Democrats rightly boycott Trump inauguration: add another to heroes

Rep. Chellie Pingree called Rep. John Lewis one of the "kindest members of Congress"....- Portland Press Herald.

Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (rightly!) announced she won't attend the Donald Trump installation on January 20th! 

Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree- D-Maine will (rightly) not attend Donald Trump inauguration

There's at least a trio of reasons to support her valid decision. Maine was the home of Harriett Beecher Stowe when she began to write "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (published in 1852); it's also the state where many escaped slaves found safe houses on the "underground railroad" & where the hero Joshua Chamberlain, leader of the 20th Maine at Gettysburg's Little Round Top, stood against the Confederate Army to defend the Union.

Boycotting the inauguration of the illegitimate Donald Trump is the right thing to do, considering how many American citizens he has trashed in his Twitter tirades, while defending Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is an international serial assassin. Alexander Litvinenko was poisioned by order of Putin with the use of toxic nuclear, lethal polonium-210-"induced acute radiation syndrome".
This unpatriotic Trump-Putin alliance is evidence enough to boycott the inauguration of an illegitimate Donald Trump.

Donald Trump's Twitter attack on civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis of Georgia is the last straw. Thank you Congresswoman Pingree for making the right decision to not attend the Jan. 20th inauguration of an illegitimate Donald Trump.

In Maine, the The Portland Press Herald reports:

Rep. Chellie Pingree- D-Maine, joins Democratic boycott of Donald Trump’s inauguration

Although Maine's three other members of Congress are expected to attend, but Pingree says she is standing in solidarity with Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights icon who clashed with the president-elect.

Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree said Monday that she will not attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, joining a growing number of Democratic members of Congress opting to skip the ceremonies.

“I’ll be staying right here in Maine,” Pingree, D-1st District, told attendees at a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration dinner hosted by the NAACP Portland Branch at Holiday Inn by the Bay.

The Maine delegation’s most liberal member, Pingree has been (rightly) sharply critical of Trump’s political rhetoric, policy statements and Cabinet nominees. 

On Monday, she joined more than 30 other House Democrats who have announced plans to boycott the inaugural ceremonies.

Like many of her colleagues, Pingree cited Trump’s recent clash with Rep. John Lewis – a Georgia Democrat and civil rights icon – as part of her reasoning for opting out of the inauguration.

In a searing statement against Trump released Monday night, Pingree said she would normally attend an inauguration but that “these are not normal circumstances.” She then accused Trump ofputting his business interests ahead of the country’s interests, of belittling Lewis and of showing no appetite for holding Russia accountable for alleged attempts to influence the election.

“President-elect Trump’s actions go beyond any kind of reasonable debate – they threaten the constitutional values our country is based on,” Pingree said in the statement. “I won’t dignify or normalize those threats by standing by at his ceremony. Instead, I think I can better serve my district by performing acts of service here in Maine that day.”

The three other members of Maine’s congressional delegation – Republicans Sen. Susan Collins and Rep. Bruce Poliquin and independent Sen. Angus King – indicated Monday that they will attend Trump’s inauguration Friday. None of the three publicly supported Trump during the election, although most members of Congress traditionally attend the inauguration regardless of their support for the president-elect.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican who supported Trump, also plans to travel to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration.

Trump has struggled to attract A-list celebrities or organizations to participate in his inauguration, and the most recent controversies have given Democrats more opportunities to hammer the president-elect.

Lewis is regarded by many as a civil rights hero, having marched with Martin Luther King Jr. during the struggle against segregation and discrimination in the South during the 1960s. He was severely beaten by police – still bearing the scars – and jailed, and has been a prominent voice for black Americans in Congress for several decades.

Lewis had (rightly!) questioned the legitimacy of Trump’s presidency because of intelligence reports that Russia tried to interfere with the election. In response, Trump tweeted that Lewis was “All talk, talk, talk – no action or results” and suggested the Georgia Democrat should focus his attention on fixing his district’s economic situation and crime.

Those comments unleashed a wave of criticism from Democrats and civil rights leaders.

“Donald Trump has proven that his administration will normalize the most extreme fringes of the Republican Party,” Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said in a statement announcing her boycott of the inauguration. “On Inauguration Day, I will not be celebrating. I will be organizing and preparing for resistance.”

“The rhetoric + actions of @realDonaldTrump have been so far beyond the pale. I cannot in good conscience participate in this inauguration,” tweeted Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.

Pingree called Lewis a friend and one of the kindest men in Congress. She also credited Lewis with demonstrating how to “get in the way” and create “necessary trouble” to bring about critical change.

The Maine Democrat, who was elected to her fifth term last November, said she plans to attend the Women’s March on Washington on Saturday “before returning to Congress to serve the interests of my constituents during the presidency of Donald Trump.”

Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard contributed to this report.

Rightly, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree's boycott will represent all of us in Maine who support her decision, even the thousands who live outside of her District. Thank you!

Governor Paul LePage receives more national negativity

Maine's Governor Paul LePage sadly continues to bring more negative attention to the beautiful state of Maine.

Washington Post calls for ‘unhinged’ Gov. Paul LePage to resign

Governor Paul LePage continues to bring negative publicity to the beautiful state of Maine

The newspaper says in an editorial that the governor's three-ring binder of drug suspects arrested in Maine has exposed his ‘three-ring circus of unhinged racism and unhinged ravings.’

The Washington Post published an editorial Tuesday night that calls on Maine Gov. Paul LePage to resign because of racially charged statements including his assertion that 90 percent of the people arrested in Maine on heroin dealing charges are black or Hispanic.

Noting the Portland Press Herald’s report Monday that the governor’s own compilation of suspects in a three-ring binder shows that only 40 percent are black or Hispanic, the Post said, “Facts are inconvenient for Mr. LePage, who now appears to have been undone by them.”

The Post's View
Maine’s governor is completely unhinged
Neither LePage nor his staff has explained why it’s important to identify the race of a drug dealer.  In fact, The Post said in its editorial that, “Mr. LePage threatens to remake his state’s image from a vacation paradise of surreal natural beauty to a hotbed of hatred.”

It concludes by saying that in Maine, “Officials of both parties have called on him to resign. It’s high time he does.”

Mr. LePage, who entered office in 2011, refused to attend Martin Luther King Jr. Day events or meet with representatives of the NAACP as one of his first missteps in office. Unfortunately, Governor LePage has a long history of racial animus, and this year 2016, he has outdone himself. In January, he attributed Maine’s opioid epidemic to “guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty [who] come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home [and] half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave.”

Challenged on that assertion last month, Mr. LePage, whom few in Maine regard as the sharpest mind in state politics, dug himself a deeper hole: “Ninety-plus percent of those pictures in my book, and it’s a three-ring binder, are black and Hispanic people.” 

And the next day: “Black people come up the highway and they kill Mainers.”

Facts are inconvenient for Mr. LePage, who now appears to have been undone by them. A few weeks after his “90 percent-plus” assertion, Maine’s Portland Press Herald published FBI statistics showing that the overwhelming majority of those arrested in Maine for drug offenses in 2014 were white; just 14 percent were black.

Maine: Becoming a Magnet for the "Anti" Chris Christie Candidate

Maine folklore includes a "Bert and I" story about a doctor who's called to the rural home of a woman delivering a baby in the middle of the night.  As the doctor is about to deliver the baby, he asks the father to hold up the gas lantern, so he can see better.  So, the father puts the lamp close to the point of the delivery.  But, then the doctor says, "Oh my! I see twins coming". So, the father puts the lamp even closer, for the doctor to benefit from more light. Soon, though, the doctor tells the father to put the lamp out.  "Take that light away," says the doctor, "the light's drawin' em!"

So, it seems, Maine's Governor Paul LePage is bringing the spotlight of national media attention to Maine.  Instead of helping the state to grow, however, his "light" is drawing negative publicity.

It's time to remove that spotlight from Governor LePage.  He's drawin' too much negative publicity.   

Governor Paul LePage promotes Maine's slogan to be "open for business". But, our Governor's unpredictable behavior is certainly opening the state up to unnecessary ridicule. Even the Washington Post is hearing the cacophony of misstatements, outrageous statements, racist statements and just plain objectionable statements flowing from Governor Lepage's lexicon of what not to say in public.

Add the Washington Post article to the op-ed by Portland Press Herald columnist Bill Nemitz:  Posted:Today
Bill Nemitz: Republican knives out for LePageBy Bill Nemitz bnemitz@mainetoday.com
Dear Governor LePage, Hear that sound?

Now I admit I'm not exactly a member of Maine's Republican inner circle – assuming such a thing still exists. In fact, I was halfway around the world last week, attending my son's wedding reception in South Korea, when I read the news – on the New York Times website, no less – of your latest bout of foot-in-mouth disease.

President Obama hates white people. I've got to hand it to you, Big Guy, when it comes to this year's nominations for the Right-Wing Crazy Talk Hall of Fame, it's a dead heat right now between you and that ex-cop in Sabattus who called for shooting the president (actually, he used a racial slur) because he thinks Obama wants to take away his wife's Social Security spousal benefits.

Back to your latest gaffe, which I understand you made at a private fundraiser in Belgrade attended by more than a few pillars of Maine's Republican establishment.

First came the two lawmakers who confirmed, anonymously, to the Press Herald that you made the crack about Obama and white people.  Then came your claim that you never said it and that we media folks "are all about gossip."

Then, when that didn't work, came your usual non-apologetic apology to your fellow Republicans "for any difficulty that remarks recently reported in the press may have caused you."

I love the way you do that: The problem isn't that you made the remarks, but rather that the media reported them and your Republican friends had "difficulty" digesting them. I swear, if you were caught robbing a bank, you'd blame it on the unmarked bills "that recently found their way into my brown paper bag."

Anyway, I'm hearing that your mea culpa, or whatever it was, hasn't gone over too well in Republican land.

The Washington Post adds to the accumulating noise around Govneror LePage's statements.

In Maine, ‘thunder’ from Gov. LePage’s mouth brings rain on reelection prospects- from the August 29, Washington Post by Jason Horowitz

AUGUSTA, Maine — On paper, Paul LePage’s résumé reads like the answer to Republican prayers. A son of laborers, LePage learned English as a second language and fled an abusive father and a family of 17 brothers and sisters. He wound up living on the streets as a child. He worked his way through school with manufacturing jobs and became a self-made businessman, small-town mayor, a husband, father and fiscally conservative governor.

The catch is that he speaks. And when he does, bad things often happen. Earlier this month, he allegedly told a group of Republicans that President Obama “hates white people,” once again putting picturesque Maine in an unflattering spotlight.

“Words to me are like thunder. They make a lot of noise, but they don’t accomplish anything,” LePage said Thursday. “And that’s how I feel. And if that takes me down, it takes me down.”

Unlike Chris Christie, another rotund Republican governor from the Northeast with a reputation for a sharp tongue and short temper, LePage has suffered for his straight talk, with his reelection chances and national standing falling. Democratic and independent challengers — and even Republicans seeking a primary challenger — sense his vulnerability in the 2014 race. This week, an early poll showed LePage behind his likely Democratic opponent.

The 64-year-old descendant of French Canadians sported frameless glasses and a blue shirt and pink tie during an interview in his airy office, where busts of Ronald Reagan and a giant eraser marked “For Big Mistakes” adorned his desk. He said that if the electorate is “concerned with words over actions, I may not run.”

There’s plenty that opponents can seize on to stoke the electorate’s concerns.

In 2011, LePage told members of the NAACP to “kiss my butt.” He called lawmakers “idiots,” compared the Internal Revenue Service to the Gestapo, and ordered that a mural celebrating workers be peeled off a wall of the state’s Labor Department because it didn’t champion entrepreneurs. In June, he verbally shredded state Sen. Troy Jackson — a Democratic congressional candidate and frequent LePage antagonist — for Jackson’s effort to cut Le­Page’s pension. “Senator Jackson claims to be for the people, but he’s the first one to give it to the people of Maine without providing Vaseline,” the governor said at the time.

Jackson, who roamed the statehouse during a special session on Thursday, complained that Le­Page was “erratic and makes unbelievably insensitive comments all the time.” But the governor didn’t seem entirely repentant.

“When you come from the streets — okay? — you develop sort of a mechanism inside of you, which is to protect what’s yours,” LePage said. “What he didn’t realize is that I take care of my sick mother-in-law and a wife. And when he made that attack [on my pension], that was against them. You can do anything to me, but don’t touch my family.”

But it is August that has proved the most thunderous month. A few weeks ago, LePage sat in a F-35 cockpit simulator for a photo op. “The demonstrator says to me, ‘Governor, what do you want to blow up this morning?’ And I said, ‘How about the [Portland] Press Herald.’ Next thing you know, they call the FBI!”

And on Aug. 12, LePage addressed about 60 Republican supporters at a fundraiser in Belgrade, a town north of Augusta. According to a report in the Press Herald, which cited anonymous sources, LePage told attendees that Obama could have been the best president ever if he had highlighted his biracial heritage, but that didn’t happen because he “hates white people.”

“I did not say it, not in the context in which it was reported,” said LePage, who has helped raise a Jamaican-born child as his own. “I never said hate.” He said that he simply stated that the president, being half black and half white, had a unique opportunity to bring people together. “But I said, ‘I guess he doesn’t like me’ ” — a gibe, he said, that they turned into, “Oh, he hates white people.”

The larger problem, he said, is the press, and specifically the (Portland) Press Herald, which, like several other Maine outlets, is “essentially owned by a congress lady of the opposing party.” The papers are owned by Donald Sussman, a billionaire hedge fund manager who is married to Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat.

“That’s his way of deflection,” Pingree said. “And to me, it was sort of like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ ” She said that the reporters at the Press Herald would “be insulted” if people thought she gave them marching orders and that “my husband doesn’t influence the newspaper. He just happens to own it.”

Whether it is LePage’s political clumsiness or, as he would have it, press bias, the result is that his biography is eclipsed on the national stage by his inclination toward invective. He grew up in the part of the state called Little Canada, to parents who spoke nary a word of English. LePage was the oldest of 18 children in a troubled family (“some of my brothers have been guests of the state”). His father beat him so badly that he left home at 11.

“You live in cellars, hallways, brothels, wherever it’s warm in the winter, under the stars in the summer,” he said. “I’ve had to eat cat food to survive.” He was taken in for a time as a teenager by the family of the husband of former Republican senator Olympia Snowe and got his life on track. “If you ever saw the movie ‘The Blind Side,’ you’re looking at him,” Le­Page said, referring to the story of a talented but wayward young future NFL player taken in by a wealthy family.

LePage became a successful businessman and turnaround consultant for Maine businesses, including one that he said is “now one of the major manufacturers of drumsticks and world-class pepper mills for some of the best chefs in the world.” He became mayor of Waterville in 2003 and then benefited from tea party support and a three-way race to win the governorship in 2010.

Now, with reelection in doubt, he is trying his best to make something positive out of all the negative coverage. “Frankly, sometimes the distractions that the press creates allow me to do the work that I need to do,” he said. “So there’s a plus side. I get cover. The sad thing is it is going to hurt during the reelection because the opposition is going to make me look like a bad guy.”

On Wednesday afternoon, the leading candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, Mike Michaud, stood facing fog-shrouded Casco Bay as he waited for a ferry to Peaks Island for a meeting at an American Legion Post and a lobster bake fund­raiser.

A six-term congressman and the ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee who previously served as the president of the Maine Senate, Michaud speaks haltingly, adding to the 58-year-old’s unassuming aura. Michaud, who was born into a Franco-American family, went from high school to “the college of hard knocks,” punching a clock in the Great Northern Paper mills — a life story that cuts into some of LePage’s tough-guy appeal. Le­Page’s associates describe Michaud as a lifelong politician and an empty suit, but he is leading in the most recent polls.

On the ferry, Michaud wore a checked Brooks Brothers shirt, khakis and customized New Balance sneakers (made in Maine) that read “Michaud 2014” on the back. He described LePage as a loose cannon who “doesn’t set Maine in a good light around the country — quite frankly, around the world.”

When Michaud walked into the American Legion, which housed an old Newport cigarette machine and tarp-covered pool table, he asked Paul Landry, a 79-year-old vet at the end of the bar, how he had been.

“Things will be better when we have a new governor,” Landry said.

In an interview, Michaud conceded that “definitely it would be easier” to have a head-to-head contest with LePage rather than a three-way race that includes Eliot Cutler, an independent. “Eliot’s going to have to come to his own conclusions, what he is going to do or not do. 2014 is a different election than 2010,” he said.

Cutler, 67, lost by less than two percentage points to LePage in 2010. He sees an opening and a chance at redemption through an independent, ideas-based candidacy. Of starkly different pedigree from the other two would-be governors — Harvard/Georgetown Law/aide to the late Sen. Edmund Muskie/official in the Carter administration — the Bangor-born environmental lawyer bristles at the notion that he could be the spoiler.

“Mike Michaud would beat Paul LePage. Eliot Cutler would beat Paul LePage,” he said, adding that three-way races are common in Maine and that the real choice for the next governor is probably “between Cutler and Michaud.”

Win or lose, one thing seems for sure for Paul LePage: He will not challenge Christie as the Republican Party’s tough-talking standard-bearer. And that’s apparently fine by him.

“I don’t want to be a star,” Le­Page said, exasperated. “I’m just not interested in the limelight. I just want to do a good job and see my kids stay in Maine, earn a living in Maine, raise their family in Maine so I don’t have to travel to see my grandkids.”

From my experience:  Governor LePage supporters often say they appreciate a plain spoken leader. Unfortunately, being plain spoken doesn't excuse the mispoken comments that offend the office of the Governor and Maine people.  

Moreover, Governor LePage is not the "ying" of Governor Chris Christie's "yang", or visa versa.  Although Governor Christie is often plain spoken, his self deprecating behavior softens his cutting delivery.  If Governor LePage is being compared to Governor Christie, then he should find somebody to teach him how to be plain spoken without painfully speaking.

Governor Lepage must quickly change his rough and plain speaking style before the unintended consequence results in Maine people closing down on his entire agenda and administration.

It's time to remove that spotlight from Governor LePage.  He's drawin' too much negative publicity.