Crass, Yes, but Illegal?

The legislative committee charged with investigating Gov. Ehrlich's hiring and firing practices has come back with a 130-page draft report. According to the Post and the Sun, the report finds that Ehrlich's people did indeed fire workers based on political affiliation, and in so doing violated state law. Republicans, who made up only four of the twelve members of the committee, are crying foul, even while admitting that the Ehrlich administration was misguided. Senate minority leader Lowell Stoltzfus, for example, is quoted as saying:

I saw some crass behavior by certain people who first came in to work for the governor. It was a new regime. They behaved in a way they shouldn't have. But you can't legislate for crass behavior.

It's important to remember that even though the workers who were fired were employed "at-will," i.e., could be fired for no reason, state law requires personnel decisions to be made "without regard to the employee's political affiliation, belief, or opinion." But, it seems, Ehrlich in 2003 and 2004 sent out his people, including the "Prince of Darkness" himself, Joseph Steffen, and they began letting workers go with little or no consultation from the relevant agencies. The case of the five employees fired from the Public Service Commission, who were escorted out by security and had their photos posted in the lobby, was particularly egregious.

Was this investigation a partisan witchhunt, as Ehrlich and the Republicans allege? Well, it would be naive to claim there weren't any political motivations behind the investigation. On the other hand, even the Republicans don't seem to be challenging the basic findings of the report, just its necessity. I would argue that having partisan loyalty not be the sole criterion for public servants is very necessary. Democrats in Maryland haven't been perfect in this regard, I admit, but one need only look at Iraq and New Orleans to see what the patronage mindset gets you.

Speaking of Joe Steffen, where has he been lately? After Ehrlich fired him for spreading false rumors about Martin O'Malley, he disappeared for a while, reappeared briefly when he was finally compelled to testify to the legislative committee, then disappeared again. I remember him saying on the Marc Steiner show that he was going to start a blog (join the club). Did anything ever come of that?