Republicans And Democrats

Carroll County Democrats repelled a last-minute Republican rally last week and won by one, the narrowest of margins. That would be a run, not a vote. Area business leaders and officials organized a spirited softball competition to put the political parties on friendly terms. The bipartisan game, rescheduled three times, finally was played Thursday evening in downtown Westminster. "We wanted to prove to everybody in the county that people can just agree to disagree and not let politics polarize us," said Josh Kohn, a Westminster business owner.

In case anyone has missed the dueling budget proposals out this week from Rep. Paul Ryan on the Republican side and Sen. Patty Murray for the Democrats, don't fret. You could easily have slept through the last four months and missed nothing. They are pretty much where the two sides have been for even longer than that. And that pretty well sums up where Washington stands on the issue of federal spending, taxes and the deficit. Both parties have won approval to some degree from voters for taking these stands, and so the incentive for actually coming up with a compromise is clearly too small for either to go out on a limb — at least for the moment.

OVER THE decade that Maryland lawmakers have been studying casino-style gambling, many delegates and senators have taken stands that differ from their current positions, and their words are returning to haunt them. After the House of Delegates Republican Caucus announced its support last week for an immediate special legislative session to pass a slots bill, aides to House Speaker Michael E. Busch, a Democrat, quickly noted that many of those Republicans held a similar news conference in 1995 - when they vowed to vote en bloc against casino gambling.

Laura Neuman comes to the job of Anne Arundel County executive as an almost complete outsider to county (and Maryland) politics. She spent a career in the private sector, then less than two years working for a Democratic administration in another county before being named last week to a post that makes her the second-highest-ranking Republican in public office in Maryland. She has not worked on campaigns, much less run one of her own, and she is being greeted with no small amount of skepticism by the GOP. She could be in for a steep learning curve in both the policies and the politics of her new job. But Ms. Neuman, who met today with The Sun's editorial board, may also be the kind of leader Anne Arundel County needs right now. She comes to office in the wake of the trial, conviction and resignation of John Leopold, whose political and personal misdeeds brought dishonor to the county and sapped the morale of the government he led. Ms. Neuman has no association with him or with his opponents, and that may help her be seen as an honest broker in the process of rooting out those who were complicit in the Leopold scandal - an effort she has already begun.

Republican senators finally caught on that the groundswell for legal assault rifles is led by self-styled militia who want them to overthrow the federal government, Republicans and Democrats alike.

Gonzales faced a relentlessly hostile grilling from Senate Republicans and Democrats Thursday as he attempted to explain inconsistencies in his previous statements about the firing of eight federal prosecutors. ?Why is your story changing?? Sen. Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa ?At the end of the day I know I did not do anything improper.? Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

The more I consider the partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats, the more I am reminded of the Civil War era. If one replaces the word "slavery" with words like "same-sex marriage," "abortion" and "immigration," the similarities are striking. The prejudice against gays and immigrants today is identical to the prejudice against enslaved blacks. And the difference in attitudes between southerners and northerners is equally striking. Republicans and Democrats are both entrenched in their opinions and biases.

Why is it that the only party candidates that get into the presidential debates are Republicans and Democrats? Why not let a couple of the other parties' candidates participate as well? I would like to see the Green and Libertarian parties in the presidential debates this year and every election year afterward. That way the American people would have a better view of who is running and what they are proposing to do. John Hamilton, Columbia

Samuel A. Culotta, a Baltimore lawyer and perennial Republican mayoral candidate, said he's supporting Sen. John McCain. "I love Rudy, but I'm for McCain. He's a leader and has the background, knowledge, experience and courage to be president," Culotta, 83, said in an interview. Culotta, a Northeast Baltimore resident who has practiced law since 1951, served in the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin when he was mayor and governor, and was a state delegate from 1954 to 1959.

Laura Neuman comes to the job of Anne Arundel County executive as an almost complete outsider to county (and Maryland) politics. She spent a career in the private sector, then less than two years working for a Democratic administration in another county before being named last week to a post that makes her the second-highest-ranking Republican in public office in Maryland. She has not worked on campaigns, much less run one of her own, and she is being greeted with no small amount of skepticism by the GOP. She could be in for a steep learning curve in both the policies and the politics of her new job. But Ms. Neuman, who met today with The Sun's editorial board, may also be the kind of leader Anne Arundel County needs right now. She comes to office in the wake of the trial, conviction and resignation of John Leopold, whose political and personal misdeeds brought dishonor to the county and sapped the morale of the government he led. Ms. Neuman has no association with him or with his opponents, and that may help her be seen as an honest broker in the process of rooting out those who were complicit in the Leopold scandal - an effort she has already begun.

Sequestration is an extremely crude way to cut approximately 2 percent of federal spending. It is analogous to forcing a grossly obese person to lose a few pounds by not feeding him for a few days. On this issue, at least, it appears that Republicans and Democrats agree. So, one would think that the boys and girls who brought us the idea of sequestration (President Barack Obama, a Democrat, from whose White House the concept of sequestration arose, the Democratically-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House)

Why is it that the only party candidates that get into the presidential debates are Republicans and Democrats? Why not let a couple of the other parties' candidates participate as well? I would like to see the Green and Libertarian parties in the presidential debates this year and every election year afterward. That way the American people would have a better view of who is running and what they are proposing to do. John Hamilton, Columbia

The more I consider the partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats, the more I am reminded of the Civil War era. If one replaces the word "slavery" with words like "same-sex marriage," "abortion" and "immigration," the similarities are striking. The prejudice against gays and immigrants today is identical to the prejudice against enslaved blacks. And the difference in attitudes between southerners and northerners is equally striking. Republicans and Democrats are both entrenched in their opinions and biases.

There's a tendency among some to shorthand the ongoing federal budget debate as between Republicans who want to reduce government spending and Democrats who don't. This isn't really the case, as recent actions in the House have demonstrated. On Wednesday, the House Armed Services Committee took a close look at President Barack Obama's proposed $525.4 billion defense spending plan and decided that simply wasn't enough. The GOP-controlled committee voted to authorize nearly $4 billion more than what the Pentagon had requested for 2013.

Cecil County voters, who did not take part in early voting, set to end Thursday, will get their chance to make their voices heard on the regular primary election day on Tuesday, April 3, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. This year is the first voting for offices created when voters, after many previous failed attempts, approved a home rule charter for the county in the 2010 general election. The primary election also features an interesting judicial race involving three candidates. Both Republicans and Democrats can vote for two of the three.

Republicans are always the ones pushing those wholly unnecessary English-as-official-language efforts, doing everything possible to make immigrants feel unwelcome here. Apparently few in the Angry Old Party see this as politically short-sighted, a way to guarantee that Democrats keep and even broaden their anticipated demographic advantage for years to come. You'd think a young Republican such as Blaine Young (Frostburg State '93) might want to take a new, fresh approach by opening up the "big tent" that members of his party talked about just a few years ago. Mr. Young is chairman of the all-Republican Frederick County Commissioners and a radio talk show host.

Waco, Texas -- THE VOTERS are on the verge of doing to Democrats in the Congress what they did to Republicans in the White House -- throw the bums out.Incredibly, Republicans have a chance to take control of the House for the first time in 40 years. Republicans have had control of the House for only four of the past 63 years. And the Republicans also are on the verge of taking control of the Senate where they have been in power for less than a dozen years.But if America's voters actually hand control of Congress to the Republicans in the Nov. 8 general election, the victors had best not be too cocky.

CREDIT A ROBUST economy for a budget accord on Capitol Hill that has all the elements of a Christmas tree. Deficit hawks can point to the promise of a balanced budget within five years, assuming the economy stays strong. Meanwhile, tax-cutters can revel in the first significant tax cuts in a decade and a half. And advocates for children and the poor can point to significant victories in funding health care for uninsured children and in requiring welfare recipients who move into jobs to be paid the minimum wage.

Republicans and Democrats disagree about whether the economy is adding jobs today. But no one is publicly disputing that up to 1.5 million Americans will lose their jobs if Congress doesn't stop the $500 billion in automatic defense cuts triggered by the debt ceiling law. These unprecedented cuts would de-fund the next generation of war fighters, along with their support infrastructure, planes, ships and the technologies - built by highly skilled...

(Dec. 21) Maryland Democrats continued to ramp up pressure on House GOP leaders Wednesday over a stalled effort to extend a payroll tax cut that benefits as many as 2.6 million wage earners in the state. With days left before the 2 percentage point payroll tax cut expires, Washington is once more languishing in impasse. House Republicans want to continue negotiations on a one-year extension of the cut. Democrats are calling on House GOP leaders to vote on a two-month extension the Senate passed over the weekend -- a bill all but seven Senate Republicans supported.