Quotation of the day

19 July 2006, 2001 EDT

Michael Golden, spokesman for Schaefer, said the comptroller was speaking “in this sort of verbal shorthand that those of us who have worked with him can understand.” Schaefer eventually voted for the contract.

What did Maryland’s Comptroller say?

“Oh, we don’t worry about any of those things like money. Or illegals crossing the border. That’s nothing. That’s just a given. Oh, come on. Korea is another one. All of the sudden, they’re our friends, too, shooting missiles at us.”

Schaefer refused to sign an apology and claimed he had been misinterpreted.

One of Schaefer’s primary opponents, Del. Peter Franchot (D-Montgomery), has portrayed the Korea remarks as “the latest in a long line of inexcusable events that has cast serious doubts on William Donald Schaefer’s mental and emotional fitness for the office of comptroller.” Franchot criticized Schaefer again yesterday, saying he failed to “make the simple apology needed” to mend fences.

In February, Schaefer apologized after ogling a young aide to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) at a public meeting. Two years ago, he drew criticism for complaining about a Latino worker’s English skills at a McDonald’s.

I don’t have much to add here. If he meant to say “North Korea” he still sounds pretty darn clueless.

Filed as: Schaefer and news of the semi-weird

Dan Nexon

Daniel H. Nexon is a Professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work focuses on international-relations theory, power politics, empires and hegemony, and international order. He has also written on the relationship between popular culture and world politics.

He has held fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Studies. During 2009-2010 he worked in the U.S. Department of Defense as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He was the lead editor of International Studies Quarterly from 2014-2018.

He is the author of The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009), which won the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Best Book Award for 2010, and co-author of Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020). His articles have appeared in a lot of places. He is the founder of the The Duck of Minerva, and also blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money.