Tom LoBianco, Maryland politics reporter

When it comes to election-year politics, Senate President Mike "Godzilla" Miller is the king, but Andy Harris knows how to tear things up too.

“With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound,
He pulls the spitting high-tension GOPers down!”

With my apologies to the fine members of Blue Oyster Cult, I bring you State House Theme Song 5, in which we merge the “monstrous” political egos of Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. and Sen. Andrew P. Harris. with Godzilla and King Kong respectively (as shown on right.) Then it is set to “Godzilla” by BOC.

Miller, who has traditionally shown little patience for hard campaign-style politicking in his body-politic, unleashed the flames on Harris today, hitting him right in the chief of staff. Miller demanded that Harris remove his chief of staff because she is running for a state House seat. Miller let loose the flaming fury in a letter to Harris, and Harris stomped right back declaring that the move was in retaliation for a pension debate he opened in the Senate.

So, when I think of political mauling and destruction, I can’t help but think of the seminal Blue Oyster Cult song. (Pardon the slight interpretation.)

Helpless people in a Senate chamber
Scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them

Oh no, they say he’s got to go—
Go, go, Millerzilla . . .
Oh no, there goes Tokyo—
Go, go, Millerzilla . . .

History shows again and again
How Miller points out the folly of men . . .
Millerzilla!

So apparently some rumor about Sen. Barbara Mikulski retiring “lit up” the blogosphere a few days ago. Well, for wont of real journalism, I will forego linking the original poster of this rumor and say this just proves that almost any political rumor can get legs if repeated enough …

Anyone who’s been around Annapolis (or Capitol Hill, for that matter) over the last few years has heard this rumor at least a dozen times from a dozen different sources. And each of those dozen times it has proven false. And, as a handful of national reporters so aptly showed yesterday, this latest incarnation of the rumor is just as false.

One of my other favorite rumors from the rumor mill — which I will just throw out there because it is demonstrably false — was the gem that somehow Gov. Martin O’Malley would get tapped by Obama to be his running mate back in 2008.

Arrrgggg.

So, that effigy of Frank Kratovil created by a conservative activist and dangled outside one of his offices last summer is on my radar not for its boorishness, but for its proper referencing.

Here, The Weekly Standard uses “hung” to reference the faux-Kratovil. I would’ve gone with “hanged” … but I also used to lean heavily on copy eds (as evidenced by the God-awful copy you see in this post and elsewhere on my homepage.)

My apologies to The Weekly Standard, as this seems to be rather commonplace. Anyway, here is an interesting discussion on the proverbial hang-up.

Here’s my latest CenterMaryland.org story – TL

Price tag for clearing snow from state highways up over $100 million

By Tom LoBianco

The historic snowstorms of this winter also come with a historic price tag of more than $100 million, the state transportation department said Monday.

And that’s just an early guess, as road crews are still working to clear secondary lanes and literally remove snow from some of the areas which went untouched over the last two weeks of snow, Transportation Secretary Beverly Swaim-Staley told a state budget committee.

“We’re already well over $100 million,” she said.

Between December’s snowstorms, a few relative dustings in January and the past two knockout blizzards, the state is on track to almost double what it normally lays out for snow removal annually, Swaim-Staley said.

Get the full story here.

A handful of Montgomery County Democrats got pretty ticked with the service they were getting last week from state highway cleanup folks, according to this Washington Post report.

So it was with that little shot in mind that Delegate Bill Bronrott apologized to Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley Monday at a legislative hearing today (Monday) afternoon.

“We felt we were treated sort of subpar,” Bronrott said. “That was before part two, which became a historic blizzard. Now we want to thank you.”

Today’s lesson: When still buried under snow, forget that little adage about people who buy paper by the ton and ink by the barrel. It’s the ones buying salt and snowplows ya gotta be nice to.

Wow, that was quite some snow. But now the important business of the people of One Maryland marches onward … or something like that.

Keep looking back here this week for updates and stories.

cheers, Tom

Is there a sno-fix that hasn’t been applied yet? Snomageddon, snopacolypse, snomg, snomfg … Seriously though, when I woke up Saturday morning I said, “snoly crap!” Here are some shots from throughout the week:

If you're going to be snowed in at length, best to have a good assortment of horror, thriller, sci-fi and family flicks to keep you sated.

The good people of Canton Liquors decided best to bring an air mattress and a few change of clothes ...

Snow tackle!!

So there is a “real” Avon Barksdale – his name is Nathan “Bodie” Barksdale – from The Wire (I say real because a lot of the characters on the show were mashups, making it hard to pinpoint any one character to any actual person.) He is still kicking it in Baltimore. And he’s coming out with a movie based on his unfiltered observations this March.

Check out this excellent write-up from Jeff Anderson, formerly of The City Paper.

My question is when is the “real” Thomas Carcetti coming out with his unfiltered observations …

Comptroller Peter Franchot is up with a spot on YouTube melding auto-mechanic chefs and tax preparing scams as only Maryland’s top taxman can.

The spot raises two interesting dynamics in state politics: the relative quietude of Franchot post-slots referendum and the thin line between public service annoucements and campaign ads.

It used to be said that the only silent about Franchot is the “t” (it’s pronounced Franch-ooo, or -ayoo if yer from Bawlimer). And that was certainly applicable before Maryland voters rebutted his anti-slots campaign in 2008. But Franchot has been awfully quiet since then, relegating his famous battles with Gov. Martin O’Malley to the recesses of his political machine.

Then there is the question of politicians using state dollars to produce public service announcements. Democrats raked former Gov. Bob Ehrlich for producing Maryland tourism spots featuring him walking through Maryland homes. O’Malley, for his part, has been somewhat less omnipresent in his foreclosure relief campaign, but visible nonetheless. And Congressional mailers are perpetual fodder for campaign challengers who call them taxpayer-subsidized campaign ads.

The shades of gray range greatly, but that’s why we have YouTube! Judge for yourself. (And, in the words of “Robert Goulet” … “You wouldn’t let a clown fix a leak in the john, so why you let these hooligans tear down the biz?”)

Lookit, that's Bob Seger on the tube! Maryland likes its rock the same way it likes its legislative access: old!

Maryland sure loves that “old time rock and roll” when it comes to online access. Len Lazarick over at MarylandReporter.com has this write-up:

The homepage for the General Assembly looks pretty much as it did in the late 1990s. It displays none of the latest bells and whistles seen on many governmental websites, such as the one for Gov. Martin O’Malley.

“It’s been the same design for a while,” said Michael Gaudiello, the chief technology officer for the legislature. And he said there are no plans to redesign it any time soon.

“I’m assuming at some point we’ll do that,” Gaudiello said.

So in that vein we dredge up Bob Seger (and the Silver Bullet Band) to honor open government in the “Free State.” Is anyone shocked that the General Assembly techies are saying “Don’t try to take me to a disco/You’ll never even get me out on the floor”? Of course state politics junkies would rather “Just take those old records off the shelf/ I’ll sit and listen to ‘em by myself.”

You know what’s cooler than “open government”? Nostalgia and inconvenience! Rock on.