Maryland Politics -- Cardin goes for an early KO

The Maryland Democrat establishment is pulling out all the stops trying to knock Kweisi Mfume out of the race early so as to give Ben Cardin a clear shot at Paul Sarbanes' Senate seat.

The Baltimore Sun reports:

STANDING prominently in a bold, black, pin-striped suit amid Howard County's elected Democrats as they publicly endorsed U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin for the U.S. Senate last week was an unelected, yet formidable, figure: the Rev. John L. Wright, longtime pastor of First Baptist Church of Guilford.

The feisty clergyman served for more than seven years as chairman of the Maryland branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, from 1986 to 1994, after heading Howard County's chapter. But he enthusiastically endorsed Cardin over Kwesi Mfume, the former national NAACP director and the first to declare for the seat being vacated by Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes.

Read it here.

From the getgo the Dems have been working with the NAACP trying to delegitimize Kweisi. At times the effort has gotten pretty sleazy, but that's the norm for Maryland politics and, apparently, for the NAACP, which was once a proud and independent organization, but now operates at the beck and call of Democrat Party leaders.