Annapolis Capital Punishment

John Gizzi, political editor of "Human Events" and a writer whose own bio describes him as "The man who knows everyone in Washington" is another in a line of conservatives obsessed with progressive candidate for delegate Judd Legum, although the article of interest here was mainly in support of Delegate Ron George. Writing in "Maryland’s Ron George and An All-Star Cast" on October 22, Gizzi gets a bunch of facts wrong which makes me wonder if he gets any of them correct.

For starters....He says "George is the lone Republican among the three delegates elected from District 30 (Anne Arundel County) and clearly a star in a legislative chamber in which Democrats outnumber Republicans by 141 to 36."

Uhh, wait a minute. In the entire General Assembly there are 188 members, with 47 in the Senate and 141 in the House, so what does Gizzi mean by saying  we have "a legislative chamber in which Democrats outnumber Republicans by 141 to 36."? His total adds up to 177. Are there 11 from other parties or independents? No.

Gizzi may be mixing up the two chambers in some sort of odd way. I'm not sure. From online sources, I count 104 Democrats in The House and 37 Republicans and 14 Republican Senators and 33 Democratic Senators. But either way 33 and 104 equals 137 Democrats to 51 Republicans  among the two chambers for a total of 188. That's a  ratio of about 2.75 to 1, so where does Gizzi get a number of 141 to 36 or a ratio of almost 4:1???  I do not presume to know from where conservative pundits such as Gizzi get their "facts." 

Then he says that George is "Well-known from his chain of jewelry stores throughout Anne Arundel County...".  George owns two jewelry stores. Does that constitute a chain of stores? Maybe I am quibbling, but saying "two" would have been exactly accurate. Saying a chain may be misleading. Maybe Gizzi just did not check.

Then Gizzi writes, "Under the Free State’s legislative election system, District 33 sends three delegates to the state legislature."   Wait a minute again. It's District 30, not 33.

Gizzi (or indirectly quoting George) says Legum "is now research director for the Center for American Progress, the premier left-wing think tank."   As far as I can tell, Legum left that position a while ago. His name is nowhere to be found on the CAP's web-site. I don't know what constitutes a "premier" think tank.

But while Gizzi bashes Legum for support from former President Bill Clinton Former and his Chief of Staff John Podesta, he praises George for enlisting support from UN Ambassador and Maryland resident John Bolton, although Gizzi missed that former Attorney General Ed Meese also came to a fundraiser for George. Where did he even get the story that Clinton was involved? I must have missed that one...or did it never happen?

Incidentally, Gizzi, a devout Catholic, as is George (and he takes pains to mention this in the article) is a recipient of the William A. Rusher Award for Journalistic Excellence and was named Journalist of the Year by the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2002.

See Gizzi's piece at http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39543

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