20061004 Mayor O’Malley criticizes Hampstead bypass

Mayor O’Malley criticizes Hampstead bypass

Posted by Kevin Dayhoff October 4^th, 2006

A journalist-colleague I work with, Chris Cavy, just e-mailed me information that on the Baltimore Transit Alliance Questionnaire for Candidates for Governor. O’Malley went out of his way to single out the Hampstead By-Pass as part of a criticism of Governor Ehrlich’s transportation funding.

Mr. Cavey writes: “Unbelievable it is actually that high of a priority to pick on Hampstead’s long awaited transportation needs rather than any other project in our State.”

In a follow-up phone call with Mr. Cavey, a fellow Tentacle columnist and a regular columnist, every second Tuesday with the Jeffersonian, remarked: “I’m surprised and annoyed that a candidate for governor would have such a shallow grasp on the transportation issues in Carroll County and would go out of his way to criticize a basic infrastructure improvement critical for Carroll County’s future.”

Well – it is unbelievable that Mayor O’Malley would go out of his way to alienate all the moderate voters in Carroll County who understand that without a bypass, Hampstead’s future was being strangled by gridlock.

What was Mayor O’Malley thinking?

Below please find the question and answer. To view a PDF of the entire questionnaire, please find it here: For some background and introduction go here.

The Baltimore Transit Alliance writes:

Gubernatorial Candidates Offer Support for Transit

Responding to a questionnaire issued by the BTA, Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. and his challenger, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley both voiced strong support for transit in the Baltimore region. The candidates provided written responses on topics such as additional funding, commitment to maintaining the schedule for the Red Line planning process, and bus route restructuring. Although both candidates generally support BTA priorities, including construction of the Red and Green lines, improved connections to Washington, and short term improvements to the local bus network, the responses reveal differing priorities. Ehrlich's list of major issues facing transit in the region included safety and reliability of existing services, improvement of Mobility services for people with disabilities, bus route reform, and completion of the Red Line study. O'Malley called for a "first-class transit system," enhanced public participation in the planning process, bus system improvements, an "overhaul" of the MARC Train service, and incentives for businesses to locate near transit stations. To see the questionnaire and full responses from the candidates, click here.

4. For the Red Line, do you support completing the planning process by 2008 and initiation of construction by 2010?

Governor Ehrlich: My budget includes full funding for planning and engineering of the Red Line and money to start construction in 2010.

Mayor O’Malley: Yes. The Baltimore region has waited a long time for an east-west connector system that integrates the various modes of mass transit within the region. With the continued growth of the region, the upcoming challenges associated with BRAC and the possibility of shrinking federal funds for mass transit, we can ill-afford to wait any longer for implementation of the Red Line. While recognizing the need to follow the federal process, I will work toward achieving the milestones laid out for the initiation of construction of the Red Line in 2010.

As the elected leader of a largely transit-dependent community, I am acutely aware of the current administration’s practice of offering up unpopular, infeasible alternatives for review as a way to delay real progress. Major transit projects demand an open and participatory process, without losing a sense of urgency.

At the current time there is no funding to construct the Red Line, yet during the four years the Ehrlich administration has raided the Transportation Trust Fund, widened I-95, and built the Hampstead bypass. The current debate on funding is largely a zero-sum game because the Ehrlich administration hasn’t shown the leadership to bring fiscal balance to Maryland’s long-term transportation challenges. Instead, his regime assaulted the Transportation Trust Fund, diverting over $500 million to non-transportation programs.

_____

When I get a chance I’ll follow-up with this issue with more commentary and responses from Carroll County leadership.

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Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA. E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org http://www.thetentacle.com/ Westminster Eagle Opinion and Winchester Report http://www.thewestminstereagle.com/ www.kevindayhoff.com has moved to http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/

20060623 Doug Duncan: An Indiscriminate Illness an Often Hidden Struggle

Doug Duncan

June 23, 2006

Although I have not always agreed with some of Doug Duncan’s political positions, I’ve always admired Mr. Duncan’s integrity and commitment.

Sometime ago, as he was preparing to run for governor, I had the fortune to have lunch with him.

He is an extremely personable and I thoroughly enjoyed talking with him.

With this sudden turn of events, I hold him and his family I my prayers and the respect and esteem in which I hold him is only buoyed. We need more folks like him in the political arena…

An Indiscriminate Illness, an Often Hidden Struggle

By Susan Levine, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, June 23, 2006; A04

Nearly one in 10 adult Americans deals with depression every year, struggling through a range of often debilitating symptoms, seeking help if they are smart or fortunate, and trying to carry on with life.

Few do so during a run for political office.

"A campaign is an extreme, all-or-nothing intense period, and treatment for depression is an intense period," said psychiatrist Frederick Goodwin, a professor at George Washington University and former director of the National Institute of Mental Health. "If they coincide, that's not good. . . . You can't take sick leave in the middle of a campaign."

In withdrawing from the Maryland gubernatorial race yesterday, Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan acknowledged that reality. A doctor had diagnosed his depression Monday after hearing him describe such warning signs as a sudden loss of appetite, flagging energy and difficulty sleeping. Two days later, he realized he had only one option.

"It's time for me to focus on my health," Duncan (D) said.

His decision and public disclosure elicited praise from mental health experts and advocates. Far too frequently, they said, people grappling with depression hide their problems, especially if they work in professions where disclosure could put their job or career at risk.

"There is an enormous amount of stress to keep quiet, and you just aren't able to get the same amount of support," said Johns Hopkins University professor Kay Redfield Jamison. As a psychologist who has battled bipolar disorder, she empathizes greatly with Duncan.

"Just having this kind of illness is difficult enough," she said. "It's so incredibly painful and hard to cope with, even though it's treatable."

Although people may understand depression better than they did a decade ago, Goodwin and Jamison said, many misconceptions remain about the illness, which affects more than 20 million American adults.

Read the rest here: An Indiscriminate Illness, an Often Hidden Struggle

And for related materials:

Duncan Drops Bid for Governor, Pitting O'Malley vs. Ehrlich in Md.

Depression Led to Final Decision

An Indiscriminate Illness, an Often Hidden Struggle

In Politics, a More Upbeat Mood About Depression

Full Coverage: Maryland Politics

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20060622 KDDC Sun Reports Duncan to drop out of governor's race

Sun Reports Duncan to drop out of governor's race

June 22, 2006, 11:04 AM EDT

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-duncan0622,0,3473550.story?coll=bal-home-headlines
From the Baltimore Sun
Developing story
Duncan to drop out of governor's race

Montgomery County executive, Democratic candidate plans afternoon news conference
From Sun staff reports

June 22, 2006, 11:04 AM EDT

Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan plans to announce this afternoon that he is dropping out of the race for governor, sources close to his campaign said this morning.

Duncan, a Democrat, has recently been diagnosed with clinical depression, the sources said.

Duncan has scheduled a 2 p.m. news conference in his offices in Rockville, where more details will be disclosed.

_________________

Duncan withdraws from governor's race

Democratic candidate, Montgomery County executive bows out eight months into his campaign, saying he has been suffering from clinical depression

By John Fritze,Sun Reporter

Originally published June 22, 2006, 3:00 PM EDT

"ROCKVILLE // Douglas M. Duncan, the Montgomery County Executive who has been running an underdog but energetic campaign for governor, dropped out of the race this afternoon, saying he was suffering from clinical depression. "It's difficult for me to announce that I will no longer be a candidate for governor of Maryland, but it's the best decision for me, for my family and for our state," Duncan said at a 2 p.m. press conference with family members and his running mate, former Baltimore City State's Attorney Stuart O. Simms, at his side..."

Read the rest of the story here.

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20060105 Enemy Imaging

Enemy Imaging

January 5, 2006 by Kevin Dayhoff (1,127 words)

Former Georgia Senator Max Cleland (D) has resurfaced in the news once again. In Maryland? What the heck is going on here?

Last month Governor Robert L. Ehrlich announced hiring Bo Harmon to be his political director for his re-election campaign. The Baltimore Sun ran an article on December 10, 2005, which said, in part:

“Maryland Democratic Party spokesman Derek Walker said he was shocked that the governor would hire Harmon, and compared the political director to Joseph F. Steffen Jr., the former Ehrlich aide who was fired after admitting to spreading rumors about Mayor Martin O'Malley.

Democrats here and in Georgia immediately criticized the hire, saying Ehrlich is bringing to Maryland a virtuoso of nastiness who attacked the patriotism of Cleland, an Army veteran who lost three limbs in Vietnam.”

The Sun continued its criticism by calling the readers’ attention to a negative ad run by Senator Cleland’s opponent in the 2002 Georgia Senate race.

The ad used, what is known in the business as “enemy imaging.” Identifying an opponent with a nefarious character. Sorta like, running a picture of Governor Ehrlich with a fired state employee – Mr. Steffen.

The only difference is that after many folks, understandably, criticized the Chambliss campaign ad, the ad was taken off the air, changed and ran without the nefarious character images.

In the MD4BUSH–Steffengate saga; long after it has been revealed that MD4BUSH was a political dirty trick by democrats for which it has been suggested that several members of the Maryland Democratic Party have lost their jobs; the Sun is still running the negative ad which ‘enemy images’ Governor Ehrlich with Mr. Steffen.

So what is the rest of the Senator Cleland story? He lost his 2002 senate re-election bid because of his liberal voting record while serving in the senate and representing a conservative constituency.

Rich Lowry, writing in National Review on February 20, 2004, “Max Cleland, Liberal Victim,” put it best.

Democrat Senator Cleland “was on record supporting countless tax increases, and voted with his party's leadership against protecting the Boy Scouts from a campaign to keep them out of public schools and against banning partial-birth abortion. In many of these votes, he parted ways with his more conservative and popular colleague Miller, thus creating a major political vulnerability. He lost fair and square.”

This is what happened.

Senator Cleland returned home from Vietnam terribly wounded with injuries that would stop anyone but Superman. But he didn’t let being disabled stop him and he worked hard to recover and continue to serve his community and his country.

It was said best in a poignant Washington Post article on July 3, 2003, entitled “Political Veteran.”

After Mr. Cleland returned home from recovering from his injuries, in “1970, at 28, he became the youngest person ever elected to the Georgia Senate. In 1977 President Jimmy Carter appointed him to head the Veterans Administration. In 1982 he was elected as Georgia's secretary of state” and served until 1996.”

In 1996, when Senator Sam Nunn (D) decided to retire from the U.S. Senate after serving 24 years, Georgia Secretary of State Cleland tossed his hat in the ring. Senator Nunn had always been strong on national defense and Vietnam veteran Max Cleland seemed a perfect replacement.

He wasn’t.

In 1996, Mr. Cleland narrowly defeated his opponent, businessperson Guy Millner by 30,000 votes. He only got 49 percent of the vote.

Slate published an article by Michael Crowley on April 4, 2004 called: ““How the disabled war veteran became the Democrats' mascot.” It is not a poignant or deferential piece. Mr. Crowley wrote, “There was little reason to expect Cleland to be a star senator, and he wasn't.”

Of his 1996 campaign, Mr. Crowley wrote:

“In that campaign, Cleland made up for his lack of political skill—the Atlanta-Journal Constitution noted that he "has never been known as a deep thinker" and was prone to "platitudes" in debates—by harnessing the emotional power of his war injuries…”

After six years in the Senate, Senator Cleland’s re-election was in deep trouble at home. Although he could serve his southern constituency well enough on local Georgia issues, “Cleland's undoing was that he couldn't negotiate the dilemma facing many Southern Democrats — how to vote liberal in Washington while appearing conservative at home.” (Rich Lowry, February 20, 2004, “Max Cleland, Liberal Victim” National Review)

In the 2002 election, Senator Cleland was challenged by four-term conservative Republican congressman Saxby Chambliss, “who'd been elected in the "Contract With America" class of 1994.” (July 3, 2003, “Political Veteran” Washington Post)

Mr. Crowley wrote: “Most of Chambliss' attacks were based on Cleland's most "liberal" votes on social issues like partial-birth abortion. But in the race's closing weeks, Bush and Chambliss hammered at the fact that Cleland was voting with Senate Democrats against Bush's proposed Homeland Security Department because of its infamous provision limiting union rights. The message was that Cleland was kowtowing to big labor at the cost of protecting America.”

Then came those “GOP television ads.” They crossed the line. They were unnecessary and inappropriate and should have never been aired.

In the Washington Post July 3, 2003 article it was noted:

“both sides ran attack ads, but none was as controversial as Chambliss' homeland security spot. It opened with pictures of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. "As America faces terrorists and extremist dictators," said a narrator, "Max Cleland runs television ads claiming he has the courage to lead. He says he supports President Bush at every opportunity, but that's not the truth. Since July, Max Cleland voted against President Bush's vital homeland security efforts 11 times!"

After both democrats and republicans condemned the inappropriate ad, the ad was removed from the air.

Which brings us full circle. Since the Sun has brought it up. Beyond the issue of comparing how many articles the Baltimore Sun ran on MD4BUSH-Steffengate with how many articles it ran about the alleged criminal identity theft of Lt. Gov. Michael Steele’s personal financial records by Senator Schumer's staff at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee…

Now that MD4BUSH has been outed as a democratic dirty trick, the Sun needs to do a reality check and realize that by continuing to run the picture of Governor Ehrlich with Mr. Steffen on their web site, they may think that they are cleverly perpetuating a negative “enemy-imaging” ad on Governor Ehrlich.

What they are really doing is perpetuating a reminder of despicable gutter politics at its worse.

It is a rule of classier political practitioners that the family of an elected official or candidate for office is off limits – out of bounds. No matter what party to which they belong.

When is the Sun going to take the picture off their web site?

Just asking.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster. E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org
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20051209 Is Curry ready to jump ship

Is Curry grinding an old ax or ready to jump ship?

Wayne Curry – 1971 Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College, graduate.

Friday, Dec. 9, 2005

Former Prince George’s county exec Wayne Curry has had a famously rocky relationship with Senate President Mike Miller.

The two have bloodied each another in the boxing ring that is Prince George’s County politics for more than a decade. Miller supported Curry’s opponent in 1994. Curry has recruited candidates to run against Miller.

Curry even told us during the redistricting debacle of 2000 that he wanted Miller out of the county altogether.

So when Curry took an on-the-record shot at Miller on Monday after a legislative breakfast hosted by Annapolis lobbying firm, Rifkin, Livingston, Levitan and Silver, it could be seen as not that big of a deal.

But Curry, a Dem, is being considered as a running mate for Gov. Bob Ehrlich, and when he decides to weigh in on Democratic Party politics or one of the party leaders like Miller, we take note.

Read the rest here: Is Curry grinding an old ax or ready to jump ship?

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20050620 Baltimore strength liability for O’Malley

“Baltimore strength liability for O’Malley”

by David Nitkin on June 20^th, 2005,

with a preface written by me on September 21^st, 2005.

Kevin Dayhoff

This hyperlink is dead. The Baltimore Sun does not use permalinks. Sept. 21^st, 2005 - - KED: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.mayor20jun20,1,4891366.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

The article pasted below belongs to Baltimore Sun writer David Nitkin, the preface belongs to me.

Today, there was an article in the newspaper that Mayor O’Malley will soon announce his candidacy for the Maryland State House in Maryland’s next gubernatorial contest in November 2006.

I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for Mayor O’Malley.

I would just as well he not run and stay in Baltimore.

Perhaps the only reason that he is declaring this early is to give the indolent dominant Maryland Democrat Party an opportunity to make Governor Ehrlich as miserable as possible during the upcoming Maryland General Assembly - - in the hopes that he can be “disqualified” in the upcoming contest.

What do I mean by disqualified? The Democratic Party will increase its partisan obstructionist politics and play “get the governor” in everything they can. Nothing will get done for the Maryland citizen this upcoming session, except the thrill of watching a gladiator contest to the death.

It ain’t leadership and it ain’t right, but it is what it is and until we elect many more Republicans to the Maryland General Assembly, the Democrats will continue to do what they can do because they can do it.

On June 20^th, 2005, Baltimore Sun writer, David Nitkin wrote a soft-ball fluff piece for the Mayor O’Malley campaign called: “Baltimore a strength and liability for O'Malley - - Mayor focuses on recent positive news after FBI report of more violent crime; Statistics could hurt expected run for governor.”

Actually, it is another example of excellent writing by a very talented Mr. Nitkin, except for one problem; it may have been a nice column, but it was not “straight-down-the-middle news article.

It was a white paper analysis for the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and dangers that lay ahead for a Mayor O’Malley gubernatorial bid.

It is a wonderful example of everything for which the Baltimore Sun deserves the highest of criticism.

The Baltimore Sun does not use permalinks, so I cannot link you to the article.

Since it is an excellent subjective analytical piece on the challenges of running for higher office after serving as a mayor of a city, I will post it on the blog.

It is a must read. And it will give you some insight as to why I respect Mayor O’Malley so much and enjoy his company and look forward to working with him in the future after Governor Ehrlich wins a second term as governor.

_____

Baltimore a strength and liability for O'Malley

Mayor focuses on recent positive news after FBI report of more violent crime; Statistics could hurt expected run for governor

By David Nitkin, Sun Staff, June 20, 2005

The rush of recent good news about Baltimore - its ranking as a top international travel destination, an uptick in how Wall Street views the city's fiscal future - seemed too good to last.

And sure enough, what many consider to be the reality of Maryland's largest city hit home this month. Violent crime rose last year for the first time in five years, according to the latest FBI statistics.

Those are the kind of numbers that haunt big-city mayors as they attempt to advance in politics.

As Mayor Martin O'Malley prepares for an expected run for governor, he must persuade voters to concentrate on the positive - such as Time magazine ranking him in April as one of the country's five best mayors - and brush aside negatives such as the city's high homicide rate and struggling classrooms.

In short, he must buck a trend in modern American politics: the career stagnation of city mayors.

Cities can be tough places to live in, and even harder to govern. Blight, crime, substandard housing and poor schools have stymied generations of policy-makers. Residents with means move to the suburbs, leaving behind a population often mired in poverty and addiction.

"No matter how successful a mayor you might be in a big city, you have an awful lot of problems that remain," said Stephen Goldsmith, a former mayor of Indianapolis who was defeated in a run for Indiana governor in 1996, and is now a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "You can be very successful in a lot of areas, but it doesn't take a genius as a political opponent to come up with almost an endless list of things you haven't fixed and mistakes you made."

School testing results released this month offer a prime example. O'Malley can rightfully claim that Baltimore schools have made impressive academic gains that rival those of any big city, according to the latest Maryland School Assessment results. But his opponents are sure to note that they remain the worst-performing in the state.

For most of the past century, big-city mayors have been larger-than-life figures, characters who dreamed big and lived large - Fiorello LaGuardia in New York, Richard Daley in Chicago, Frank Rizzo in Philadelphia.

But none of them moved on to higher office. Roads to state houses are lined with the failed candidacies of supremely popular mayors. Consider Ed Koch in New York, who won a second term in 1981 when three of every four voters in the nation's largest city cast a ballot for him and lost a gubernatorial primary the next year to Mario Cuomo.

A variety of factors explains the phenomenon, from tension among cities and rural and suburban sections of a state in the battle for tax dollars and other scarce resources, to racism and xenophobia as cities have grown more ethnically and racially diverse.

"In the age of sprawl, cities that cannot expand - Baltimore's last annexation was 1917 - become filled with high concentrations of poor people," said David Rusk, a former mayor of Albuquerque, N.M., and an urban government expert who has studied Baltimore and its suburbs. "They are looked upon as having city problems. And that is just a euphemism for poor blacks."

For O'Malley, there is hope: Baltimore and Maryland have shattered the rules before.

William Donald Schaefer rode the success of Inner Harbor redevelopment to Annapolis. Before him, Theodore R. McKeldin was a Republican mayor and then governor.

"I think every state is different. ... I think people in our state are smart," O'Malley said in an interview. "They expect their leaders to be effective and make progress."

In Maryland, county governments are preeminently important - more so than in most other states - and Baltimore functions much like one of the state's 23 other counties, said Rusk.

Seen in that light, Maryland has been governed for 16 of the past 19 years by a mayor, covering the tenures of Schaefer and Parris N. Glendening, the former county executive of Prince George's County.

"But that is relatively rare," Rusk said.

Inevitably, mayors who seek higher office must campaign on a theme that they have a successful legacy, that they will do for the state or the nation what they have done for their city.

That's how former Philadelphia Mayor Edward G. Rendell became governor of Pennsylvania. An accessible leader who regularly appeared on sports television shows promoting the region's beloved Eagles, Rendell was embraced in the Philadelphia suburbs as a politician who could grapple with the city's problems.

O'Malley might be following a similar route. His visibility as the lead singer in an Irish band gave him a sort of star quality that eludes many leaders.

The Baltimore television market permeates most of the state, so even Marylanders who rarely cross the city's borders can follow his exploits nightly.

And in Maryland, much of the state is populated by ex-Baltimoreans who still think fondly about their hometown.

Ocean City Mayor Jim N. Mathias Jr. was born in Hampden, and lived in Baltimore and Carroll counties before settling in the resort town in 1972. He's a tireless cheerleader for his small city, but like many in Maryland, harbors a soft spot for his hometown.

"An objectively thinking taxpayer and resident of the state says to themselves, 'As goes Baltimore, as goes Rockville, so goes the state,'" Mathias said. "And if you have a leader that is putting those tax dollars at work, they give that person a chance."

Karen Reaver, 47, a registered Democrat from Carroll County, likes what she sees of the mayor from afar: "I like his style. I like what he does," she said.

A retired small-business owner, Reaver moved to Maryland three decades ago from the mountains of North Carolina and relishes in her peaceful lifestyle.

"I would not want to work in the city, and I would not want to live in the city," she said.

But still, she would vote for O'Malley in the primary, and, if he gets that far, against Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

"I think he's made improvements," she said. "Because of that, as far as a governor, he would work for the state as well as he's worked for the city."

That's why school and crime statistics such as those released this week are so crucial, because O'Malley must do what he can to show voters that he manages a well-functioning metropolis. And that's why O'Malley tried so hard to cast the statistics in the best possible light.

Baltimore's schools may be the worst in the state, but their improvement constitutes "one of the biggest turnaround stories of any urban school system in the United States of America," the mayor said in a burst of hyperbole that he could not immediately prove.

Violent crime rose 4 percent last year, but it has dropped nearly 40 percent since the mayor took office, he said.

O'Malley said he is willing to stand behind statistics that show the city's progress, even if he hasn't been able to meet all his goals, such as reducing the homicide count to below 200 yearly.

"We're not successful every week. And we're not even successful every year. But over the course of six years, we've been more successful than any city in America in reducing violent crime," O'Malley said.

In an attempt to emphasize the city's momentum, Jonathan Epstein, O'Malley's campaign manager, sent out a packet this month that included feel-good clippings from the past several weeks, including a Wall Street Journal article about the city's real estate boom. Epstein said he simply wanted to note the city's progress.

The most recent poll conducted for The Sun, taken in mid-April, revealed little anti-city backlash against O'Malley.

The poll showed the mayor ahead of Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan in a Democratic primary, 45 percent to 25 percent; and leading Ehrlich, 45 percent to 39 percent statewide.

Still, O'Malley, a Democrat, seems less popular than the governor in many areas of the state outside Baltimore.

In Baltimore County, a critical swing jurisdiction that surrounds the city, Ehrlich led O'Malley, 46 percent to 40 percent, the poll showed. But in another measurement, Baltimore County voters were just as likely to have a favorable impression of the mayor as they were the governor, who represented the county in the state legislature and in Congress. Sixty-three percent of county voters surveyed said they felt favorably about Ehrlich, and 61 percent said they had a favorable impression of O'Malley.

In Anne Arundel and Howard counties, the governor led, 50 percent to 46 percent; and in rural areas, Ehrlich was ahead, 51 percent 30 percent.

O'Malley, who has not declared his candidacy, is traveling the state, trying to build support. But as he embarks on a campaign, he must always keep an eye on Baltimore, where some headline-grabbing crime or crisis of the week will always await.

"It presents a particular problem for mayors to govern and run at the same time," said Goldsmith, the Harvard professor. "Helping a city succeed and helping it avoid catastrophe are not an automatic-pilot deal. The chances of something going wrong are not inevitable but significant."

Copyright © 2005, The Baltimore Sun