There's supposed to be this huge chasm in the Maine Republican Party between the business-oriented moderates and the far right extremists (with another split in their for the Ron Paul libertarian branch). The moderates have been the home base for respectable political leaders like Senators Margaret Chase Smith, Bill Cohen, Olympia Snowe. Interestingly enough, Susan Collins has always attempted to glom onto that faction while maintaining strong ties to the extremists. You don't find many media reports of it this cycle, but Olympia Snowe sure isn't out on the hustings asking her supporters to back Collins this cycle.As Rick Santorum explained to right-wing money men, Collins just fakes the "moderate" shtik so she can get elected in Maine, a very moderate state. He was explaining why she was a much better rightist than McCain. "[T]here are people like Susan Collins who vote moderate sometimes, but at least she is a team player who always plays with the team and never plays against the conservative side even if she has to give the liberals a vote because she's from Maine."Right now she's working harder than any moderate would to reelect deranged and unstable extremist Governor Paul LePage. She's given him money. She's asked her financial backers to give him more money. And she's been up and down the state campaigning for him. Paul LePage is insane-- and that's what "moderate" Susan Collins' best judgement tells her the people of Maine need as governor?DWT has turned to Mike Tipping for our timeliest LePage information since he managed to slip into office with 38% of the vote in 2010 (with an Independent and a Democrat splitting normal peoples' votes between them). Tipping has a new book coming out, As Maine Went: Governor Paul LePage and the Tea Party Takeover of Maine. Tipping broke the latest revelations about LePage, basically that he's been conspiring with (according to both the FBI and Maine law enforcement agencies) domestic terrorists, in the book and then in the Bangor Daily News, with LePage stepping all over the story and fumbling his coverup pathetically. Susan Collins may be nervous but so far she is standing by him. [You can get a good sense of the breaking scandal in the video above that Chris Hayes did with Tipping Tuesday night on MSNBC.]
First, LePage claimed that he had never discussed the arrest or execution of his political opponents with the group. This is in direct contrast with what the sovereigns claimed on their Aroostook Watchmen radio show just two days after their meeting with LePage.“We also discussed this there, that as far as I know, the penalty for high treason hasn’t changed in a hundred years, and I didn’t say it, but the governor said it-- I never opened my mouth and said the word-- the governor looked at us and looked at his buddy and said, ‘They’re talking about hanging them,’ ” said host Jack McCarthy on the show.“That’s right,” said co-host Steve Martin in response.“I said, ‘Praise the Lord-- we’ll hang a few and be done with this crap,’” said McCarthy.You can hear the exchange at minute 19 of this set of clips from the 2-hour show, one of several where the Watchmen discuss their meetings with LePage.Even if, for some reason, the men were lying about this interaction. It strains credulity to think that at no point during the at least eight meetings, confirmed by documents received by the governor’s office through Freedom of Access request, did they ever discuss their “remonstrances” and their charges against Senate President Justin Alfond and House Speaker Mark Eves. These accusations were their main reason for approaching LePage in the first place and a constant obsession on their radio broadcasts.LePage’s lie is also exposed by the documents provided by his own office. In several emails to LePage and his staff the sovereigns discuss their remonstrances and charges of treason. Here’s one, for example.In one note sent to the governor before one of their meetings, titled “Subject for discussion #1,” they specifically discuss the possibility of being forced to pursue “the 1776 or the 1865 option” against Eves and Alfond. 1776 obviously refers to the beginning of the American Revolution and 1865 was the year President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.In the phone calls, LePage also claimed that no one told him about my Freedom of Access request. This would seem to contradict correspondence from his own legal team. After I objected to his office’s failure to produce the governor’s notes from his meetings, I received this from Deputy Counsel Hank Fenton:“We believe we have produced all documents that are responsive to your FOAA request. However, I am writing to inform you that we will take an additional review of the Governor’s notes that are in the custody of the Governor’s Office in order to confirm that we have fully complied with your FOAA request. I will be in touch if our efforts produce any additional documents that are responsive to your request.”That was the last I heard from them. If LePage is correct, then Fenton, despite his statement to me, must never have approached him about reviewing his notes.LePage now claims that he does in fact have notes from the meetings, but they are written in shorthand in a secret code that only he understands. I have renewed my request for these documents.LePage made a number of other false claims during the calls, including that there was no memo from his legal staff on the remonstrances (despite the fact that I published it yesterday) and that Eves and Alfond never asked to meet with him (despite their well-publicized requests).LePage apparently ended the call by promising to sue me and the Bangor Daily News. I look forward to seeing his case.
LePage is now admitting he met with the domestic terrorist group (at least 8 times) but says it doesn't mean he necessarily endorses their conspiracy theories, like believing the government is plotting a Christian holocaust via the mass collection of firearms, that it runs mind-control operations and that it was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Sandy Hook school shootings. The Press Herald says "It is unclear why the governor met with members of the Maine group, which goes by the name Constitutional Coalition. Some of its members claim to have helped LePage get elected during the tea party uprising of 2010… LePage’s staff advised him not to meet with the members of the group, according to emails." One of the members of the group told the Press Herald that "We are not violent, domestic terrorists. Yes, we believe in the right of self-defense, but we know better than to invade the State House with weapons and pitchforks." Does Paul LePage?Maine's GOP-- all the moderates are gone
