Gansler defends Brown (OK, not really)

By: Bryan P. Sears Daily Record Government Reporter January 13, 2014

Attorney General Douglas Gansler probably won’t get a job in public relations any time soon—at least not after the statement he offered “in defense” of Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and his involvement in the state health insurance exchange.

Douglas Gansler

Gansler, during an interview with WBAL radio, was asked about how much blame should fall on the lieutenant governor when it comes to some of the failures of the MarylandHealthConnections.gov site.

Based on Gansler’s comments, one has little difficulty figuring out that he and Brown are squaring off for the 2014 Democratic nomination for governor.

“[Brown] was sort of absent for the whole thing,” Gansler said. “In his defense, this is a guy who never ran anything, never managed anybody. He’s been floating around for six or seven years and all of a sudden to put him in charge of the president’s signature rollout policy program and something so important here in Maryland to get people access to health care that didn’t have it before. To put him in charge of something that important, it was too big—obviously it was too big for him.”

Gansler’s comments come one day after The Washington Post published a detailed account of how state officials were warned of infighting among contractors and other failures that were expected to hamper the operation of the site when it opened on October 1.

Gov. Martin O’Malley said again last week that the site is improved and “works well for most people.” As of last week, 20,358 residents signed up for insurance through the state site.