MD-Sen: Giving Loyalty a Bad Name

Even conservative Gregory Kane thinks Michael Steele's appearance with Don King and Mike Tyson was ill-advised:

I understand loyalty to friends. I can even understand how King fits into Steele's commitment to getting blacks more focused on business and economic development and cutting back on help from the federal government. There isn't a better by-your-own-bootstraps, rags-to-riches story than King's. His many detractors in recent years seem to have forgotten King's extraordinary accomplishments.

And he did it against insurmountable odds. Perhaps King himself put it best with one of his favorite quotes: "Only in America."

He's right. Only in America could a former numbers runner who stomped a guy to death on the street leave prison, put his sordid past behind him and use his exemplary entrepreneurial skills to become a millionaire. That truth doesn't get said enough about America. If Don King is one of the few who wants to say it, I'm more than willing to listen.

On the matter of endorsing one of Maryland's three candidates for the U.S. Senate, I'm leerier. I have no doubt King sincerely supports Steele's promise to turn boarded-up buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue into businesses. But I have to wonder who will vote for Steele with King's endorsement who wouldn't have voted for him without it.

King's endorsement of Steele -- like that of former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who endorsed Steele yesterday -- is one the lieutenant governor really didn't need.

Tags: election 2006 md-sen maryland michael steele ben cardin