Watch out when you hear "witch hunt." Or the phrase "fishing expedition."
In my experience those are usually the terms used by a public official who senses trouble and feels panicky. This time it's Sheila Dixon, the mayor of Baltimore. Apparently the state prosecutor is still looking into some fishy stuff involving Dixon and a contractor who got a deal with the city when Dixon was council president and who hired a subcontractor who employed Dixon's sister.
It's a good thing that we have a state prosecutor to look into these things.
But this has gone on for a while, hasn't it?
I know such investigations are complex and tedious, and prosecutors need to be careful in how they put cases together. But, didn't the voters of Baltimore need to know whether Dixon had fishy hands in this Doracon-Utech thing before the election?
Back in September, before the primary, it would have been helpful to know if Dixon had operated within the bounds of the law during her time as council prez. A lot of people gave her the benefit of the doubt and voted for Dixon. Others could be excused for being a bit more hesitant.
Just a couple of weeks before the primary, the state prosecutor charged Dale Clark, Dixon's longtime friend and former campaign chairman, with failing to file state income taxes in 2002, 2003, 2004 -- years during which Clark was feeding at City Hall's trough. His company received some $600,000 in no-bid computer services contracts through Dixon's office -- all without a written contract. Nice, eh?
We still don't know if this was a matter of Dixon kicking back some gelt to a friend, or bureaucratic ineptitude. We do know that a member of Dixon's staff discussed keeping payments to Clark below $5,000 each because anything above that would have required Board of Estimates approval.
And we know this: Dixon did not take responsibility for the questionable payments to Clark. She blamed her staff.
According to Sun reports, Dixon had personally crafted a no-bid contract for Clark. Though that deal expired in March 2001, Clark continued to get paid without a contract. Dixon said at the time that she was wrong for setting up the deal and that she would seek competitive bids.
But Dixon's reaction at the time The Sun published stories was classic for a public official caught with fishy hands - she accused us of printing "lies" about her and her staff.
And, of course, now the prosecutor has raided an office of a contractor with ties to Dixon, and it's all one big "witch hunt."
Watch out, everybody.