With O'Malley, Flip-Flops and Twisting Tongues

Gov. Martin O'Malley, right, greets Tim Porter, who runs Quarterhorse Transportation in Westminster, after a news conference Tuesday. (By Glenn Fawcett -- The Sun Via Associated Press)

The difference, he says, is that his Republican predecessor tried to sell slots as a silver bullet in lieu of tax increases, whereas the Democrat uses slots "as one component of a plan that calls for all of us to pay more in taxes."

When Lisa Polyak, a plaintiff in the gay marriage test case, heard Mayor O'Malley spell out his support for the concept at a meeting in 2004, she spelled out the differences between marriage and civil union and asked if he could really commit to marriage.

" 'Yeah, I think I can do that,' " he replied, Polyak says.

She then wrote to the mayor to get his position on paper. O'Malley came back with an e-mail: "I'm just supporting something I strongly believe in." Again in 2005, O'Malley wrote Polyak, assuring her that "I do stand by my earlier comments."

Now that he has changed gears, "I find him in this instance to be just completely dishonest," says Polyak, who supported O'Malley for governor. "His flowery language notwithstanding, we tend to invest heavily in anyone who supports us at all. But when we have a sense that on a personal level, a politician really does get it, and then they set that aside as a political calculation, that's a heartbreaking thing."

The governor says: "I certainly understand the hurt and anger and outrage that many people" -- O'Malley studiously avoids the word "gay" -- "feel after the Court of Appeals decision, and that anger may be directed to public officials. But I'm open and willing to work with people of good faith to find a way toward equal protection under the law."

The official line in Annapolis is that O'Malley never meant to endorse "civil marriage," that by that phrase, he meant civil unions. "When he said that, the language was still evolving," says spokesman Rick Abbruzzese. "It's not like civil marriage is a term people use all the time."

Abbruzzese says O'Malley will push for civil unions and notes that lawmakers will consider a bill in January sponsored by Dels. Victor Ramirez (D-Prince George's) and Ben Barnes (D-Anne Arundel). But that bill proposes to legalize gay marriage, not civil unions. And Barnes says "it's important to call it civil marriage because it includes language assuring that no clergy will be required to perform anything that may be against the tenets of their religion."

Would that assurance take care of O'Malley's concern about not offending citizens whose religion rejects same-sex marriage? "It probably does," the governor says, and then he repeats that he favors civil unions.

Bottom line: Words matter, especially for a politician who's built his career on his ability to inspire.

"Believe," said the billboards Mayor O'Malley erected in Baltimore to instill hope in a dying city.

It'd be a shame if voters watching Gov. O'Malley had to conclude that they just don't know what to believe.

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