Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 6, 1991                   TAG: 9102060142
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ANNAPOLIS, MD.                                LENGTH: Medium

MD. GOVERNOR'S INSULT HAS EASTERN SHORE TALKING IMPEACHMENT

"They are absolutely livid. They are outraged. There are a lot of people talking about impeachment," said Maryland House Speaker Clayton Mitchell Jr.

"He'd better apologize and stop this pettiness, talking about the parts of the state where he didn't win," Mitchell said.

On Friday, Gov. William Donald Schaefer asked "How's that s---house of an Eastern Shore?" as he passed a group of shore legislators.

Schaefer met with Eastern Shore lawmakers Tuesday to patch things up.

"We just cleared the air," Delegate Samuel Johnson, D-Wicomico, said after the meeting. Johnson said an apology was not requested or offered.

"The governor's comments were meant as a joke," he said.

Schaefer has maintained all along the remark was a joke.

"I don't have to make an apology. I was joking with [Delegate] Bennett Bozman, and he has said the same thing about the Western Shore and so has Clay," Schaefer told Baltimore radio station WLIF on Tuesday.

But people see it as the latest in a stream of vindictive remarks and letters that have intensified since Schaefer's less-than-overwhelming re-election victory last fall.

Seven of nine counties on the Eastern Shore - largely rural and isolated from the far more populous western part of the state by the Chesapeake Bay - voted against Schaefer in the November election.

After the election, he complained strongly about his 60 percent vote total.

The 69-year-old governor sent a nasty letter to a man who complained about the size of the governor's press office. Another was sent to a woman who gave a "thumbs down" sign to Schaefer the day before the election, saying the action "only exceeds the ugliness of your face."

Lollo Pennewell of the Eastern Shore town of Snow Hill said she mailed a package of toilet paper, newspaper and corncobs to the governor Monday.

She is organizing a march on the State House during which chicken, cow and horse manure and an outhouse will be delivered to the governor, and said her phone rang all day Tuesday with people volunteering to help.

Schaefer has a reputation for eccentricity.

Schaefer sent an abusive letter to David Nottingham, 63, of Westminster, who wrote a letter complaining about the size of the governor's press office.

"Dear David Nottingbrain! Your letter sounds like a frustrated little boy. How old are you? [Signed] Don Schaefer. I pay taxes on real estate federal and state?? Most likely more than you!! D"