Virginians know that God created Maryland to make Virginia look even better than it is. But we can envy our northern neighbors for its lieutenant governor, Michael Steele, who is running for the U.S. Senate next year.
Steele grew up in poverty to a single mother, attending Catholic schools on his mother's earnings in a laundromat. He's more conservative than the Republican governor, and he's charismatic and loquacious. At the 2004 Republican National Convention, he gave a solid prime-time speech.
What's more, Steele is openly pro-life in a very pro-abortion state, and one of his personal heroes is John Paul II, whom he quoted in his announcement speech. In a state where elections are decided in two places -- Baltimore and the D.C. suburbs -- Steele's race won't hurt him, either. Keep an eye on Michael Steele, because you might be seeing more of him in the very near future.
Very fitting for a state that had its genesis as haven for Catholics (and plump political patronage to the Catholic Calvert family) by King Charles I.
My vote notwithstanding, I suspect that Steele has no chance. His fellow people of color will reject him out of hand because of the (R) next to his name. They'll vote for the white guy with the (D) who'll keep up the mantra 'Republicans hate blacks and homosexuals'.
Ah, but Maryland offers a cautionary tale for Catholics who align themselves too closely with the government: at the time of the Revolution, Catholics couldn't hold public office or even vote in the state set up as a dumping ground for Papist malcontents.
Elect Kilgore and we'll talk. But I think you guys will dig yourselves a deeper grave by electing Kaine. Ehrlich has a decent shot at reelection, though it will be a tough fight.Steele is actually the best shot the GOP has at a Senate seat in years, and I think it can be pulled off. Cardin has going for him that he would fill the "dull and lifeless" mold of Paul Sarbanes. But I think Marylanders are ready for a sensible conservative R with a bit of color and pizazz.
And Eric, Maryland was the first colony to have a Toleration Act whereby all Christians who believed in the Trinity were free to worship according to the dictates of their conscience. I'm a little hazier on property rights, voting rights, etc., for Catholics in that period of time, but certainly Catholics were overpowered politically within the colony mostly due to demographics as Puritans and other non-Catholics who capitalized on the bounty and beauty of the land came to settle in larger numbers than Catholics did.
But as you well know, Maryland supplied the only Catholic signator of the Declaration of Independence.