This is not going to be a defense of what Mac Love did.
I’ve known Mac for a long time. He’s never been anything but a good dude to me. But he said something he shouldn’t have said, getting caught up in the caustic influence of Trumpism on the GOP. And he lost his job because of it.
The argument being mounted in defense of Love is weird. The idea of “due process” has been used. Mac Love was an at-will employee of the Office of the Governor of Maryland and the Governor and his subordinates. He and any other employee of the Governor’s office labeled an at-will employee can be fired for any reason at all. The Governor could have fired him because he didn’t like the tie he was wearing and that’s perfectly legitimate and legal. Any other argument meanders towards the legal theories that Democrats have used against Gov. Hogan and, before him, Gov. Bob Ehrlich.
But what Mac Love and his team are 100% correct about is the double standard applied between his situation and that of Len Foxwell from the Office of Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot.
In case you missed that story from April, Foxwell suggested that supporters of President Donald Trump should be exterminated.
There was (naturally) outrage about the insensitivity of Foxwell’s remarks. As I wrote at the time:
Foxwell’s remarks show a persistent and always present smug elitism about them. A smug elitism that he is better than others, that liberals are better than conservatives, that he is better than any Trump voter, and that Democrats are better than Republicans every single time. Foxwell assumes the worst in people that he disagrees with. He assumes that anybody who disagrees with his warped, left-wing view of politics and the world is some sort of troglodyte, some sort of less than, some sort of undesirable, or some sort of….deplorable. Even when Foxwell joins his boss in their attacks against “The Annapolis Machine” (hilarious since both Foxwell and Franchot are themselves long-time members of the “Annapolis Machine”) it shows a smug sense of superiority.
Yet, Foxwell still remains employed by Peter Franchot and did not lose his job. Is there a lot of daylight between what Mac Love said and what Peter Franchot said? Not really.
If anything, Love’s highlighting of this shows the difference between Governor Hogan and Comptroller Franchot: Larry Hogan acted, Peter Franchot didn’t. Larry Hogan has a standard he wants his employees to live up to; Peter Franchot doesn’t.
The double standard certainly extends to the media. There has been a media feeding frenzy in the wake of Love’s remarks. It was more muted in the wake of Foxwell’s remarks, shown most obvious in a certain low-level minor “journalist” who has been pushing the Mac Love story while being one of the staunchest defenders of Franchot and Foxwell, he being so deep in their pockets that there is no longer any daylight.
Mac Love said something he shouldn’t have. Mac Love was rightly fired for it. Len Foxwell said something he shouldn’t have. And Peter Franchot keeps him on his payroll. The comparison could not be more striking.
Well written Brian.