Friends in low places

Also, milk the free media for all it’s worth: This week Governor O’Malley appears on WCBC’s Dave Norman show, WOLB’s Larry Young show, WTOP’s ‘‘Ask the Governor” show and WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi show. Get this guy a throat lozenge!

But when your approval rating is 37 percent, radio talk shows aren’t enough. So on Tuesday O’Malley rolled out his $400,000 taxpayer-financed ‘‘Look at Me” media blitz disguised as public service announcements alerting homeowners to Maryland’s new anti-foreclosure laws.

Supposedly, homeowners need the governor’s PSAs to alert them to Maryland’s various foreclosure counseling and assistance services. So O’Malley’s face is appearing in ads on 1,290 Metro buses and subways, in newspaper ads, on billboards and on 680,000 direct mail postcards. The Metro ads will run for six months and ‘‘will be seen by 240,000 Maryland transit riders a day,” predicts Transportation Secretary John Porcari.

You’ll also hear O’Malley on 20 to 30 ‘‘Mortgage Late? Don’t Wait” radio spots a week (in both English and Spanish) for three months. ‘‘We are launching a multimedia ad campaign to let our fellow citizens know that help is available,” explains O’Malley. And to let everyone know that our good-guy governor cares about us. Now aren’t you ashamed of giving him such low approval ratings?

I know what you’re thinking. ‘‘Back in 2006 didn’t the legislature ban Gov. Bob Ehrlich from using taxpayer-funded PSAs to promote himself?” Yes, that’s true. But O’Malley’s PSAs are different, says the governor’s press secretary. ‘‘This is an effort to educate the public ... there’s a marked difference in tone and substance.” Translation: O’Malley is a Democrat. The ban applies only to Republicans.

Unfortunately for O’Malley, on the same day as his big $400,000 media rollout, the Washington Post ran a front page story, ‘‘O’Malley Office Accused of Pressuring State Police,” negating much of the governor’s positive PR effort. Yes, amazingly, a State House reporter actually found fault with a Democratic governor.

During the 90-day General Assembly session, the Senate confirmation of O’Malley’s new state police superintendent, Col. Terry Sheridan, was repeatedly blocked by Prince George’s County’s Sen. Nat Exum (D-Dist. 24), who complained that Sheridan lacked ‘‘the commitment and the sensitivity to bring about diversity within the State Police.” Sheridan is white, Exum is black.

Nat Exum is a State House bottom-feeder who controls Prince George’s 24th District (Landover, Glenarden, Fairmont Heights). One of the state’s poorest communities, it’s 83 percent black and 82 percent Democratic, and Exum runs it with an iron hand.

He ran unopposed in the last election and his only child, Camille, serves on the county council. He’s served in the Maryland legislature for 34 years but never earned a leadership post beyond deputy majority whip, a telling commentary on his respectability.

Exum is famous for opposing the Redskins FedEx Stadium, proposing the return of ‘‘casino nights” to Prince George’s, opposing a state audit of the county’s schools, helping kill last year’s Prince George’s hospital rescue and lobbying county officials for a 75 percent landfill fee reduction for his employer’s trash hauling company.

But Exum’s most disgraceful act was his successful replacement of the county’s well-regarded Register of Wills (a white) with a handpicked black. The only issue was skin color.

When Exum, who is fond of wearing African garb, kept blocking Sheridan’s confirmation he should have been immediately restrained by the Senate president or the governor. But the race card, when played, trumps every hand.

Turns out that Exum’s concern for Sheridan’s racial sensitivity was a smokescreen. What Exum really cared about was the State Police restoring a motor vehicle inspection license to his friend’s inspection station, Hilltop Fleet Services in Capitol Heights. Hilltop’s license was revoked in 2002 for ‘‘permitting thousands of unsafe vehicles to be registered in our state,” in the words of the State Police.

In other words, Hilltop was selling inspection stickers for cars that were never inspected or couldn’t pass inspection. On appeal, the revocation was confirmed by a Circuit Court judge.

Nevertheless, O’Malley bowed to Exum and forced the State Police to say they erred and to reinstate Hilltop’s inspection license. Shortly thereafter Sheridan was confirmed by the state Senate.

But, of course, you won’t read about this on any of those 1,290 Metro ads or 680,000 postcards we’re paying for. In a one-party state the only news is good news.

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.