The first mention of Barack Obama generated loud, sustained, and genuine applause.

Early in his State of the State address, Governor O’Malley declared, “With the inspired leadership of our new President, Barack Obama, we finally have a federal partner who shares our commitment to progress.”

I turned to the delegate sitting next to me and said, “The Republicans in Washington were dead wrong yesterday to march in lock step opposition to Obama.”

Granted the Governor’s audience today was overwhelmingly Democratic. Nonetheless, the broader public overwhelmingly and enthusiastically (with far more hope than trepidation) supports the President’s efforts to turn around the economy.

Governor O’Malley also acknowledged the effect the stimulus legislation would have on the state budget.

“It is my hope, and it is my belief, and it is my expectation that the balanced budget we were required by law to submit this month will be a better budget by the time it’s up for final consideration in April. Why? Two reasons. Barack… Obama”

A reduction in state aid to local schools is one of the most controversial elements in the Governor’s budget. He hopes that the amount targeted for education in the stimulus package will be greater than the cut he is calling for.

The stimulus money will be coming to the states for two years. At a meeting yesterday and in conversations today, I suggested that the General Assembly sunset the reduction in state aid to local schools that the Governor has proposed.

A sunset provision in the Governor’s bill would mean that two years from now, when the stimulus money is no longer flowing, the law would obligate the Governor to provide full funding for aid to local schools.

Tomorrow, I will do something I’ve never done before.

On the same day that a bill is signed into law by the President of the United States, I will introduce legislation to make Maryland law identical to that new federal statute.

Congress just enacted the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, overturning a much criticized Supreme Court case that erected a major hurdle for employees seeking to challenge unlawful pay discrimination based on gender, race, age and disability.

In a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled that Lilly Ledbetter – and all other employees subject to pay discrimination, must file a claim within 180 days of an employer’s original action treating them unfairly. This was the case even if the employee continued to receive smaller paychecks or the employee did not discover the discriminatory treatment until months or years after the first violation.

Justice Ginsburg, reading her dissent from the bench, declared:

“Each and every pay decision she [Ledbetter] did not immediately challenge wiped the slate clean. Consideration may not be given to the cumulative effect of a series of decisions that, together, set her pay well below that of every male area manager.”

I was not at the Supreme Court that day, but I have heard Justice Ginsburg discuss gender discrimination in the workplace.

I was a student in her law school class on Sex Discrimination and the Law.

“Is $350 million in federal stimulus dollars a lowball estimate?”

My question dealt with the amount Governor O’Malley had included in his budget. I posed it a meeting yesterday afternoon.

Based on what I knew about President Obama’s proposal, I expected the answer to be yes.

Indeed it is.

“O’Malley postpones plans as $3.5 billion expected for Md. during next two years,” read the headline in today’s Baltimore Sun.

It’s prudent budgeting to err on the conservative side when estimating the amount of money Maryland will receive. But now the stimulus cards are on the table.

Legislators and interest groups will now urge the Governor to use this additional money for the programs nearest and dearest to their hearts.

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“Morning Joe” on MSNBC this morning and a friend’s email about the effect of Obama’s election on our political dialogue prompted me to respond:

“The buffoons on the right will be reduced to saying nasty things and called to task for it to a degree that they were not when the right wing was in the ascendancy. eg, Rush Limbaugh saying he hopes Obama fails.

“The more sophisticated on the right will say things that sound plausible but are simply untrue. Tucker Carlson on MSNBC this a.m.: New Deal didn’t work, can you name a successful government job training program or government decision about what industry should be favored?

“Obama’s policies and rhetoric and the public’s desire for him to succeed will outweigh the false claims of the right.

“And demographics are not on the side of the right. Even young evangelicals are significantly more open minded on social issues than their elders.”

Sometimes you need to introduce a bill, and sometimes you don’t.

I’ve known Herman Berlin since childhood. He now runs an auto parts distributorship.

When the state entered into a contract with a national company, Herman did not have an opportunity to make a competing bid. He has lost a sizeable amount of business, as have other local firms – many of them small or minority companies.

We held our second meeting on this matter with Secretary of General Services Al Collins this morning. Since this national company has entered into similar contracts in other states, we agreed that I would draft a bill modeled on the Pennsylvania law dealing with this issue.

Our third meeting will take place after my bill is drafted, but before it is introduced.

Another bill I was considering deals with a more controversial issue. Federal legislation would provide money for states to provide this benefit in an innovative way.

Instead of waiting for the Congress to act, I thought, let’s do a pilot project with the state dollars already budgeted for this program for the upcoming fiscal year. (That means no additional cost to implement my bill.)

During a conference call today, state agency officials told me they already planned to do this. Keep me informed, I responded.

No need for a bill now.

In their previous lives, Mike German and John Kellerman had little in common.

Mike was an undercover agent for the FBI, John a banker.

Mike now works for the American Civil Liberties Union and will testify in support of our bill to end State Police surveillance of lawful First Amendment activity.

John has Parkinson’s disease and has testified for funding of embryonic stem cell research.

“When I infiltrated an extremist group, I would go to lunch with the people who were considering violent activity, not those who weren’t,” Mike told me and another committee member Friday afternoon.

The State Police did not make that distinction.

I saw John at a fundraiser for stem cell research where he was the honoree Saturday night. He discussed my advice to him the first time he was to speak in Annapolis.

“You told me to be myself,” recalled John. “Not many have my experience crawling from my bed to the bathroom.”

He’s also testified that he’ll dance at his daughter’s wedding.

Asking other members to co-sponsor your bill is the biggest waste of time in Annapolis – except when it isn’t.

As I’ve written in the past, getting your colleagues to scribble their initials on your legislation has little, if any, impact on the committee that will hear your bill. But there are exceptions.

Last year, I was the lead sponsor of the death penalty repeal legislation in the House. This year, Governor O’Malley is introducing the bill. My name will be listed second.

One of the Governor’s lobbyists asked me today if I wanted to walk the bill around and get co-sponsors to sign on.

After hesitating for a moment, I said, “Last year it was a high when I was gathering names on the House floor and people asked to cosponsor the bill who had not in the past. I’ll do it.”

If we get additional co-sponsors again this year, it will generate some momentum for repeal.

A great deal of momentum was generated today for my legislation to rename the Maryland Million in memory of its originator, Jim McKay.

After the hearing on the companion bill in the Senate this afternoon, the motion to give the bill a favorable report was unanimously approved.

I turned to Joe Kelly. He and McKay were the announcers for the first telecast of a horse race on local tv – sixty years ago.

“It’s not usually a sprint in Annapolis,” I said in a stage whisper.

Except, I could have added, when it is.

I always read Tom Friedman’s op-ed columns. (I don’t think that surprises any of you.)

I didn’t know who Van Jones was until Delegate Nathaniel Oaks and I heard him speak at Morgan State University this past May.

Jones spoke about creating a green economy – to resolve our ecological crisis and provide jobs that lift people out of poverty.

In September, Friedman quoted Jones: “Let’s put people back to work – retrofitting and repowering America.”

Put another way: Making a house in West Baltimore energy efficient can’t be outsourced to Bangalore.

So Delegate Oaks and I will be introducing legislation to add green jobs to the job skills enhancement program in Maryland’s welfare reform statute.

That law already requires certain companies doing business with the State to give priority in hiring to qualified welfare recipients.

We’re going to propose extending that preference to contracts funded by the economic stimulus legislation now before the Congress.

“That language in the bill will begin a conversation with the Governor’s Office,” I told a group of environmental lobbyists.

I’m also researching if other states are considering this approach.

This historic day began for me with the incredible sight of thousands of people marching on Washington in the pre-dawn darkness. They were walking from the Lincoln Memorial, where Dr. view history King spoke 45 years ago, to the Capitol Building, where President Obama would speak today.

“It reminds me of the day the Berlin Wall fell,” said a cable pundit.

Freedom is an extraordinary force, I said to myself.

In his Inaugural Address, President Obama sought to set the tone for the four years ahead.

He began by speaking of the politics he hopes to leave behind, noting “our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.”

After recalling George Washington’s words during that desolate December at Valley Forge, he concluded by saying:

“In this winter of our hardship, let it be said by our children’s children that we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.”

Now the work – those hard choices, begins.

It sends a powerful message when the President-elect, on the day before his Inauguration, volunteers in a homeless shelter.

It’s a photo op, but in this case, a substantive program encouraging public service – both full-time and volunteer, is sure to follow.

Of all the issues I’ve worked on over the years, the laws I’ve passed that mean the most to me are those that enable people to take public service or non-profit jobs. They reduce the academic debt of students who choose to work for the government or a non-profit – during the summer or after graduation.

My next piece of legislation will be modeled upon what President Obama proposes over the next 100 days.

It wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be Saturday afternoon on the steps of the War Memorial.

Granted, I was wearing more layers of clothing than I ever have.

Nor was the event as emotional as I thought it would be. Nonetheless, I emailed a friend, “Very glad I went.”

What did move me this weekend was music on Sunday.

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” at the Mass at All Saints Church and “We Shall Overcome” at Bethel AME’s joint service with Oheb Shalom Congregation.

In the afternoon, I was surfing between football and the pre-Inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial.

I was hoping I’d catch Stevie Wonder, and I did.

I didn’t expect to hear Pete Seeger, blacklisted in the 1950’s, singing “This Land Is Your Land” with his grandson and Springsteen.

Shades of Marian Anderson on the same steps. J. Edgar Hoover must be turning over in his grave.

No mention of Seeger in the Baltimore Sun’s account today.

I guess you have to be my age to appreciate Seeger’s being there.