The longer people are in a position of power and authority over others, the more they become susceptible to what I call the "quotient of arrogance."
It happens in any setting, a sports team, a service club, a company and particularly in government. In the interest of fairness, the media business, particularly newspapers, has a long history of arrogance practiced by publishers and senior editors.
One of the worst recent examples of the quotient of arrogance, however, is Maryland Senate President Thomas V. "Mike" Miller Jr., who recently was quoted by one of the metro newspapers saying Marylanders would have to take whatever the legislature dishes up to them in taxes, which was basically what he also said before last November's special session, where the record state tax increase was passed with Miller's blessing.
Miller, a Democrat, is starting his 21st year in charge of the senate, a dubious record at best. The previous record of 12 years was held by Harford County's own William S. James, who had enough sense to hang it up after a school and the senate's office building had been named in his honor. Miller joined the senate in 1975, the year the late Mr. James retired to become state treasurer. Among the 47 senators today, only one, Sen. Norman Stone of Dundalk, has served longer than Miller. To put it in another perspective, Miller and Art Helton, who succeeded Mr. James, joined the senate the same year. What we today call the District 34 seat from Southern Harford, has had four other occupants since Helton — Catherine Riley, Habern Freeman, David Craig and the current occupant Nancy Jacobs. Miller, however, lives on, a walking advertisement for term limits.
When he joined the Senate, Miller was a young 30-something lawyer from Prince George's County, which politically was clinging to the last vestiges of one of Maryland's most notorious political machines. His curly hair stood out among the senators and so did his personality. He was somebody who looked like he was going places. Twelve years later, he was the man in charge.
Miller, who is 65, was born and raised in Clinton, attended PG County public schools and graduated from the University of Maryland College Park and the University of Maryland School of Law. When Miller started out in politics, serving a term in the House of Delegates before moving on to the Senate, Prince Georges was rapidly shifting from a white, rural-suburban county to a majority black, suburban-urban county, a result of the migration of blacks from Washington, D.C., in the late 60s. Miller managed to keep getting re-elected, even as the composition of his old neighborhood was shifting. Redistricting his part of eastern PG county to join in a legislative district with white western Calvert County, has helped Miller stay on and on and on.
In recent years, Miller has overseen construction of yet another senate office building and been the point man for supporters of slot machine gambling. In the past six months, his power seems to have waned in comparison to Gov. Martin O'Malley and House Speaker Michael Busch, but there's no question Miller rules the roost in the State Senate, and of late he hasn't been bashful about making this point in public. Miller is the epitome of a full-time legislator, which some people think is afflicting too many members of Maryland's supposedly citizen legislature, including some who represent Harford County.
Whether or not Miller comes back for another run in 2010 — he had hinted he wouldn't run in 2006 but did — his quotient of arrogance should be a lesson to us all, for when it gets too high, there's only one result: The public be damned, or in the words of Mike Miller, you'll take what we dish up — and like it or lump it.
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