Ward Churchill was bad enough. Now we have the Democrat mayor of Baltimore likening President Bush to the Sept. 11 terrorists over the issue of budget cuts. From the Washington Post:

Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley yesterday compared President Bush’s proposed budget cuts to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, saying that Bush, like the al Qaeda hijackers who crashed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, has launched an assault on America’s cities.

“These cuts, ladies and gentlemen, are sad. Irresponsible. They are also dishonest,” O’Malley (D) told a packed news conference at the National Press Club, where mayors and area officials had gathered to decry Bush’s plan to slash spending on community development programs by $2 billion.

“With a budget ax, [President Bush] is attacking America’s cities,” said Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley.

“Back on September 11, terrorists attacked our metropolitan cores, two of America’s great cities. They did that because they knew that was where they could do the most damage and weaken us the most,” O’Malley said. “Years later, we are given a budget proposal by our commander in chief, the president of the United States. And with a budget ax, he is attacking America’s cities. He is attacking our metropolitan core.”

Those present appeared to be a bit stunned by the comparison. Afterward, one reporter asked O’Malley to explain his “inflammatory rhetoric.” D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), who also serves as president of the National League of Cities, said he disagreed with “the harsh language that was used,” though he declined to criticize O’Malley directly. Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) said O’Malley’s remarks “went way too far.”

“Was he trying to make an inappropriate 9/11 comparison,” Jim Geraghty asks. It’s second nature for the guy. As Geraghty and Republicans here in Maryland point out, O’Malley has made similar comments before. During the Democratic National Convention, he stated:

I remember after the attacks of September 11, as mayor of the city, I was very, very worried about al-Qaeda and still am. But I’m even more worried about the actions and inactions of the Bush administration. (Doug Donovan, “O’Malley Takes The Heat For Remarks About Bush,” The Baltimore Sun, 7/1/04)

So I guess we can expect all those offended 9/11 groups–Peaceful Tomorrows, etc.–to issue furious condemnations of Dem gubernatorial hopeful O’Malley for so cheaply exploiting the terrorist attacks to squeeze federal funding for pet city programs, right?

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C.K. Rearden proposes a Churchill-O’Malley speaking tour. PunditGuy suggests rehab.

Dave Holman reacts to O’Malley’s comparison: “Yeah, it’s pretty much the same, plus or minus three thousand bodies and trillions of dollars of economic damage.

Kinshasa on the Potomac responds.

Betsy Newmark takes a look at what’s actually in the Bush budget for cities.

Joe Kelley says: “There is something for everyone to hate in Bush’s budget proposal. But to use this type of language and comparison is demonstrative only of the visceral hatred the left has for George Bush and their sheer aggravation for losing to someone they view in such dim light.”

Sundries Shack and Randy Townley pick on O’Malley’s non-backtracking backtracking. See, he didn’t “intend” to make the comparison. He just needed to explain it better. Because, you know, we misunderstood him. Yeah.

Keep talking, Mayor O’Malley. Keep talking.

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On a separate note, O’Malley was caught up in this very unpleasant story involving a conservative activist/aide to Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich who apparently spread rumors of infidelity by O’Malley in e-mails and on FreeRepublic.com, where other posters were engaging in speculation about O’Malley’s private affairs. Gov. Ehrlich deserves credit for immediately firing the rumor-mongerer (who posts on FreeRepublic today here). Some GOP insiders are complaining about the timing of the story and seem to be justifying the rumor-spreading on the Internet by noting that the rumors have been floating around the capitol for a while. That doesn’t make the whisper campaign right. I feel very badly for O’Malley’s wife and kids, who reportedly have had to face these ugly rumors at school. O’Malley’s to blame, his critics will say. Maybe so, but it’s the O’Malley family’s own damned business, and no one else’s.

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