MD Gov. Martin O'Malley wages war for Obama

Midway through his second term and as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, O’Malley has toured the 2012 swing states — and hit the TV sets of Washington, D.C., and New York — cheerfully lacing into the Republican Party and its presumptive presidential nominee. As ringleader of his party’s governors, O’Malley’s front-and-center at the National Governors Association meeting this weekend in Williamsburg, Va., in the latest event that marks his arrival as a Democratic leader. …

Hours after the Obama campaign began attacking Romney last month for his connections to outsourcing, O’Malley declared in a Bloomberg TV interview that the Republican “stands up in front of factory gates and cries crocodile tears” for the American worker. On a conference call about health care, O’Malley charged that the “only health care mandate [Republicans] can embrace are transvaginal probes for women” — a reference to an anti-abortion proposal in neighboring Virginia and a slap at fellow Gov. Bob McDonnell.

The former Baltimore mayor has taken his show on the road. In a speech to New Hampshire Democrats, he pinned blame for D.C. gridlock on the Republican “constipation Congress.” During the Wisconsin recall fight last month, O’Malley was on the ground there as DGA chair while other national party leaders — including Obama — shied away from the race.