March 16, 2011: An Odd Performance at the Protest Rally
The union leaders should have informed Gov. Martin O'Malley
before he took the stage yesterday that the protest rally was
organized to oppose the O'Malley budget and his own pension
reform bill. Instead, O'Malley must have believed the teacher
union propaganda that rally was all about the legislators and
not about him.
His announcement as an "unexpected" guest speaker drew an odd
combination of cheers, jeers and scattered heckling. As he
reached the podium, he seem blindsided by the endless "Keep the
Promise" chant that delayed him from speaking.
Under the heading "O'Malley Co-opts Protest of His Own Budget,"
Len Lazarick of MarylandReporter.com wrote: "It was a bizarre
finale to a rally that brought thousands of state workers and
teachers to Annapolis to protest cuts in pensions, retirement
benefits and pupil spending. The last speaker was none other
than the man who had triggered the rally by proposing the cuts:
Gov. Martin O'Malley." (click
here)
Christian Freymeyer of HistoricAnnapolis.Patch.Com offered this
analysis: "While a labor rally would normally be a home-game for
the governor, he was instead met with chants of 'keep the
promise' as he took the stage, and was unable to begin speaking
until the chants died down. The governor tried to sympathize
with the protesters. 'I don't like this budget either,' said
O'Malley. But halfway through his remarks, O'Malley was stopped
again by chants and screams, eventually having to ask the crowd
to quiet down so that he could finish." (click
here)
The rank-and-file state workers and teachers did not want to
hear the phrases from O'Malley's stump speech that all
Marylander's have to "chip in" a little to "help Maryland move
forward." It is the same message that he used four years ago
when he championed the largest tax increase in Maryland history
to solve the long-term budget deficit.
His budget plan four years ago did not work and his "Moving
Maryland Forward" message has worn thin with all Maryland
citizens, even the labor union base that is O'Malley's
"home-game" crowd. Union leaders standing behind the stage had
horrified expressions as the angry hecklers became more strident
the longer O'Malley spoke.
O'Malley offered a few red-meat lines to the unions. Freymeyer
reported, "The second-term governor reminded the crowd that he
is a labor supporter, and that they aren't in Wisconsin, where
fundamental collective bargaining rights have been stripped.
'You won't find in Maryland the sort of Midwestern repression
that's present in Wisconsin and Ohio,' O'Malley said. 'I've
never walked away on you.'" Then O'Malley hastily departed from
the stage.
Lazarick concluded his report by describing the counter-protest
rally: "Opponents of higher taxes were outshouted in the streets
near the State House Monday night. While thousands clamored to
'Keep the Promise,' about 50 to 75 protesters carrying inflated
pig balloons mounted a counter-rally objecting to 'union bosses'
and tax increases. Bernadette Zgorski of Churchville carried one
of the less provocative signs: 'It's about shared sacrifice.'
State workers need to understand that revenues are not coming
in, she said, though she finds many of them clueless to the
fiscal realities. 'We don't have the money anymore. I am the
face of the unemployed, of the senior citizens on fixed
incomes,' Zgorski said. She and they cannot afford any tax
hikes, she said."
Inside the State House, legislators were preparing for their
Monday evening session and unaware that O'Malley had spoken at
the protest rally. When informed of his odd performance, most
legislators just shook their heads in disbelief. |
