| ||||||||||||||
ANALYSIS:What Ever Happened to Good Old-Fashioned Regulated Monopolies?
While it is always expected that appointees serve at the pleasure of the political boss under the time-honored principle "to the victor belongs the spoils," why now? Perhaps Governor Ehrlich's recent appointee as chairman of the commission, who happens to have been formerly the House of Delegates minority whip, was assigned the duty of hatchet man, but he has been in that position for a year. According to a Sun article about the firings (4/20, PSC chief fires 5 top members of agency staff), the consensus of experts both within and outside the PSC is that the particular expertise of the five senior staff will be sorely missed and virtually irreplaceable. Could it be that these employees represented a potential anomaly--a group of public servants raised in a tradition of service to the public, in a new world of deregulation and privatization where market forces decide everything? a world where corporate interests are assumed to be always aligned with the public interest? By unleashing the profit motive in the world of public utility enterprises, shareholder interests will be paramount, and the public interest will be that of a customer only. Chairman Schisler did not even have the courtesy to inform his fellow commissioners of his move (at least none of the Democratic ones), and he refuses to answer press inquiries under the theory that this is a private personnel matter. In a Sun article today (4/21, Firings at PSC viewed as risky) the legality of his assumption of this unilateral move is being questioned. The fact that some of these long-time staff members were escorted out of their workplace under armed guard is especially troubling, as it might leave the impression that there is a fraud issue here. Schisler may have to be reminded that he is an employee also, and he is supposed to be working for us, not the business interests that financed the Ehrlich campaign. As taxpayers and rate payers, we don't elect Governors to be dictators, do we? Do we elect corporate CEOs to public office so that there need be no public input into decision-making? Subverting the rule of law, undermining regulations, and doing everything in utmost secrecy--these tactics appear to be the modus operandi of (often Republican) officials these days. Ehrlich undoubtedly has observed this behavior among his peers and those in Congress and even in the White House, and is trying to copy it to play out what he must view as his mandate in Maryland. I doubt that most Maryland voters voted for a CEO. It's entirely possible they still think they are voting for a public servant, not a special interest facilitator. I think we are all tired of hearing that we need to make Maryland a user-friendly State for business. Let them all go to Delaware if they don't think they need to consider the public as anything other than a customer base. The popular political theory these days is that politicians must have their "base." We the public are all stuck at first base under such a theory. When the base involves corporate and gambling interests, you get slots and roads, but little else. J. Russell Tyldesley, an insurance executive, resides in Catonsville, Md. Copyright © 2004 The Baltimore Chronicle.
All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent. This story was published on April 21, 2004. |
Local News & Opinion
Travel
Books, Arts & Education
08.05 "American Teen": A Winning Documentary about Real-Life High Schoolers 07.31 Francis Boyle's "Palestine Palestinians and International Law" Letters
Ref. : Letters to the editor Open Letters: 08.16 Out Damn Blot: A Letter to Colin Powell Health & Environment
08.14 The End of Cheap Oil: The Future is Now 08.05 Obama is Right: It's Easy to Reduce the Nation's (and Your Own) Fuel Bill Dramatically Media Watching
08.21 Mixed Truth of the Russia-Georgia War 08.16 John McCain's Party of Hate 08.15 Corporate Media Bashes New Chavez Enabling Law Decrees 08.15 Georgia/Russia Conflict Forced Into Cold War Frame 08.13 WPost and the Great Disconnect 08.12 WPost Admits Bungling Obama Quote 08.06 Why McCain May Well Win 08.06 Media Fall for 'Race Card' Spin 08.01 Wall Street Journalomics: The Case of the Missing Tax Facts 07.31 CNN Scoffs at White House Critics 07.31 WPost Calls Out 'Uppity' Obama US Politics, Policy & Culture
08.21 McCain's Ties to Neocon Hard Lines 08.21 Peace Mom v. Guardian of Power 08.20 Are You Ready For Nuclear War? 08.19 A Book Written to Defeat Obama 08.19 McCain's 'Cone of Silence' Caper 08.14 Is Perpetual War Our Future? 08.12 5 Years After Blackout, Power Grid Still in 'Dire Straits' 08.12 Olympic Shame 08.12 Thinking About Intermissions 08.11 ‘Medaling’ With Free Speech at the Olympics 08.11 Targeting Immigrants - The Largest Ever US ICE Raid 08.09 A Novel Approach to Politics 08.07 The Hamdan Principle and You 08.07 McCain Adopts Cheney's Energy Plan 08.06 The Serpent's Egg: Solzhenitsyn and the Origins of America's Gulag 08.05 Mining Racism and Murder in a Northeastern Pennsylvania Coal Town 08.04 The Other Presidential Candidates 08.03 McCain, Anthrax & the Afghan Blunder 08.01 Justice Probe Still Threatens Gonzales 07.31 Obama's Surge in Berlin 07.30 War Without End, Amen: Into the Afghan Abyss with Obama 07.30 McCain's Spin on the 'Surge' 07.30 Friday's House Judiciary Hearing on Impeachment: A Victory and a Challenge US High Crimes & Misdemeanors
08.20 Musharraf, Not Bush, Follows Nixon 08.18 Fear, Procurement, Profit: Permanent War and the American Way 08.17 This Time, the World Is Not Buying It 08.15 'Imminent' Threats Should Be a Belli Laugh 08.08 American Insouciance 08.07 Extra! Dog Bites Man! Read All About It! 08.05 Marching Off Into Tyranny 08.05 Follow This Dime 07.31 Wave of 'Capitol Crime' Continues 07.29 Bodyguard of Lies: The Truth Behind the 'Surge's' Smokescreen 07.28 Secret "Torture Memo" Gave Legal Cover to Interrogators Who Acted in "Good Faith" 07.28 The Bush Administration's Secret Biowarfare Agenda 07.26 The Endless Smearing of Joe Wilson Economics & Business
08.04 Thinking About Ponzi International
08.18 Blockades: Acts of War 08.17 Rice’s Recipe for Duck Soup 08.14 The Lawless Roads: Bluster in Georgia, Rank Tyranny at Home 08.14 Marching Through Georgia V: U.S. Forces Moving Into Putin's Powderkeg 08.14 Marching Through Georgia IV: The Butt Thumper and the Bear 08.13 Using Georgia to Target Russia 08.12 From Stupid to Moronic to Evil 08.11 Marching Through Georgia III: Reality's Rout and Cheney's Viagra 08.11 Marching Through Georgia II: The Kremlin Surge 08.08 Marching Through Georgia I: Cold War II Proxy Conflict Turns Hot 08.07 Living Death: The Eternal Now of Hiroshima 08.07 War with Iran - On, Off or Undecided? 08.04 Gaza Under Siege We are a non-profit Internet-only newspaper publication founded in 1973. Your donation is essential to our survival.
|
| ||||||||||||