Steele, Cardin Debate Draws Sharp Distinctions
2006-10-04
Source: Washington Post
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rss feedMaryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele and U.S. Rep. Benjamin Cardin stripped away the niceties and exchanged sharp words Tuesday night in their first debate in the race for the U.S. Senate.
Steele, the Republican, at one point told the Baltimore congressman to "shut up and listen" to the citizens of the state. Cardin unloaded on Steele for failing to address a series of issues while campaigning -- most pointedly, the war in Iraq.
The debate offered the first chance to see the striking contrasts between the two major party candidates vying for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D).
The physical differences between the two, standing on stage in a Gothic 19th-century church building in downtown Baltimore, were impossible to miss -- Steele, 47, 6-foot-4 and looking polished in a designer suit; Cardin, 62, short and a bit portly in standard dark pinstripe, looking every bit the bookish legislative technician.
For Cardin, a chief goal of the debate was to turn the focus away from style and onto substance, where there are also sharp differences between the two that put him more in line with the views of Maryland's large population of Democratic voters.
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