Maine Gov. Paul LePage Conjures His Inner Terrorist

Benefit Cuts
(The Statue of Levity replacing the lamp for a placard sign)

link (h/t Amanda Terkel @ HuffPost)

by Noah

Maine Gov. Paul LePage isn't the only batcrap-crazy, nihilistic, sociopathic Republican governor in our country. There's Abbott (TX), Brownback (KS), Christie (NJ), Jindal (LA) and Walker (WI), just to name five. But when even a right-wing media outlet like Politico (founded by  former Reagan Chief of Staff Fred Ryan among others, and endorsed by the Bushes) suggests that LePage may be America's craziest governor . . . well, his chances of being Numero Uno on the wacko list are greatly enhanced. If for some reason one wanted to create a fetid blend of Louie Gohmert and Michele Bachmann, one would likely end up with Paul LePage.

Remember that name. For some reason LePage hasn't received the media coverage that others get, but this may be changing after reports of a LePage pronouncement last week that things might be better if a local cartoonist, George Danby of the Bangor Daily News, was killed.

The story goes that he said this to a local high school audience in answer to a question from Danby's teenage son. Swell guy, eh? How is LePage different from the Muslim terrorists that shot up the offices of Charlie Hebdo in France, killing five of the humor magazine's cartoonists? The answer is, of course, that George Danby is still alive and no one has shot up the offices of the Bangor Daily News, no matter how happy that would make one of the republican party's rising stars.

Has LePage apologized for his remark? Not as of this writing, and let's not hold our breath waiting. In fact, he has doubled down. On Thursday, the Maine Sun Journal reported that LePage said state lawmakers from the city of Lewiston, Maine, should be "rounded up and executed in the public square."

Ideally, LePage will be exposed before he kills someone more directly than his fellow governors. While the other lunatic governors kill people by denying health care or providing extra pollution to the local air and water, LePage has now expressed the more direct approach.

Think about this. Suppose a Muslim citizen said the same things as LePage, either publicly or in an e-mail intercepted by the Department of Homeland Security. Wouldn't that person be halfway to Gitmo by now? Instead, LePage is free to roam about the country, irresponsibly mouthing off.

When Pigs Fly

link (h/t Amanda Terkel @ HuffPost)

Even more frightening is that we have a lot of unstable people among us that hear what passes for a leader say such things and their reaction is to take it as some sort of permission or justification to act accordingly. It's not lost on me that LePage made his kill-the-cartoonist statement in front of a high school audience in a time where a month does not go by when we don't hear about a couple of unstable kids planning on shooting someone at their school. Is what LePage did any different from a terrorist website that offers suggestions of targets for murder and mayhem?

Two weeks ago Dylannn Roof, a young man who had bought into twisted ideas about minority people raping white women, in addition to the constant drumbeat about "black on white crime" that is the standard fare offered by white supremacy websites, republican talk radio and FOX News, shot up the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, killing nine African-Americans. He was under the impression that others he had listened to would follow his lead into a race war. FOX, along with republican leaders such as SC Sen. Lindsey Graham, initially tried to cover their tracks by presenting the event as simply yet another "attack on Christianity."

Years ago, the right, led by such republican leaders as Newt Gingrich, engaged in an incessant spew about bringing down big government and blowing up big government. An unstable man named Timothy McVeigh was listening. Ideally, no one is listening to Paul LePage. I'd like to think he isn't so far gone that he would take action himself. People like him rarely do, preferring that someone else act in their behalf. But for LePage to do what he has done reveals some serious, out-of-control anger issues.

In the meantime, some politicians and pundits are talking about impeaching LePage. But again, don't hold your breath. The only people who seem to do the impeachment thing are republicans, and you don't really see them impeaching one of their own, do you? Besides, although Democrats control the Maine House, Republicans control the Senate. There's also the fact that Maine voters have elected LePage to be their Governor twice. They must be very proud.

Perhaps the water and air up there are more polluted than any of us imagined.

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