Robert Ehrlich Jr., the new Republican governor of Maryland, “in a highly charged speech” to a Maryland House committee, accused Michael Busch, the Democratic House Speaker, of “playing the race card” by urging black ministers to oppose slot machines at the race tracks.
“I meant what I said,” Ehrlich replied as he stood next to Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele (R), the first African American elected to statewide office in Maryland. “To bring the race factor in, to us, was clearly inappropriate. To me, it took this debate way off course. I resented it; the lieutenant governor resented it. I just found it inappropriate.”
“Race as a consideration here is almost wholly irrelevant,” Ehrlich continued. “Nobody has explained to me why black preachers are being targeted. Why not white preachers?”
Ehrlich’s comments elicited an outburst from several white clergy members in the audience — “What about us?” some exclaimed — and appeared to stun Busch, who was seated a few feet away. After the governor left, Busch interrupted the legislative hearing to give what he called a personal response.
“I find it extremely hurtful to be accused by the executive of the state of somehow using race as a motivator for an issue such as this,” Busch told the hearing room, which was packed with a dozen television cameras and activists from both sides of the debate. “I found it disturbing. . . . [This issue] should rise or fall on its merits.”
Busch has condemned Ehrlich’s gambling plan, saying it would place slot machines at racetracks in poor, predominantly black neighborhoods in Baltimore and Prince George’s County.
Politics today is so racially charged that the old saying, “the race goes to the swift,” needs revising. Now it’s more accurate to say that the swift go to race.
