Martin O'Malley Attacked for Showing Heart
But O'Malley also has the lumps that come with challenging the leader of his party.
He got an angry call from Cecilia Munoz, the administration's unofficial minister of damage control and propaganda on immigration. Munoz's official title is director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, but she spends much of her time misrepresenting Obama's immigration policy on Spanish-language media.
According to CNN, which quoted anonymous sources "familiar with the conversation," Munoz and O'Malley got into a "heated discussion" about his remarks. At one point, the conversation turned to a proposal under consideration by the Department of Health and Human Services to house some of the border kids at a former Army Reserve Center in Westminster, Md.
Quoting a Democratic source, the network reported that O'Malley pleaded with Munoz: "Please don't send these kids to Western Maryland."
The implication is that O'Malley is being hypocritical. But those dots don't connect. We're talking about two different things: expressing concern that kids are being sent to their deaths in Central America versus objecting to exactly where they are housed here in the United States.
An official with the O'Malley administration confirmed the conversation but insisted that the governor did not reject the idea of housing the children at another site in Maryland.
The Obama White House is a real prize. It won't send federal marshals to shield Homeland Security vehicles transporting women and children from angry mobs, but it will try to embarrass detractors by leaking private conversations.
O'Malley should have expected it. Nothing sets off the Obamanistas like seeing others approach a thorny policy issue with the things they lack: honesty, decency and common sense.
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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.
Copyright 2014 Washington Post Writers Group
