In yet another instance of the Washington Post shielding the Maryland Democratic political establishment, including the party's nominee for governor, editors buried on page B4 of the Saturday, August 30 edition a stunning story about outgoing Gov. Martin O'Malley's refusal to cooperate with federal immigration officials to eventually deport illegal immigrants who have served time behind bars.
"Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has instructed a state-run jail in Baltimore to stop honoring federal requests to detain inmates beyond their scheduled release dates in order to explore potential immigration violations, unless there is probable cause that those who are being held have broken the law," staff writer John Wagner noted in the lead paragraph for his article headlined "O’Malley tells jail to curtail immigrant detentions."
Nowhere in his 12-paragraph story did Wagner find any critics of the move from the right side of the political spectrum, nor did he explore what impact this may have on the governor's race this November, which pits O'Malley's protégé, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown against Republican nominee Larry Hogan. Wagner did, however, make sure to include praise for O'Malley from pro-amnesty activists as well as an ACLU representative.
It is also worth noting that Gov. O'Malley is believed to be interested in the 2016 presidential contest or, failing that, in pursuing a Senate race in the future. The term-limited governor seems to have no aspiration to quietly retire to the private sector. Yet, again, Wagner fails to explore the governor's possible political calculus in his moving to the left on the immigration issue in hopes of appealing to the Democratic Party's activist left-wing primary-election base.
