Random rants

Take U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin. In his 2006 race against Republican Mike Steele, an attractive African American, Cardin received vital help from Obama who campaigned for Cardin, it seemed, every week. Must not Cardin now return the favor, offsetting U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s support for Clinton?

Or how about superdelegates Chris Van Hollen and John Sarbanes, two young Maryland congressmen likely to clash someday for higher office. Both are uncommitted, both must endorse now in consideration of a U.S. Senate race far down the road when half of Maryland’s Democratic voters will be African Americans.

Sold American

Remember the big Dubai ports deal brouhaha back in 2006? Remember the politicians’ patriotic outrage when a maritime company owned by a friendly Arab company took over a management contract for several ports including Baltimore’s? Remember the xenophobia and demagoguery?

Funny how things change when you’re going broke. Look who’s bailing out America’s biggest banks mired in housing mortgage losses. That’s right, Chinese and Arab ‘‘sovereign wealth funds” are buying up large interests in CitiCorp, Morgan, Merrill Lynch and others. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke calls the foreign interventions ‘‘constructive.” So far, not a peep from the politicians.

Don’t go near the water

A scientific report published Monday found traces of pharmaceuticals in Washington, D.C.’s water supply, including painkillers, anti-convulsives, hormones, antibiotics and mood stabilizers for treating bipolar disorders.

Well that certainly explains a lot about what goes on in Congress and the White House. It also opens the door to a whole new generation of legal defenses for indicted politicians. ‘‘It wasn’t me, your honor, the carbamazepine made me do it!” So don’t be surprised if, as we speak, Eliot Spitzer’s legal team is analyzing the Mayflower’s drinking water for traces of Viagra.

Dumb and dumber

About 10 years ago, Maryland bit the bullet and decided to end the nefarious practice of ‘‘social promotions,” letting kids automatically graduate whether they have a high school education or not. From now on, said Maryland educators, seniors must pass the High School Assessment tests in algebra, biology, English and civics to get a diploma.

But faced with the prospect of thousands of flunkies and their angry parents, the state school board kept delaying the deadline. Now it’s the class of 2009, next year’s seniors, who must pass or fail. And to make things easier, underachievers can submit an after-school ‘‘project” in place of the test.

But wait, the politicians are riding to the rescue. Del. Jay Walker, a Prince George’s County Democrat, has sponsored a bill to solve the problem by repealing the test. ‘‘I don’t see how we can mandate this on the children,” he says. ‘‘The right thing is not to allow the High School Assessment Test as a graduation requirement.”

Years ago, cartoonist Walt Kelly created the character Pogo whose most famous quip was, ‘‘We have met the enemy and they are us.” How true, how sadly true.

Random rants

*No matter what your feelings about Montgomery County’s sex ed school curriculum, you have to wonder about the issue’s media treatment. In a recent newspaper account, the reporter refers to sex ed opponents as ‘‘a collection of religious conservative groups” while supporters are labeled ‘‘a parents group.” Gosh, do you see any ingrained media bias?

*Do you want to know one reason why Maryland’s budget deficits are out of control? Every bill has a fiscal note estimating each new program’s future cost. Last year’s legislature passed a minimum wage increase bill predicting that it would cost the state $138,000 a year. Now the Comptroller’s Office estimates that merely implementing the new law will cost at least $760,000.

*Funny, when the bad guys put up a 20-foot concrete wall to separate people we call it a wall — the Berlin Wall or the Great Wall of China. But when the good guys do the same thing, we call it ‘‘a fence.” So, according to us, the USA is building a ‘‘virtual fence” along the Mexican border and Israel is building a ‘‘fence” to wall out the Palestinians. I guess it depends which side of the wall, or fence, you’re standing on. After all, how would it have sounded to hear Ronald Reagan say, ‘‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this fence?”

Blair Lee is CEO of the Lee Development Group in Silver Spring and a regular commentator for WBAL radio. His column appears Fridays in The Gazette. His e-mail address is blair@leedg.com.