Mystery Senator revealed!

The mystery senator in question from yesterday . . . turned out not to be a sitting senator after all, but Maryland senatorial candidate Michael Steele, who is currently Lt. Gov. of the state. As reported in the Baltimore Sun, the Steele campaign admitted early today that he did indeed say stuff like the Katrina response was "a monumental failure of government."

A Johns Hopkins political scientist had this to say:

"It's a great move," said Matthew A. Crenson, a political scientist at the Johns Hopkins University. "He's trying to go after the African-American vote, and he knows they're even more opposed to the war and angry about Katrina than the rest of the population."
. . .
"This will give him access to the black vote in Prince George's County, which he might not otherwise have," Crenson said. "Also, the Democratic liberal vote in Montgomery County.

"The only problem with it is that it's so obviously a tactical maneuver, it may be generally seen as a tactical maneuver."

I think that this may indeed be true to the more nuanced observer - Steele is inded trying to have it both ways, by taking money from the national Republican party committees and being on such friendly terms with Ken Mehlman. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if the friendly Mehlman greeting in the article wasn't staged as well. I just wonder if the tactic will wind up backfiring on him as some Republican-lite Democrats are finding out their criticisms of their parties don't play to any party. Kinda the way that Republicans don't want to vote for Republican-lite Dems, Dems don't want to go for Dem-lite. But time will tell.