Problems In Colorado, Tennessee, Maine And Michigan Gubernatorial Races

Tuesday, the Denver Post reported that far right extremist, xenophobe and front-runner for the Republican nomination for Colorado governor, Tom Tancredo was dropping out of the race-- after just three months-- because he can't raise any money. As of Dec. 31 he had collected less than $75,000 in campaign contributions. Because of his nasty racism while he was in Congress, he was the best-known Republican in the race, His departure leaves a large field of relieved contestants, including state Treasurer Walker Stapleton, former state lawmaker Victor Mitchell and state Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, who won't have to compete with each other quite as far to the right. He was widely viewed as the "Bannon candidate" in the race and was expecting to be financed by Long Island Nazi family, the Mercers, who have since broken with Bannon and given nothing to Tancredo.

“I think it is a very good development for the Republican Party’s chances in the gubernatorial election” said Ryan Call, a former GOP state chairman.

Not only would Tancredo’s exit would help winnow the field, Call said, but it also would reduce the focus on Tancredo’s past rhetoric, which Call described as “out of the mainstream with the way most Republicans feel.”

For years, Tancredo has been a controversial national voice on issues of immigration and he entered the race last fall in part because he was upset that fellow Republicans didn’t do more to protest the decision by a Colorado Springs resort to cancel a conference for the white nationalist VDARE Foundation.

But Tancredo isn't the only Republican gubernatorial candidate who has run into trouble this week. In Tennessee another far right fanatic, former state Senator Mae Beavers, who was considered a top tier candidate, also dropped out of the race on Tuesday, also citing an inability to raise money. She had resigned her Senate seat to run full-time. The top contenders are Congresswoman Diane Black, state House Speaker Beth Harwell, and two wealthy businessmen, Randy Boyd and Bill Lee. All of them are from the far right end of the party but Beavers was the real Nazi in the race. Several of the others had raised nearly 10 times what she had raised.

In Maine, there was a whole other kind of Republican screw-up, courtesy of out-going GOP extremist Governor Paul LePage. One of the right-wing nuts running, businessman Shawn Moody, hired LePage's daughter (plus LePage advisor Brent Littlefield) but when LePage was asked if he'd endorse Moody, he said he isn't endorsing any of the 5 GOP candidates but that he is really opposing the Republican state Senate President Mike Thibodeau. He's been actively feuding with Thibodeau since 2015 and has campaigned against his reelection to the state Senate. After LePage called a Democratic legislator a "socialist cocksucker," Thibodeau said he was open to the legislature censuring LePage.

In the Michigan gubernatorial race there's a different kind of problem. A leading candidate in the race, progressive Abdul El-Sayed, may be disqualified. It's important to remember that the Shelby Township resident was born and raised in Michigan. BUT, he registered to vote in New York while attending graduate school and working as a professor between 2012 and 2015 and the state constitution requires any candidate for governor to be a registered elector in the state at least four years prior to the election, right in the middler of his time in New York.

His campaign says El-Sayed maintained “continuous residence” in Michigan by keeping an apartment here even when he worked out of state, and Secretary of State records show El-Sayed has been “continuously registered to vote in Michigan since 2003,” said spokesman Fred Woodhams.

But El-Sayed’s Michigan registration was on a “cancellation countdown status” between 2013 and 2016 because he had surrendered his driver’s license to get one in New York, Woodhams said. El-Sayed, a doctor, earned a medical degree at Columbia University and worked there as an assistant professor.

If El-Sayed had tried to vote in Michigan during that period-- which he did not-- he would have had to verify his address and affirm he was eligible to vote here, Woodhams said. His registration would have been been canceled after the November 2016 election had he not updated his registration and voted in Michigan.

“Under federal law, the department may not cancel a voter’s registration due to the person moving away until two federal election cycles have passed,” Woodhams said.

Campaign spokesman Adam Joseph quickly dismissed questions over El-Sayed’s eligibility, as first reported by Bridge.

“Abdul is 100% eligible to be governor of Michigan,” Joseph said in a statement. “He has been continuously registered to vote in Michigan since he was 18 years old, and he has maintained continuous residence in Michigan since his childhood. He is a son of Michigan-- born and raised in this state, went to public schools in this state, and had a daughter in this state.”

El-Sayed is running an aggressive campaign as he prepares to compete in the Democratic primary against former state Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, Ann Arbor businessman Shri Thanedar and former Xerox executive Bill Cobbs.

He will have to file an affidavit of identity by April 24 to qualify for the primary ballot. The affidavit will require him to say how long he has been a resident of Michigan and attest that he is registered and qualified to vote here. It will not require him to attest that he meets constitutional qualifications to be governor, according to a blank form reviewed by the Detroit News.

His eligibly may only become an issue if an opponent files a formal complaint with the state, but that is unlikely to happen anytime soon, said Democratic strategist and pollster Ed Sarpolous.

Whitmer, who is leading early polls of the Democratic race, has little incentive to challenge El-Sayed’s eligibility because it would alienate his supporters that she may need in the general election, Sarpolous said. Republicans have no incentive to challenge his eligibility unless he wins the Democratic primary he said.

“The bottom line is a court’s going to end up ruling on this,” Sarpolous predicted.

El-Sayed returned to Michigan full-time after Mayor Mike Duggan tapped him to serve as Detroit health department director in August 2015.

A self-described progressive who has been courting voters who backed presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, El-Sayed did not vote in Michigan’s March 8, 2016, Democratic primary that saw Sanders narrowly top eventual party nominee Hillary Clinton.

In an April interview, the Detroit News asked El-Sayed for whom he voted. He responded by saying he “was a Bernie guy,” but his campaign later clarified that “crowding at the polling place prevented him from voting for Bernie, but he was an avid supporter.”

El-Sayed told a similar story that month on WKAR-TV’s “Off The Record,” saying he tried to vote “several times” that day but was met by long lines he could not wait in on a work day.

But state voter registration records show El-Sayed was not registered to vote in Detroit at the time of the March 8 primary.

He had been registered to vote in Ann Arbor since 2008 but changed his registration to Detroit on March 29, 2016, according to the state. He reapplied for a Michigan driver’s license at that time and voted in the November general election.

Yesterday Maine Voted For Progressive Healthcare-- Ohio Didn't

There was one dark side to the election results Tuesday night: Ohio. Issue 2 would have required state agencies to not pay more for prescription drugs than the federal Department of Veterans Affairs. Big Pharma put together a massive $60 million confuse-the-voters media campaign... that worked. Issue 2 lost-- and lost big: 474,741 (20.72%) to 1,816,074 (79.28%). Ohio voters overwhelmingly decided to be ripped off by drug companies and pay more for pharmaceuticals. It lost every single county-- even the most progressive blue counties like Cuyahoga, Franklin, Lucas and Athens. Are voters there more vulnerable to false claims? Maine's weren't. Well... most Mainers weren't.

Maine had their own ballot proposition-- also numbered "2"-- and it was whether or not to expand medicaid eligibility, something the state legislature approved 5 times, only to see the Trumpist governor, Paul LePage veto it each time. Tuesday Maine voted 202,329 (59%) to 140,808 (41%) in favor. From Portland, Lewiston, Auburn, Scarborough, Brunswick, Bangor and Augusta to Bath, Winslow, Belfast and Brewer, it won in all of the most populated townships.

Writing for the NY Times right after the election was called for the YES side, Abby Goodnough reported that the vote was a rebuke to LePage. what it does is allows something like 80,000 more Mainers to qualify for Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act. "Maine," she wrote, "will be the 32nd state to expand the program under the health law, but the first where voters, not governors or legislators, decided the issue. Other states whose leaders have resisted expanding the program were closely watching the campaign, particularly Utah and Idaho, where newly formed committees are working to get Medicaid expansion on next year’s ballots."

LePage and other opponents, including several Republicans in the state Legislature, said Medicaid expansion would burden the taxpayers and the state budget, and described it as a form of welfare.

“The truth is that Medicaid expansion will just give able-bodied adults free health care,” Mr. LePage said in a recent radio address. “We don’t mind helping people get health care, but it should not be free. ‘Free’ is very expensive to somebody.”

...The health law gives states the option of allowing any citizen with income up to 138 percent of the poverty level-- $16,642 for an individual, $24,600 for a family of four-- to qualify for Medicaid, which states and the federal government both pitch in to pay for.

Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government picked up the cost of new enrollees under Medicaid expansion for the first three years and will continue to pay at least 90 percent. States cover a significantly larger portion of the expenses for the rest of their Medicaid population.

Maine’s Legislature, which is controlled by Democrats in the House and Republicans, by one vote, in the Senate, could try to block the referendum, but since it voted for Medicaid expansion five times already, supporters and opponents alike believe it is unlikely to meddle. And the governor has no authority to veto the outcome, although he could may try to delay putting it in place during his remaining year in office. And if Congress eventually succeeds in repealing the Affordable Care Act, states with expanded Medicaid will likely have to scale back their programs.

Governor Pig-Man (R-ME) announced today that he doesn't care what the voters said yesterday; he's not expanding Medicaid, challenging Maine to do something about it if they don't like it. This was his statement to Mainers today:

The last time Maine experimented with Medicaid expansion in 2002 under then-governor Angus King, it created a $750 million debt to hospitals, resulted in massive budget shortfalls every year, did not reduce emergency room use, did not reduce the number of uninsured Mainers and took resources away from our most vulnerable residents-- the elderly and the intellectually and physically disabled.

Credit agencies are predicting that this fiscally irresponsible Medicaid expansion will be ruinous to Maine’s budget. Therefore, my administration will not implement Medicaid expansion until it has been fully funded by the Legislature at the levels DHHS has calculated, and I will not support increasing taxes on Maine families, raiding the rainy day fund or reducing services to our elderly or disabled.

As Assistant Majority Leader of Maine's state House of Representatives, Jared Golden issued a statement in response to LePage's defiance. "Mainers don’t leave each other behind. Despite any efforts by Governor LePage and his allies, we will not abandon the families who, for too long, have had to choose between putting food on the table or paying for needed medical care. Access to affordable healthcare is a basic promise to Maine and we moved towards fulfilling it last night. Every representative who continues to oppose that right should know they're on notice by the people of Maine." Jared has been endorsed by Blue America and if you'd like to help him defeat Trump rubber stamp Bruce Poliquin, please click on the Blue America congressional ActBlue thermometer on the right.

A Week From Tomorrow Maine Voters Decide On Medicaid Expansion

A week from tomorrow voters in Virginia and New Jersey will pick between lesser-of-two evils candidates the two corrupted political parties selected for them. That night I'll be watching returns for the Virginia House of Delegates, where there are some extraordinarily good candidates running who have a real chance to win. And I'll be watching what's happening in Maine. Maine? Yeah, Maine has the first referendum in the country on expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The state legislature passed it 5 times and the TRumpist governor, Paul LePage vetoed it 5 times.

Mainers want it. Last year all 16 counties in Maine rejected Clinton and backed Bernie in the state's caucuses. He won the urban centers, the suburbs and the rural areas. Bernie's win numbers by county:

• Androscoggin- 64.7%
• Aroostook- 54.9%
• Cumberland- 63.2%
• Franklin- 67.2%
• Hancock- 66.0%
• Kennebec- 59.6%
• Knox- 68.1%
• Lincoln- 67.0%
• Oxford- 72.2%
• Penobscot- 66.0%
• Piscataquis- 65.0%
• Sagadahoc- 63.3%
• Somerset- 62.0%
• Waldo- 73.3%
• Washington- 73.3%
• York- 65.2%

Statewide, Bernie beat Hillary 64.3% to 35.5%. On election day a proposition passed legalizing recreational marijuana use (56.4% to 43.6%). Maine's a hunting state and a proposition to ban large-capacity ammunition magazines and requiring a background check to purchase ammo passed 62.7% to 37.3%. A $2.00/a pack cigarette tax passed 63.8% to 36.2% and a proposition preserving bilingual eduction passed 72.8% to 27.2%. Over the weekend, the NY Times looked at the proposition for expanding Medicaid Mainers will vote on next week.

The referendum on Nov. 7 represents a new front in the pitched political battles over health care. Maine is one of 19 states whose Republican governors or legislatures have refused to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, and the other holdouts-- particularly Utah and Idaho, where newly formed committees are working to get a Medicaid expansion question on next year’s ballot-- are closely watching the initiative, whose outcome may offer clues about the salience of the issue in next year’s midterm congressional elections.

After President Trump and Republicans in Congress spent much of the year trying to repeal the health law and cut spending on Medicaid, a half-century-old entitlement program that covers one in five Americans, the pro-expansion side in Maine is hoping to benefit from energized public support for it.

Turnout may be the biggest challenge for the advocacy groups leading the effort. There are no national or statewide races here to drive people to the polls this year. And Mr. LePage’s stance on government safety net programs appeals to many voters in the state’s more rural regions. He derides Medicaid expansion as “pure welfare” that would burden the state’s taxpayers.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine, one of the few Republicans who firmly opposed the Obamacare repeal bills, is not taking a position on the ballot measure-- she never does on referendums, according to her staff. But leaders of the campaign are hoping her outspoken support for Medicaid during the repeal battles will help.

About 80,000 additional Mainers would become eligible for the program if the ballot measure were to succeed, according to the nonpartisan Maine Office of Program and Fiscal Review, although those with income above the poverty line currently qualify for subsidized coverage through the Obamacare marketplace. In all, more than 2.5 million poor uninsured adults across the country would gain access to Medicaid if the holdout states expanded the program, joining about 11 million who have already signed up under the law.

...The main arguments for expanding the program here are that it would help financially fragile rural hospitals, create jobs and provide care for vulnerable people who have long gone without it.

But Mr. LePage and other opponents say that Maine should know better. The state undertook a more modest expansion of Medicaid in 2002, under former Gov. Angus King, an independent. Afterward, Maine struggled with budget shortfalls and fell behind on Medicaid payments to hospitals.

“People don’t want to acknowledge the unintended consequences that Maine has already experienced,” said Brent Littlefield, a political adviser to Mr. LePage who is serving as the spokesman for Welfare to Work, the committee leading the opposition. He said that even with the federal government paying most of the cost-- a situation that could change if Congress eventually succeeds in repealing Obamacare-- the state could owe close to $100 million a year, according to estimates from the LePage administration.

The Office of Program and Fiscal Review has estimated a lower state cost, about $54 million a year once the federal share drops to 90 percent in 2021. Maine would not receive the full 90 percent match for parents of young children because many already qualify for the program.

Maine’s legislature, which is controlled by Democrats in the House and Republicans, by one vote, in the Senate, could move to block the referendum if it were to pass, but since it voted for Medicaid expansion five times already, supporters and opponents alike believe it is unlikely to meddle. And the governor would have no authority to veto the outcome. The only other threat would be if Congress succeeded in repealing the Affordable Care Act and ended the Medicaid expansion program.

Supporters of the measure have knocked on 150,000 doors since July and have run four television ads statewide. Mainers for Health Care had raised about $480,000 as of early October, including $375,000 from the Fairness Project, a left-leaning group founded in California. It is putting out national appeals for donations, including through Organizing for Action, the political group that grew out of former President Barack Obama’s campaigns.

Welfare to Work had raised $192,500, with its contributions coming from a handful of frequent Republican donors in the state. Mr. Littlefield would not discuss the opposition’s strategies, but the group has at least two ads running on television statewide and Mr. LePage has been blasting the initiative on talk radio and in other public comments.

This is what voters will see at the polls:

Do you want Maine to expand Medicaid to provide healthcare coverage for qualified adults under age 65 with incomes at or below 138% of the federal poverty level, which in 2017 means $16,643 for a single person and $22,412 for a family of two?

So far all the newspapers that have weighed in, have supported expansion. The Press Herald: "A 'yes' vote," they wrote, "would bring in more than $500 million a year from the federal government, which would be distributed throughout the state to hospitals-- including struggling rural hospitals-- along with clinics and doctors’ offices, supporting an estimated 4,000 health sector jobs. Those workers will cash their paychecks, buy houses, pay taxes and contribute to the economic health of their communities, generating another 2,000 jobs.

For economic impact alone, we would enthusiastically support this referendum, which would give the state a much-needed shot in the arm.

But there are many other reasons to vote yes that are just as compelling. This is a bill that will make Maine’s health care system more reliable and secure for everyone. It will extend access to preventive care and treatment for people who can’t now afford it. And it will save lives.

By passing this referendum, Maine would extend health coverage to an estimated 70,000 people who are not currently eligible for MaineCare, despite earning less than $16,642 for an individual, or $22,411 for a family of two. Some of the people covered would be childless adults who earn less than the federal poverty limit of $12,060 a year, but still can’t get coverage now. More than two-thirds of those who’d be newly eligible are currently working, or actively looking for work, but don’t have employer-provided insurance.

At those incomes, visits to a doctor or filling a prescription are not in the budget. Low-income people often wait until they are very sick before they start to seek help, often at hospital emergency departments. By then, their care might be much more expensive than preventive care would have been. It also might be too late to help them at all.

Even if they have no insurance, those patients are not turned away by hospitals. Instead, they receive “free” care, the cost of which is shared by all the hospital’s paying customers. That results in higher insurance premiums for everyone else.

Opponents typically argue that Maine can’t afford to expand because the state’s 10 percent share of the program, projected to cost $54 million by 2021, would be too much of a burden.

But they are ignoring the benefit the state would get in return from the federal spending on health care. Most investors would be willing to put up $10 dollars to get $100 back, and Maine should be willing to take that deal, too.

Thirty-one states have participated in Medicaid expansion, and there is plenty of evidence that it has not broken the bank.

Instead, expansion states report not only that their state budgets are stable, but that their hospital balance sheets are positive and insurance rates are lower than in non-expansion states.

This is a good deal. It’s time Maine took part in this program.

This is a good deal for Maine, and voters shouldn’t let this opportunity slip away again.

Jared Golden, the Majority Whip of the Maine state House, is the progressive running in Maine's 2nd congressional district. He reiterated that "the Maine Legislature has passed Medicaid expansion five times but the governor has killed it with his veto pen each time. Passage of Question 2 would bring about a half billion federal dollars per year into Maine to extend coverage to roughly 70,000 Mainers that have lacked health coverage for all these years because of the governor's opposition to a functioning government and his lack of compassion for people that are living in poverty. The governor says they need to pick themselves up by their bootstraps but they don't have boots. He's forgotten that his were given to him by kind people that were there to give him a hand up but not everyone is so fortunate. The frustrating part is that expanding Medicaid to those 70,000 folks would also create thousands of good paying, middle-class health care jobs in Maine, giving our economy a much needed boost, particularly those jobs that would be supported in our rural hospitals and health care providers. In Congress, I'll fight to protect Medicaid funds so that Maine's elderly, many of whom use it for long-term care and assisted living, and people struggling in poverty with low-wages can continue to receive health care coverage through this important program."

Governor Susan Collins?

David Nather asked-- and answered-- an interesting question over at Axios yesterday, namely Who loses if Trump cuts off health insurer payments? The answer is the map. The darker the color, the worse off the inhabitants of the state. And, obviously, worst off are folks in the Trump-backing states of the Old Confederacy plus the GOP political hellholes of Idaho and Utah. If Trump decides to cut off subsidies to the poorest Americans who are getting healthcare through the Affordable Care Act this is what ensues:

• Insurers have to keep providing the subsidies anyway-- they just won't be reimbursed. That's why they'd respond by raising premiums for next year by as much as another 20%.
• In Iowa, Medica-- the last ACA insurer standing-- says it would raise its premiums another 12% to 20% for next year if the payments end, per the Des Moines Register.
• About 5.9 million people get the subsidies-- about 57% of everyone who's enrolled in ACA private insurance coverage, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
• They're heavily concentrated in red states, and especially in the south, as you can see from this map by our visuals editor, Lazaro Gamio. (We ran this map back in April, and now that the payments are under threat again, we thought it was time for an encore.)
• The move would end up costing the federal government more money, rather than saving money, because the ACA tax credits would adjust to cover the higher premiums. The Kaiser Family Foundation predicts a net increase of $2.3 billion in federal costs next year.
• But anyone who doesn't qualify for the tax credits would have to eat the extra costs.
• The White House will point out, correctly, that Congress didn't fund the payments and that it could end the uncertainty at any time by doing so.
• Now that the repeal bill-- which would have funded the payments for two years-- has collapsed, most Republicans won't want to provide the funding on its own. But some are reluctantly acknowledging they may have no choice. "I think we're going to have to do that," Senate Finance Committee chairman Orrin Hatch told Reuters.

Maine isn't among the very worst off if Trump pulls the plug-- but close. And, as you know, the state's senior senator, Susan Collins played a pivotal role in stopping TrumpCare dead in its tracks. Yesterday there was a big pro-Collins rally in downtown Lewiston, over in a Trumpier part of the state than solidly blue Portland. The background noise in her TrumpCare role is about her running for governor. A poll in the Bangor Daily News yesterday indicates strong enthusiasm for her.

But that doesn't include any support from Trump's local hitman, current Maine governor Paul LePage. According to reporter Michael Shepherd at the same newspaper, "LePage looks to be leading a Republican civil war against U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ 2018 gubernatorial bid before anyone’s sure she’ll declare one and as she sits at the center of the national health care debate. The governor railed against the moderate Republican senator at a Saturday pig roast put on by the Somerset County Republican Committee in Canaan, where an attendee said LePage repeatedly mentioned working to defeat Collins if she runs for governor next year." Trump appears to be afraid of Collins for some weird reason and he has the deranged LePage doing his dirty work for him.

[Collins] has said she’d make a decision on running by the fall. Few in Maine politics are certain she’ll declare one besides LePage, who said in a Thursday radio interview that he thinks she’s planning on it.

“If the Republican base-- which is the 290,000 people that voted for me (in his 2014 re-election)-- tell her, ‘We don’t want you; you’re not winning the primary,’ she’ll back down,” he said in a video provided by the attendee at the Canaan event under conditions of anonymity.

That line got some applause from the crowd of Republican diehards who love LePage, whose political ascent began with a 2010 primary win over six opponents. But years of polling data indicate that his push at Collins might not resonate much outside his sphere of loyal conservative supporters.

LePage, who scored an approval rating of 47 percent in the latest round of state-by-state polling from Morning Consult, has a far more limited base than Collins, who may be Maine’s most popular politician, regularly registering approval ratings in the mid- to high-60s. A 2014 poll during her last re-election campaign saw her pulling more support from Democrats than from Republicans.

But Collins has always maintained relationships to party loyalists by helping lower-level politicians win elections. LePage is no exception to that.

Days before the 2014 election where both were up for re-election, Collins showed up at LePage’s Blaine House food drive, was greeted with a hug and said she had unwavering support for the governor and praised him for “his emphasis on jobs and the economy.”

Their relationship has soured since the 2016 election. LePage became an early Trump endorser in February 2016, while Collins said she wouldn’t support Trump that August. After Trump won Maine’s 2nd Congressional District and the election, he said she was “done in Maine.”

In April, Collins gave a radio interview where she weighed her options for 2018, saying her goal would be to “heal the state” if she ran, a likely jab at LePage’s divisive tenure. After that, LePage said he didn’t know her well enough to know whether she’d be a good governor.

LePage’s former health and human services commissioner, Mary Mayhew of South China, is the only Republican in the gubernatorial race so far.

Mayhew led LePage’s opposition to Medicaid expansion, while Collins suggested in June that Maine consider following Indiana’s conservative approach to expansion under the federal health care law. Mayhew was in Washington ear li er this month pushing for repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

LePage’s position on various Republican Obamacare repeal efforts changed alongside their proposals. In March, he opposed a House bill for not going far enough in scaling back the current law, but he supported it after changes were made, including a quicker Medicaid expansion phase-out.

He also told reporters at the White House in June that he opposed a Senate bill because it didn’t go far enough. Later that day, he released a statement saying he generally supported repeal efforts. That bill failed and was different than the “skinny repeal” bill considered in the key vote Friday.

Mayhew and Collins could be the official foils if the senator gets in, but as he always seems to be in Maine politics, LePage will be front and center in any battle that materializes.

Last night, LePage attacked both Collins and Maine's other senator, Angus King (I) in a Wall Street Journal OpEd for their opposition to TrumpCare. "When it comes to providing affordable health care to the people of Maine, Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King are worse than out of touch-- they are downright dangerous," he wrote. "Sadly, this is no surprise from senators who are more comfortable cutting deals in the polished marble corridors of Washington than meeting with Mainers struggling to make ends meet... Ms. Collins and Mr. King have ignored these ideas, since they are more interested in preening for the cameras than in making real progress. Though they seem unwilling to deliver on their promises of better care, at least they have given Mainers a clear sense of their priorities."

Republican Of The Year Nominee #3: Governors' Edition

2016 In Review: America Off The Rails, Part 7


You bet, Maine's Paulie No-Brains is a contender!

by Noah

It’s not easy to pick the primo nominees for Republican Of The Year. For this installment of America Off The Rails, I’ve decided to narrow the field to just republican governors. Still, so many choices, so little time! It’s daunting. Where does one start? How does one judge?

Do we go by racism? No. Too easy and too all-encompassing. It’s difficult to get far enough to be a republican candidate for anything if you haven’t at least exhibited some sort of racism to polish your republican credentials somewhere along the way. At this point, I don’t think they even accept your application unless you’ve shown that you might someday strike a match to burn a cross.

So, how do we decide? Environmental policy? Wage and labor issues? Voting rights? LGBTQ stance? Immigration? Misogyny? Demeanor? Obvious insanity? Do the knuckles touch the ground? Chances are any republican governor has nearly all if not all of these bases covered, really covered!

My solution to this dilemma is to just play a game of word association with myself. I’ll type out a name of a republikook governor, any one of whom is a nominee for Republican Of The Year in his own right, who “served” in 2016, and see what instantly pops into my mind -- what about that goon leaps to the forefront of my mind as soon as I picture his or her visage or think of their name?

So, here goes!


CHRIS CHRISTIE, New Jersey

[Click on any cartoon to enlarge]

Ewwwee, this is a bad start. I’m from NJ. This is personally embarrassing. He even grew up in the town next door to the one I’m from, and I don’t remember anything that bad -- bad as Chris Christie.

Nah, he’s bad, but he’s not the worst. He’s just a dumb loudmouth bully type who should have been punched hard in the face in the fifth grade and sent home crying pathetically to his mommy. Because no one did that, we all have to suffer years later. Wasn’t it hideous to watch him chasing Trump around, trying to affix his fat lips permanently to Trump’s fat ass? Damn. And that expression on poor, sad Mrs. Christie’s face, forced to stand onstage with hubby and Trumpie as she watched. She chose . . . poorly.


SCOTT WALKER, Wisconsin



Not bad, ROTY-wise. Definitely a possibility. Scotty, you’ve done the voter-suppression thing to the max. You’ve earned praise from fellow repugs as you brought your state’s Argentina of America tendencies to the forefront. You’re a fine example of how to install a fascist government. Because of that, republicans consider you presidential material. Scott, you are the envy of republicans everywhere.

Not bad at all, Scott. Good try, but no. You’re a loser. Sad. Let’s move on.


PAT McCRORY, North Carolina



Oh, if you’re a republican, he’s good. Great grades on voter suppression. Previous career as a defense lawyer for a company that ignored environmental laws and dumped huge amounts of coal ash into once pristine rivers.

Screw those kayakers! Screw the fishermen! Screw the fish! Screw the water birds. And once in office, he kept right on defending the polluters.

He’s true to what he is: a total jackass! Oh and let’s not forget that bathroom bill, the one that messed up his reelection.

McCrory really has that republican obsession with urination down. But is he as good as --


MIKE PENCE, Indiana



In July, I posted ("With The Selection Of Mike Pence For VP, Republicans Have Now Checked All The Hate Boxes") how you put the finishing touch on the Trump ticket with your virulent homophobia. I mentioned how republicans were mighty concerned about Trump being a little weak in that area. But you, Mike Pence, you are the man! You came to the rescue and joined the ticket. Dare I say, your presence put Trump over the top?

But it wasn’t just that. Your KKK index is through the roof. Your brand of fake Christianity is second to none. That little “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” was pure inspiration to fellow sociopaths like McCrory. When it comes to being pro-discrimination, you, sir, are an asshole among assholes. No wonder Comrade Trump picked you! Good thing, too, because you are so bonkers even Indiana was sick of your act.


SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas



Sammy! You’ve done well! You’ve turned your state into a laboratory for republican-tax-policy wet dreams. You killed regulations in Kansas. You rejected those wicked federal Medicaid subsidies that would have given Kansas citizens better and cheaper healthcare. You privatized Medicaid. You’ve created Conservative Utopia!

You famously said:

My focus is to create a red-state model that allows the Republican ticket to say, "See, we've got a different way, and it works."

You’ve done it better than anybody! You’ve slashed taxes like nobody’s business. Mitch McConnell adores you and says what you’ve done in your state is what he wants to do for the whole country!

And now your state is now bankrupt beyond any sane person’s nightmares. Congratulations! Mission accomplished! A couple of F-5 tornados would barely be noticed now! Well done!

It gets even better for you. Rumor has it that Comrade Trump wants to make you his secretary of agriculture. You’re on the way up. Fuck that little girl Dorothy. Screw her pooch! The Wicked Witch’s got nothin’ on you!


PAUL LePAGE, Maine



Paulie No-Brains, I hear you are one of 17 siblings! My god, are they like you? Are they out running loose? Are they all tragically multiplying and polluting the human gene pool forever and ever? Why haven’t your parents been arrested for crimes against humanity?

Even Politico, a news organization founded by Reagan and Bush types, has recently had to publicly wonder if you’re playing with a full deck.

But really, what republican anywhere is playing with a full deck? And oh, the irony when you said:

We need Mainers to understand our government is corrupt . . . The Maine people have to demand better from our elected officials.

And you’ve sure got that 19th-century racist thing going when you say things like:

The traffickers. These aren’t people who take drugs. These are guys by the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty. These type of guys that come from Connecticut and New York. They come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave.

Ah, the old fear of miscegenation and dilution of white bloodlines! Sounds just like republican role model David Duke! Frankly, it also seems like a state that would elect you and even reelect you could actually use the introduction of some new genetic material. Just sayin’.

Yeah, you’re stone crazy, Paul LePage! But, ya haven’t poisoned or killed anybody, yet. You try. You’re a lot of talk, but you're up against a guy who is a real republican action figure --


RICK SNYDER, Michigan



We have a winner! Ricky, baby, you’ve really got the fascism thing down! You got a bill passed that even allows you to remove local governing bodies, just like you were running Bolivia!

Fortune Magazine recently even gave you position #1 as worst leader in the world! Too bad we haven’t landed on Mars yet, or that too would be within your grasp!

Like all republicans, you dream of a day when you can deprive all but the rich of healthcare and watch people die. But what really sets you apart? Well, that whole “Let them drink lead” concept you and your crew came up with clinches it. This is a masterstroke. No one else thought of that!

Sure, any republican would love to cut someone’s chemo treatments short and send them on their way to the funeral home. Any psycho like Paul “Crazy Eyes” Ryan would love to deprive a less-than-wealthy American of the chance to have a brain tumor removed. But you, Rick Snyder, are special! “Let them drink lead”! You poisoned the people you swore to serve! Lead in the drinking water, that’s genius! I can see your next campaign bumper sticker:

“GAS LEAKS FOR ALL!”

Or how about:

“EVERY TOWN A BHOPAL!”

It’s even better that so many of your victims in Flint are minorities! You thought of everything! And it doesn’t necessarily kill them, it may just make them suffer for their whole lives! Brilliant! Lead poisoning is the republican gift that keeps on giving. It lasts a lifetime!

You are a god, Rick Snyder! You win, hands down! Bin Laden would love to shake your hand!

2016 IN REVIEW: AMERICA OFF THE RAILS

Here it is, Noah's completed Year in Review for 2016:

Part 1, "Profiles in Cowardice: The Electoral College" (12/23/2016)
Part 2, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #1: Newt Gingrich" (12/27/2016)
Part 3, "The Trumpf Inauguration Committee Finds The Perfect Inauguration Entertainment At Last!" (12/29/2016)
Part 4, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #2: R-R-Reince Priebus" (1/2/2017)
Part 5, "Comrade Trump: The World’s Worst Cabinet Maker, Believe Me -- Meet The New Russian Oligarchs! (1)" (1/4/2017)
Part 6, "Comrade Trump: The World’s Worst Cabinet Maker, Believe Me -- Meet The New Russian Oligarchs! (2)" (1/5/2017)
Part 7, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #3: Governors' Edition" (1/9/2017)
Part 8, "Trump -- The Art And Acts Of The Emboldened: The Rise In Hate Crimes Under The Influence Of Comrade T" (1/10/2017)
Part 9, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #4: It's A Sad Thing When Cousins Marry Edition" (1/11/2017)
Part 10, "Republican Person Of The Year Nominee #5 -- And Winner!" (1/12/2017)
Part 11, "Comrade Trump: Inauguration Entertainment Update!" (1/15/2017)
Part 12, "A DWT Exclusive: We Have The First Draft Of Comrade Trump's Inauguration Speech!" (1/16/2017)

#

Do You Want The Democratic Party To Be As Ruthless And Brazen As The Republican Party?

"President Obama," Michael Moore told Chris Hayes on Friday, "wants to be the nice guy." Neo-Nazis-- I mean Republicans-- on social media sites now routinely taunt Democrats as "snowflakes." Are they up to leading the resistance against Trump? Ted Lieu, a Congressman from the stretch of southern California coastline from Malibu through Santa Monica, Venice and Manhattan Beach to Rancho Palos Verdes, is also an Air Force colonel. Saturday morning he told us that "It is possible that Donald Trump-- who lost the popular vote-- will have some ideas that benefit my constituents, California and our nation as a whole. On those policies-- such as withdrawing from the TPP-- I will support. What I will fight-- in every way at my disposal as a member of the United States House of Representatives-- are any policies that put our national security, our privacy, our economy or the well-being of Americans at risk. Any attempt to pass a sham infrastructure plan: I will fight. Any plan to gut the VA and privatize care for our Veteran heroes: I will fight. Any plan to create a so-called Muslim registry: I will fight. Any plan to gut the Affordable Care Act or Wall Street regulations: I will fight. Any plan that moves our nation further away from leading the clean energy revolution and undermines the undeniable science of climate change: I will fight. This is a challenging time in our great nation's history; a time that calls for serious leaders with serious policy solutions that make our nation healthier, more sustainable, more just and more prosperous. My hope is that Trump arrives at the White House and governs differently than he has campaigned."

The video above starts with a segment from Rev. William Barber discussing the pernicious Republican coup d'état in North Carolina. Barber, who you should remember as one of the most inspiring speakers at the Democratic National Convention this past summer. Friday he was on Democracy Now talking with Amy Goodman about how the white fascists-- I mean Republicans-- routinely steal elections and subvert Democracy in Nazi dominated-- I mean Republican dominated-- regions, like the Old Confederacy of slave holding states (and Dunces).

[I]f you rule the South, if you can control the South, you control 171 electoral votes, by just controlling the former 13 Confederate states. You control 26 senators in the United States Senate, which means you only need 25 from the other 37 states. You control 31 percent of the United States House of Representatives, which means you only need 20 from the other 37 states. And you control 13 governors and 13 general assemblies, that control state boards of election. So, if you break through that, then you have fundamentally changed politics.

I believe all of the pushback we’re seeing-- the voter suppression, the redistricting-- is because the extremists see the possibility of a third Reconstruction. They know that if we register 30 percent of the African-American voters, unregistered voters, in the South, and if we add to that whites and progressive whites and Latinos, you will have changed the South. And if you ever change that map and you ever gave deep down organizing that gets people to stop voting against their own interests, [have] grown-up conversations about race and economics, and people begin to see themselves as allies, blacks and whites, and no longer fear one another, then you have a third Reconstruction. I think we’re in the birth pangs of it. North Carolina is one of the places that points to it. Virginia is one of the places that points to it. The closing gaps that we’re seeing-- when you look at Trump, he didn’t win the South by the gaps that Ronald Reagan did. And if we have deep down organizing in the South, we can have-- we can push this third Reconstruction to full adulthood.

...I actually think a lot of what we’re seeing a last stand. I think when President Obama was elected, for instance, and you had this fusion coalition-- remember, he won in Virginia, won in North Carolina early on, Florida-- I think that scared extremists, which is why you had the 15 who got together and said, “We’re going to block him from doing anything.” You know, Jeff Sessions was in that group, who is now being proposed for the attorney general.

I think that the fact that Ryan and McConnell-- we talk a lot about the racism of Trump, but look at the racism of McConnell and Ryan, because, for me, racism is not the KKK or David Dukes or calling somebody the N-word. It’s policy. It’s systemic racism. So, for instance, Ryan and McConnell and Boehner have held up fixing the Voting Rights Act for over a thousand days, almost over 1,200 days, since June 25th, 2013, when the Supreme Court passed this ill-fated decision in Shelby. Strom Thurmond only filibustered the Civil Rights Act of ’57 for a day, 24 hours. These people have held up fixing Voting Rights Act Section 4, so that Section 5 can be implemented in states like North Carolina, for over 1,200 days. They’re afraid. They are afraid of this possibility of us organizing all of America.

And I think that that’s the same thing you see here. This Legislature now has been told twice, by the highest courts, “You are racist. You have engaged in racist voter suppression and racist gerrymandering.” They know they cannot win without this. For instance, what they did when they redistricted, they put 49 percent of black voters into 19 out of 50 Senate districts, and they put 51 percent of black voters into 27 out of 120 House seats. They did that to isolate, stack and pack the black vote, not just to disallow or keep black people from being elected, but to keep black and white people from forming fusion coalitions to elect progressive candidates. That’s what the game was. And all of that is falling apart now, every bit of it. And they see it falling apart in their face. And we have to understand what is at stake here.

And none of it, lastly, would have been possible if we had Section 5 preclearance. If Section 5 preclearance was in place-- and the people in the Congress understand this-- none of these laws that have been passed in the South would have been able to have been passed. And without them-- and I think the story, Amy and others, that we have not talked about is, people talk about this election. Ari Berman says we’ve had almost 900 less voting sites in the black community in this election than we had in 2012. It could have impacted more than a million African-American voters. And we did not have one discussion in our national debates, candidates for president, about voting rights and racism as it relates to voting rights. That was a tremendous error during this campaign.

As Paul Waldman wrote over the weekend in the Washington Post, in regard to the GOP coup in North Carolina, "[P]erhaps nowhere in the country have Republicans moved more aggressively to solidify power by disenfranchising their opponents as they have in North Carolina... This isn’t just hardball politics. This is a fundamentally anti-democratic approach to government, one that says that when we win, we get to implement our agenda, and when you win, you don’t.”

It's not just North Carolina, of course, or even just the South. Maine stumbled into electing a fascist, Paul LePage, in 2010 (with 38.1% of the vote) and reelecting that same fascist in 2014 with 48.2% of the vote. His approval rating this month is 38% across his state but Friday he announced he plans to nullify the minimum wage law approved by referendum last month. The referendum passed with 834,264 votes (55.5%), fair more votes than LePage ever got from Mainers or anyone else. (His 2010 vote total was just 218,065 and his 2014 vote total was 294,533. LePage combined vote total for his two gubernatorial campaigns is 321,666 less than the votes in favor of a modest, gradual increase in the minimum wage. He ordered his department of labor to not enforce the changes and has every intention of trying to overturn the will of the voters in the legislature. Republicans control the state Senate, 20-15 but Democrats, who are extremely tepid to act against the colossally unpopular LePage control the state House, 78-69 (with 4 independents). The House has consistently refused to make any serious impeachment moves against LePage after a series of unconstitutuional acts. The Bangor Daily News described the bullshit Democratic efforts as "having no teeth or sustained meaning." That about sums it up.

Normally when a U.S. Senator leaves office during their term, the governor of the state appoints a successor to either finish the term or on an interim basis until a special election can be called and organized. On the other hand, when a House member leaves office during their term, there is no appointment, just a special election-- except in Montana. Trump announced that he's appointing Montana's sole congressman, Republican Ryan Zinke, to head the Department of the Interior. Montana's newly-reelected Democratic Governor Steve Bullock can appoint an interim replacement-- just like they do for senators-- and then has between 85 and 100 days to hold a special election. There's some contention about whether or not this law allowing for an appointed congressman is even constitutional-- the state's Democratic Secretary of State, Linda McCulloch, says it isn't-- and Bullock has indicated he will not be appointing anyone. Imagine if the governor was a Republican. Do you think there would be the slightest hesitation?

In a piece last week, George Lakoff pointed out how many Democrats, progressives and members of the news media are inadvertently helping Trump on a daily basis-- spreading his vile message.

Think about it: every time Trump issues a mean tweet or utters a shocking statement, millions of people begin to obsess over his words. Reporters make it the top headline. Cable TV panels talk about it for hours. Horrified Democrats and progressives share the stories online, making sure to repeat the nastiest statements in order to refute them. While this response is understandable, it works in favor of Trump.

When you repeat Trump, you help Trump. You do this by spreading his message wide and far.

Nobody knows this better than Trump. Trump, as a media master, knows how to frame a debate. When he picks a fight, he does so deliberately. He tweets or says outrageous things, knowing they will be repeated millions and millions of times. When the news media and Democrats repeat Trump’s frames, they are strengthening those frames by ensuring that tens of millions of Americans hear them repeated over and over again.

...When you repeat Trump, you help Trump.

Is Paul LePage's Primitivist Idealization Of Authoritarianism A Harbinger Of Things To Come For America?

2 rotund fascists

What is wrong with the Maine state legislature? Starting with Charles Robinson of Kansas in 1862, only 15 governors have ever been impeached, Rod Blogojevich (D-IL), currently serving out a prison term, being the most recent (2009). Another relatively recent impeachment and conviction was in Arizona in 1988 (far right crackpot and vile racist Evan Meacham). Maine has never impeached a governor but the legislature has threatened to impeach the current misanthrope several times and then never followed through.

LePage was elected twice, though never with a majority from the voters. In a 3-way race in 2010, he scored 37.6% of the vote and in 2014 he was reelected in another 3-way competition with 48.2%. He's vetoed nearly 100 laws-- including bills to increase the minimum wage, bills to require the police to get warrants before spying on American citizens with drones and bills increasing penalties of people who torture animals. But those weren't among the reasons the legislature considered-- however briefly-- impeachment. The most recent was because of a threatening and obscene phone message he left for state Rep. Drew Gattine, which indicated to many that LePage had had a mental breakdown. The other almost-impeachment as when a charter school rescinded a job offer to Maine House Speaker Mark Eves (D) just days before he was slated to become the school's president, following a threat by LePage to cut off the school's funding if Eves became president.



And yesterday, LePage handed the state legislature further cause to consider how to get rid of him. This time it was an attack on American democracy itself, a hallmark of lowlife Trumpists everywhere in the country. LePage on WVOM Tuesday morning:

"Sometimes I wonder that our Constitution is not only broken, but we need a Donald Trump to show some authoritarian power in our country and bring back the rule of law because we've had eight years of a president-- he's an autocrat, he just does it on his own, he ignores Congress and every single day, we're slipping into anarchy. I just think that four more years of a similar mentality is going to destroy this nation."

The state legislature is split-- the Dems control the House (78-69, with 4 independents) and the GOP controls the Senate (20 Republicans and 15 Democrats), so, unless Mainers deal the Republicans a mighty blow in November, there really is no way to remove LePage through impeachment. The most recent polling in Maine shows Clinton winning statewide by 4 points (40-36%, with Johnson and Stein splitting another 15%). But in Maine's more backward and rural 2nd congressional district, teaming with ignorant deplorables, Trump is ahead 48-34%. Statewide, a majority of Mainers (52%) give LePage a negative rating, though that was before he called for the installation of a racist dictatorship yesterday.

Tuesday, before the LePage news broke, Philadelphia Daily News columnist, Will Bunch, took a long hard look at Trump's and his followers' penchant for authoritarianism. "[H]alfway through Sunday night's second presidential debate between the GOP's Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton," he wrote, "America unexpectedly instead got a horror show that was almost unreal: A new threat by Trump to grab at the sanctity of one of the basic tenets of our national democracy."

In his desperate bid to change the conversation away from 2005 and Too Much Access Hollywood,  the short-fingered vulgarian (has there ever been a better description?) trotted out several past sex-assault accusers of Bill Clinton, and then he emptied out his arsenal of anti-Hillary bombast as soon as the TV lights were turned on. It was beyond ugly, but he didn't cross over the line from threatening good taste to actually threatening the fundamentals of U.S. democracy until about 30 minutes in. That's when the subject of Clinton's private servers and her handling of her emails came up.

"I didn’t think I’d say this and I’m going to say it and I hate to say it. … If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation because there has never been so many lies, so much deception," Trump said.

A moment later, Clinton said that "it's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country." Shot back Trump: "Because you'd be in jail." A surprisingly large part of the gathering in St. Louis erupted in cheers -- a haunting reminder of the one memorable moment in the otherwise forgettable Star Wars Episode 3: "So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause."

...Trump's groupies went wild at their hero's threat, posting their Hillary-in-prison memes up and down the corridors of cyberspace. But foreign policy wonks started instead thinking about war-torn, fragile African nations like the perhaps ironically named Democratic Republic of the Congo, where leaders routinely throw the leaders of opposition parties in jail.

I thought of the night six years when I drove up to Quakertown and watched Sarah Palin, the avatar of what would grow into Trumpism, tell boosters of a Christian school that "American exceptionalism is something that every generation has to be its own if we expect our Republic and our liberties to be secure and to live on." But if you really want to push the theory of American exceptionalism, that our Republic is different from any others, you need to start with something that's actually been pretty exceptional...so far. And that's the peaceful transfer of power: Our unbroken streak of presidential elections, every four years -- even in the midst of a civil war in 1864, and when some wanted Washington to assume dictatorial powers during the Great Depression in 1932-- and our traditions of a) the losers accepting the results and b) the winners not seeking retribution.

Instead of making America great again, Trump wants a nation of crude and ever-bending laws, administered by a self-proclaimed "strongman." And millions of voters are along for the thrill ride.

...[T]he real danger is that by going nuclear Sunday night to solidify his standing with those 20-25 percent of  Americans on the right who've bounced from the John Birch Society to the Moral Majority to the Tea Party to Making America Great Again, he's has ripped the very fabric of this nation in a way that cannot be repaired. Within 24 hours of his performance, Trump backers have been hitting the streets with signs like "Trump That Bitch" and twists on Trump's feline descriptions of the female anatomy.

And that's the real takeaway from Sunday's debate-- the scary one. Anyone who thinks they're waking up on November 9 and wiping this out of their eyes, like a 5 a.m. nightmare, is delusional. The impeachment calls from the far-right side of the House, the cries of a "rigged election," and all the fear and loathing that goes with that...is just getting started. Sunday's debate wasn't the end of anything...nor was it the beginning. Just a massive escalation in the war for America's mortal soul.

UPDATE: New Polling In Maine

The Maine People's Resource Center survey that came out today, shows Hillary building momentum across the state and now catching up to Trump in the second CD-- and slaughetring him in the first. Statewide, the numbers are Hillary 44.0%, Trump 36.1%, Johnson 8.8% and Stein 2.9%. In the 2nd CD, she's gained almost all the ground between them and he now leads her by just 1.6 points (within the poll's margin of error).

If Paul LePage Is Impeached Will Señor Trumpanzee Still Offer Him A Cabinet Position In His Alternative Universe?

Remember when Maine's senior senator, Susan Collins, said she wouldn't vote for Señor Trumpanzee? It may see like months ago but it was just a couple weeks. At the time, I noted that she had endorsed, raised money for and campaigned with Maine's erratic far right governor, Paul LePage... twice. The clip from Rachel Maddow's Friday show opening (above) gives the background of the latest LePage outrage, starting with his crackpot and threatening call to state Rep. Drew Gattine's answer machine and his follow-up insane statements on WMTW-TV about dueling him and shooting him between the eyes.

Maine's state Senate president, Michael Thibodeau (R), who is up for re-election in November, begged LePage to apologize, an idea LePaul scoffed at. LePage: "I am enormously angry... I’m not shying away from what I called him (a cocksucker)."

Unlike Thibodeau, Sarah Gideon, the assistant majority leader of Maine’s House, was not calling for LePage to apologize. Like many Mainers, she thinks he should step down as governor-- or be removed. "We strongly and regretfully feel that he is unfit to serve as governor of the state of Maine right now." LePage actually offered to resign if Gattine agrees to do the same. What the hell has happened to Maine?

Let's go back to just before Susan Collins wrote her editorial declaring she wouldn't vote for Señor Trumpanzee-- the short August 4th interview Trumpanzee did with the Press Herald before he stepped onto the stage in Portland and tried to drum up racial animosity against Maine's peaceful Somali population. The reporter asked him if he planned to offer LePage, who will be termed out in 2018, a cabinet position. Trumpanzee: "I’ll tell you what. I don’t know that he would want that but he is a very talented guy, he is also a great person, a tremendous person and if he were available I would certainly find something for Paul because he’s done a great job up here, he’s not only popular, he’s done an unbelievable job so I would certainly say that he would be a candidate."

Saturday morning NYTimes reporter Trip Gabriel tweeted that "Trump has withheld his taxes and medical records. But his tweets are a pretty good X-ray of his mind," which recalled Hillary's Reno speech quoting Maya Angelou, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." One doesn't need to be Sherlock Holmes to see who and what Paul LePage and Donald J. Trumpanzee are. They both come from the same Know Nothing strain of one of the ugliest aspects of American politics, a strain that has been rejected tim and again by the majority of American people and will be rejected again in November. The video below, of LePage speaking to reporters, leaves nothing to the imagination. The man is a racist rabble-rouser who should be run out of town on a rail. "You shoot at the enemy. You try to identify the enemy. And the enemy right now, the overwhelming majority right now coming in are people of color or people of Hispanic origin. I can’t help that. I just can’t help it. Those are the facts."




UPDATE: Maine Warns America

Been there, done that is what the Portland Press Herald OpEd barred this morning, predicting the same kind of dysfunction nationally if Trump is elected that their state is going through for having elected right-wing crackpot Paul LePage

People whose hearts are racing over Donald Trump might want to take a close look at Maine. We got caught up in all this politics-as-entertainment stuff with Paul LePage. We had all the “blunt talk” and “tell-it-like-it-is” strutting, too. The loud insults, the fragile control-freak ego and the “my-way-or-the-highway” approach to governing.

It’s turned out to be a disaster. We’re now the slowest-growing state in the country. The governor has somehow managed to attack and enrage everyone, including within his own party.

He hasn’t been able to get anything of importance done for ages. And he’s now reduced to collecting signatures on street corners so he can use citizen referendums-- which are supposed to be for citizens-- to govern.

Maine can provide a great service to the country right now by letting everyone know how this fun-filled adventure of electing loud, insulting, mean-spirited, anti-government guys turns out.

Not that Trump and LePage are identical. Trump is a billionaire with a squirrel on his head, tail forward. LePage is not. But they are eerily similar in other ways.

• They both hate the government they want to run.
• They both are convinced that they know everything.
• They both employ insults gleefully, carelessly and indiscriminately.
• Neither seems to have much understanding of the powers that a chief executive has-- and doesn’t have-- in a democracy and under our state and federal constitutions.
• They both regularly confuse opinions and right-wing talk radio chatter with facts.

...All we can say to America is this: Come to Maine. See what happened to us. We’re the slowest-growing state in America. Our government is consumed with melodrama. We’re in gridlock. And we have a governor who can’t govern.