Gov and Mrs Ehrlich Want To Punish The Balt Sun and The Wash Post

Gov and Mrs Ehrlich Want To Punish The Balt Sun and The Wash Post "That story was preceded by a speech last weekend by Kendel S. Ehrlich in Ocean City in which she demonstrated a shared contempt for the larger newspapers that cover her husband.

"They lie," she said, according to news accounts of a stump-style speech to the Republican central committees of Worcester, Wicomico and Somerset counties. "I would punish my son if I caught him in a lie, and they need to be punished."

The governor clarified later in the week that his wife was referring to the Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post. There was no word on the appropriate punishment.

He has had a long-running feud with the Sun that resulted in a ban on two of the paper's journalists last year. The Sun responded with an unsuccessful lawsuit, which is on appeal.

"We refer to them as 'the plaintiff,' " Ehrlich said in his remarks Thursday to the business group.

The governor's disdain for The Post has been more selective, but it intensified after the newspaper reported that a longtime Ehrlich aide, Joseph Steffen , acknowledged spreading rumors about the personal life of Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (D)."