leadership lineup, also has decided to name another rural conservative lawmaker, Delegate Ronald A. Guns, D-Cecil, to replace Mr. Arnick as chairman of the Environmental Matters Committee. That panel considers environmental and health legislation, including matters dealing with abortion.

WASHINGTON -- Well-wishers who besieged Sen. George J. Mitchell at a Democratic fund-raiser the other night seemed delighted they could finally make sense of the stunning developments in his life.Now they understood why the majority leader is leaving the Senate at the peak of his career.And why he turned down a seat on the Supreme Court.And why he seems to be grinning all the time these days, transforming a countenance that often used to be dour."He has chosen love," declared Sen. Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat, fairly gushing from the fund-raiser podium over the straight-laced senator's latest bombshell:The 60-year-old Mr. Mitchell is engaged to marry a 35-year-old New York sports promoter.

WASHINGTON -- While the accounts of President John F. Kennedy's sexual exploits with Marilyn Monroe and others are the juiciest parts of investigative reporter Seymour Hersh's hot book, ''The Dark Side of Camelot,'' some of his political ''disclosures'' are more titillating to the world of political junkies.Foremost is Mr. Hersh's contention that Lyndon Johnson became Kennedy's running mate in 1960 not because Kennedy felt he needed LBJ to carry the South but because Johnson blackmailed him by threatening to tell what he knew about Kennedy's sex life.

WASHINGTON - The FBI said yesterday that the recent anthrax attacks were likely the work of a single person, a loner inside the United States who was not connected to the terrorist violence on Sept. 11 but who used that event to mask his own identity and agenda. The culprit is probably a man who has some scientific training, access to laboratory equipment and long-standing grudges that he decided to act on in the aftermath of the devastating Sept. 11 hijackings, investigators said. Facing criticism that the nearly 2-month-old investigation was moving too slowly, the FBI made public its emerging profile of the person behind the attacks, which have left four people dead and 13 others infected.

Politicians (including former politicians) like to be right more than most people. You see, in politics, public officials live or die by their (very) public opinions concerning the issues of the day. It is with this somber thought in mind that I reissue a sampling of previously published opinions - with timely updates For Your Information. Opinion: Prominent liberals will continue to market a new narrative that pushes public sector growth as the key to economic recovery. Update: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Jan. 31 floor statement concerning the U.S. economy's negative growth in the last quarter of 2012: "Growth went down in the fourth quarter because of reduced government spending, and a reticence in the private sector as government fought over the fiscal cliff.