Raising funds and waving signs

I am not entireley pleased with this article.

Once again the Baltimore Sun's Larry Carson shows his bias against the Republican's in Howard County by winding up his article with comments by John Loftus, key note speaker at the GOP Lincoln Day Dinner. Carson gives the impression that Loftus, and the HOCO GOP through association, are extremists by selectively quoting Loftus. Carson gives no balance to the story and fails to mention the outreach to Muslim organizations or the Muslim Groups that reservered tables at the Lincoln Day Dinner and who praised Loftus for his comments (because they were their to here the speech in context)."Oh my gosh...." exclaims Guy Guzzone when learning that his likely opponent in the general election, Chris Merdon is sign waiving. Who is Guzzone kidding? He has been campaigning in his own way by pandering to special interests in the county since 2002.

Now Robey is accusing Republicans of saying Government and Taxes are bad. Mr. Robey, Government and Taxes are good and necessary. Your style of government and taxes are bad.

WITH BLUE "Merdon, County Executive" signs plastered everywhere, the annual Howard County Republican party's Lincoln Day Dinner at Turf Valley looked more like the launching of the county councilman's 2006 campaign than what it was - a fund-raising gathering for the party.

County Councilman Christopher J. Merdon, the Ellicott City Republican expected to oppose council Chairman Guy Guzzone, a North Laurel-Savage Democrat, for the county executive's job next year, was also out sign waving with a group of supporters early Wednesday morning at Broken Land and Little Patuxent parkways.

He won't officially announce his campaign until fall, Merdon said at the party dinner Sunday night, but "this is family," he said about displaying the signs at the dinner. Merdon said he plans to begin regular sign-waving several times a week until the November, 2006 election.

Guzzone, who donned a tuxedo as host of the Democrats' slightly larger annual $60-a-ticket Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner Tuesday night at the Ten Oaks Ballroom in Clarksville - sans campaign posters - took a dim view.
"Oh, my gosh. While he's busy doing that, I'll be busy doing the work we need to accomplish. It's sad the campaign season has become as long as it is," Guzzone said.

The Democrats heard from gubernatorial candidate and Montgomery County executive Douglas M. Duncan, who said that although he hasn't formally announced, "I would like to be the next governor of the state."
He boasted that since his first election as county executive in 1994, Montgomery County Republicans have lost nine of the 11 elected positions they once held in his county.

Democrats, he said "believe in community, in bringing people together." He ridiculed President Bush's slogan of an "ownership society" for what he said is the phrase's real meaning: "the on-your-own society."
Howard County Executive James N. Robey also spoke, urging the party faithful to work especially hard for next year's elections to defend Democrats' belief that government services are vital to keeping Howard County atop Maryland in education, in lowering crime, and boosting economic development.

"We had the guts to do what's right," he said of the 30 percent increase in income taxes he and council Democrats pushed through in 2003. "I am so sick and tired of hearing that all we have to do is cut taxes to make Howard County better."

He said he has seen no caravans of refugees leaving the county, and he assailed "a mentality that says government is bad, taxes are bad."

"We are a party that cares about people first and not a mentality that only the wealthy can be treated with dignity."

The Republicans also plan to be aggressive, party Chairman Howard M. Rensin told the approximately 200 people who attended the $75-per-ticket event.

"We're well under way" in building precinct organizations, and in "intensive efforts" targeting new groups of voters, he said.

"The GOP will be reaching out to more ethnic and special interest groups than we have in the past, as well as independents." He also promised an "intensive voter registration and recruitment campaign," plus efforts to interest independent voters with specific issues.

The GOP faithful also heard an after-dinner speech from John Loftus, a former Justice Department prosecutor, security expert and media analyst, who talked about terrorism and the Iraq war.
Loftus, a lawyer who appears on Fox News and ABC radio as a consultant, called Islamic extremists "the new Nazis" and said he still thinks Iraq's weapons of mass destruction exist in Syria, a country the United States could defeat militarily in "20 minutes," he said.

Loftus said he believes Saddam Hussein moved his chemical weapons there secretly just before the United States invaded Iraq.

Loftus also labeled China "our real enemies" for its alleged efforts to spread nuclear technology through surrogate hostile countries such as North Korea and Iran. He warned that Iran is developing a missile called a Super Electronic Magnetic Pulse (SEMP) that detonates 200 miles in space and destroys all electrical circuits below.