Mayor Of Baltimore

Baltimore's next mayor doesn't take office for five days, but the impending departure of the city's leader for the past 12 years hit home yesterday when he saw a press release that read "Kurt Schmoke, former Mayor of Baltimore."It wasn't the kind of statement Schmoke was looking for, not on this of all days -- the day he turned 50 and one of the last days before he retires from decades of public service to go into private law practice.It was, Schmoke said, an example of "the syndrome of the king is dead."

"I'll change the name [of the city] to `Funkytown' and declare war on Nebraska. I'll crack down on fat guys in tank tops. I'll cut taxes, and your lawn, too."With those solemn words, Reagan Warfield declared his availability as a candidate for mayor of Baltimore -- if anyone out there wants him.Warfield was one of several people to respond to The Sun's tongue-in-cheek search for someone willing to be drafted as a mayoral candidate by the Annapolis gang that has failed to convince Kweisi Mfume and Bishop L. Robinson to run. We asked them to tell us their qualifications, and we'd let would-be kingmakers William Donald Schaefer and Rep. Howard P. Rawlings know of their availability.

"IT SOUNDS like you came this close to announcing," a television reporter said to Kweisi Mfume Wednesday afternoon as he walked to the rear of Westminster Hall in downtown Baltimore, where he had just received the University System of Maryland's Frederick Douglass Award."That only counts in horseshoes," a smiling Mfume answered, the Douglass medal hanging from a black and yellow ribbon still dangling from his neck.The television crews weren't there to cover the ceremony. (Did they show up for the ones honoring former Congressman Parren Mitchell, historian Benjamin Quarles and Baltimore Afro-American sportswriter Sam Lacy?

It was perhaps more than a little ironic that the man who was nearly Dwight D. Eisenhower's vice presidential running mate should die several days after the resignation of the man who had edged him out for the spot on the 1952 Republican ticket.Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin, former governor of Maryland and former mayor of Baltimore, died at his Goodale Road residence in Homeland on Aug. 11, 1974, two days after the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.Hopes were raised that McKeldin, who had gotten on the Eisenhower bandwagon early during his first term as governor in 1951, might be Ike's running mate in the 1952 presidential election.

CITY COUNCIL President Lawrence A. Bell III might be the front-runner in this year's race for mayor of Baltimore, but national NAACP President Kweisi Mfume might challenge him for that honor.A well-placed Democratic Party source says Mfume is definitely interested, notwithstanding the former 7th District congressman's repeated protestations to the contrary.Thus, the General Assembly continues to consider a bill that would change Maryland law so that Mfume, a resident of Catonsville, could re-establish residency in the city and qualify as a candidate.

THOSE ARE two ungrateful palookas -- the mayor of Baltimore and the executive of Prince George's County. They've both gone and done the Larry Thing, taking their cues from Larry Gibson, endorsing that woman from Harford County and flippin' a digit at the incumbent governor of Maryland, a fellow Democrat they say cannot be trusted.Trusted to - what? - deliver badly needed funds for Baltimore and Prince George's?That can't be right.It was only April that we ran the numbers on the city's fortunes in the 1998 General Assembly - $711 million in total allocations, $50 million more than last year.

THEODORE R. McKeldin was born 98 years ago tomorrow into a working-class family in South Baltimore. In his long life of public service, he became Maryland's most successful politician, serving two terms each as mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland.He would have found incredible the widespread use today of polling by candidates, who put a finger to the wind to see what position they should take.Parade leaderMcKeldin did not follow the parade, he led it by persuasion, conviction and shoe leather politicking.

AS ISRAEL marks its 50th anniversary, Americans are reminded of the many contributions made to ensure that nation's success and survival. One key contributor was Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin, who, both before and after his two terms as governor, was mayor of Baltimore.While McKeldin, a liberal Republican and Scots-Irishman, is often recalled as a champion of civil rights for African-Americans and is credited with articulating a vision for the Inner Harbor, less attention is given to his staunch support of Israel.

KURT LIDELL Schmoke has finally come to my senses.It was years ago that I wrote it. Why would any guy, I mused, who graduated from Harvard Law School -- considered the best in the free world -- want to be mayor? Schmoke's talents, I suggested, are more suited to the judicial branch of government, not the executive.Two days ago, Schmoke announced he would not seek a fourth term as Baltimore's mayor. Since then, folks have said that while he's a nice guy and all, he wasn't a "cheerleader" for the city, that he had no enthusiasm for the job, that he is simply not mayoral timber.

I see where the mayor of Baltimore has been bowing again. He does this a lot, and readily. He must think it's good for his abs. Bow, bow, bow. He bows to community opposition, to political pressure, to fiscal reality. He bows like Yo-Yo Ma.I'm not talking about his handling of the Police Department mess, the Frazier-Daniel feud. The mayor actually looks strong and decisive in that matter.But compared with what I'm talking about, Frazier-Daniel is inside baseball.I'm talking about things that happen "out there."

This week marks 35 years since the death of Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin, twice mayor of Baltimore and two-term governor of Maryland. The passage of three-and-a-half decades - and more than 40 years since he last held elective office - have, unfortunately, obscured his considerable achievements. McKeldin, who served as mayor from 1943 to 1947, governor from 1951 to 1959, then again as mayor from 1963 to 1967, was a Republican in a state which then - as now - elected few from the GOP to statewide office.

Baltimoreans who voted for Sheila Dixon in 2007 and Barack Obama in 2008 must have a mixture of feelings about the new president's snubbing - twice in just over a month - of the mayor of Baltimore. I'm sure a lot of them even feel sorry for Dixon. Yeah, she's under indictment, but she's missing all the fun, all the photo ops, all the history, not to mention dinner and dessert at the White House. Obama treats Republicans better than he treats Dixon. Shunning on this level must really smart.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's decision to furlough most of the state's work force was surely not the happiest moment of his tenure. But in a slack economy, it was probably a necessity - and it might have an upside for him politically. Faced with a widening pothole in the state's operating budget - and a statewide aversion to increasing taxes - Mr. O'Malley's budget-balancing options are limited. Thus, he plans to ask 67,000 state employees to take some days off, unpaid. The numbers had "significant" and "major" and "painful" stamped all over them.

O'Malley delivers same old medicine Many people in Maryland are right to dislike Gov. Martin O'Malley ("Taxes fuel discontent," Jan. 13). He was elected under the guise of the now too-often-used catchphrase "change," yet with light-speed (in political time) he brought more of that same thing for which the Democrats are famous - higher taxes. I expect a governor to deal with thorny issues such as the state's failed deregulation of electricity. But instead, Mr. O'Malley simply chose to pile tax upon tax on the very people who put him where he is. And he seems to have carried his feuds from his time as mayor of Baltimore into the governorship, which take time away from the people's business.

City must ease the zoning rules for rehab clinics The Open Society Institute's infusion of funds into Baltimore has dramatically expanded drug treatment and promoted a public-health approach to drug and alcohol dependence ("The Soros challenge," editorial, May 16). Additional funding for treatment, job training and family-centered care is essential to continue the city's progress in treating addiction. Funding alone will not fill the treatment gap, however. The city must amend its zoning code to permit drug treatment programs to locate new facilities just as other health clinics can ("O'Malley says he'll back easing way for drug treatment centers," May 17)

Another sign of the mayor's mismanagement With the firing of Police Commissioner Kevin P. Clark, Mayor Martin O'Malley has taken his inept management of Baltimore city government to a whole new level ("O'Malley fires Baltimore police commissioner," Nov. 11). Mr. O'Malley's infatuation with New York City police officials has burned him twice now. However, his failure to investigate Commissioner Clark's background is only one example of the mayor's mishandling of city affairs in general.

SEN. JOHN KERRY may have gotten an inadvertent assist last week from Mayor Martin O'Malley. And we're not talking about the $1.2 million raised during a fund-raiser at the Ravens' stadium. No shrinking candidate himself, Senator Kerry moved boldly along the fault line of what's acceptable to say in criticism of a sitting president in a time of war. The mayor of Baltimore made him seem carefully measured. While introducing the senator, Mr. O'Malley said President Bush and his administration worry him more than the terrorists of al-Qaida.

A BANNER WEEK for Martin O'Mayor - both Peter Angelos, the personal-injury lawyer, and Bill O'Reilly, the personal-injury commentator, went off on him. O'Reilly, the Scott Farcus of talking-head television, called the mayor of Baltimore "insane" for saying he worried about George Bush's ineptitude more than the threat posed by Osama bin Laden. And Angelos, the owner of the Baltimore-Washington-York Orioles, blasted O'Mayor for not joining him in opposing a new baseball team for the nation's capital.

AFTER THESE last two weeks," Martin O'Malley said at the funeral of Carnell Dawson, the man of the house that was firebombed on Preston Street, "it's as if Baltimore is all cried out." But here we are, less than a month later, in tears again, this time for a police officer, Detective Thomas G. Newman, believed to have been gunned down execution-style for doing his job. O'Malley will have to prepare another eulogy for another hero and civic martyr. And not lose all hope. And not let the last of the Baltimore Believers lose theirs.

STREET TALK: He's in. Really? Absolutely. He's the best pure political talent Maryland ever saw. Awesome and getting better. He thinks he can be president. He can't stay out. He can't let other people compete for his future. He thinks he can be president. They're talking Martin O'Malley, the young mayor of Baltimore. By all appearances, the street talk is right: The green-and-white lapel stickers that used to say O'Malley for mayor, for change and for reform? They don't have the word "mayor" in them any more.