Snowe Abdicates Responsibility Once Again

Senator Olympia Snowe has been getting some summer back-in-the-home-state press about her head-shaking angst about the toxic partisanship in Congress. A recent Huffington Post piece mentions a summertime photo-op walk through Saco:

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) talked to people in Saco, Maine about the debt ceiling negotiations Wednesday, and lamented the extreme partisanship that characterized the debate this summer.

“I’m embarrassed by all of us,’’ Snow said, according to the Associated Press. “I’ve never seen a worse Congress in my whole political life.’’

In another piece published last Saturday in the Kennebec Journal, Senator Snowe goes on with more “poor-me-us” lamenting:

"Unfortunately, everything is concentrated in political messaging, and the art of governing and legislating has been virtually lost," she said.

and

"Everybody is trying to orchestrate their political positions to score political points," she said.

"And you would have thought in the aftermath of the election that we would have begun a new session with a different tone, laying the basis and the groundwork for rebuilding the economy and concentrating on jobs."

and further

"There are fewer and fewer senators who represent a broad, diverse political constituency anymore," Snowe said. "You either represent a red state as a Republican or a blue state as a Democrat."

She said the national electorate appears divided as well, viewing events through either "MSNBC or the FOX News prism."

"It's either-or," she said.

Snowe, a moderate, has enjoyed support from Maine Democrats and independents.

The miraculous moderate myth lives on despite the fact that she has acted in near absolute lock step with the Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican minority throughout her term to extend filibusters and cast negative cloture votes time after time to block legislation and to kill bills that would have passed with an absolute majority.

On unavoidable extreme high profile issues, on a very minuscule number of occasions, Senator Snowe plays the moderate in front of the press such as voting to move health care reform out of committee after badly diluting it and then when the rubber hits the road voting against it. For this investment of a bit of non-productive time and posturing in the spotlight, the moderate franchise gets built back home.

Maine voters want to believe that they send moderate independent minded Senators to Washington but in truth have party-line operatives who contribute to the very gridlock and partisanship that Senator Snowe laments. She and Senator Collins simply play the game differently to build their mythical moderate fable while being part and parcel of the misrule and misrepresentation by a super-minority, line-in-the-sand, and stalemate supplying cabal of the very partisanship gridlock they bemoan for Maine digestion.

Senator Snowe has been in Congress for over three decades and appears to now be apparently seeking a fourth term in the Senate. Her complete abdication of responsibility for the Senate atmosphere based on her lengthy career begs the questions:

- What is she doing about this other than complaining and not taking any responsibility?
- Why isn’t she independently leading with her three decades of experience in Congress?
- How can Maine voters continue to accept such an ineffective lack of leadership?
- Where is her “moderation” really and has it helped Maine at all?
- What will we get out of her serving in the next six critical years?

It is time for Senator Snowe to go. She is totally ineffective, contributes greatly to legislative gridlock, has shown next to nothing in the way of independence when it counts, hoodwinks us with her moderate myth, and now laments, complains, throws her political hands in the air, and does not take any responsibility at all for her lockstep partisanship with Senator McConnell and the GOP minority strangling the United States Senate.

Democratic Destination: January 23rd Departure

On Sunday, January 23rd the Democratic Party in Maine will elect a new chairperson and its officers. All of us have a critical stake in this election.

The past general election not only reduced our public officeholders but it placed a hold on our agenda of progress and there now exists the most determined effort to roll back advancements made on behalf of Maine workers, our environment, and health care. To combat this effort we must prevail in the next general election within this state. We need to win back the Maine House and Senate. We must force Paul LePage to take up his veto pen, which may lie dormant in these next two years, and we must be poised to override his objections. These are enormous but vital goals.

We must have strong candidates and a strong party.

The election of our chair is a significant start along the comeback path. The individual elected can represent our party externally with a resonating message, wisely deploy resources toward building a 2012 victory, attract new members, inspire current members, and focus everyone’s efforts and attention toward truly representing the interests of Maine citizens.

We cannot afford a chairperson without a clear vision or one who is easily bogged down with internal squabbling, excuse creating, factional power plays, narrow allegiances, or personal detractions. The chairperson can be paid a salary and at present, the chairperson wields enormous influence over selecting the party’s paid Executive Director. In effect, the State Committee is hiring the party’s CEO.

You can influence this selection. You must.

The chairperson is elected by the Maine Democratic Party Committee. As a start one should identify who they know or have heard of or simply ought to be called or represents their county on the State Committee. Find those members here.

Advocacy of your aspirations for our party’s future is vital. Communicating our interests and creating awareness of our scrutiny with this election can help empower a good result. And if you encounter silence and stones, think about going to your next county committee to discuss and perhaps act upon your expectations.

Candidates for chairperson are listed here. More candidates will be announced and some may be nominated from the floor on January 23rd. Be sure to seek out these individuals messages about their candidacies and find out as much as possible about what inspires them to seek this position, how they plan to fill the role, and what they will do to accomplish the many significantly challenging tasks ahead.

You can get an advance look at candidates in forums that are beginning to happen around the state. Contact your county committee and/or local committee to see if it plans to hold a forum for party chair candidates and be sure to suggest one if such an offering is not occurring in your area or at reasonable driving distance.

Kennebec and Sagadahoc Counties are jointly supporting a forum; open to all democrats, for Maine Democratic State Party Committee Chairperson candidates on January 8th at 1:00 pm with a snow date of January 15th at 1:00 pm. It will be held at the Kennebec County Government Center at 125 State Street, in Augusta, Maine.

This will present an excellent opportunity to hear candidate remarks, questions poised by the county committees to all candidates, and your questions from the floor. All serious candidates should be in attendance. All serious democrats are invited and welcomed to attend and participate.

The election of a new chairperson on January 23rd is our next important destination. It can signify a new beginning, a strategic departure toward a future destiny.

Please feel free to email, post, and pass along this article in full or part anyplace it will encourage interest and participation.

Senator Snowe, Get It Right Again!

Why Maine's so called moderate Republican Senator Olympia Snowe thinks we can wait years for good health care is beyond me. But the story just gets worse.

Last Saturday, in front of many hundreds of demonstrators in Portland's Monument Square, Olympia Snowe's position on health care was clearly outlined by her representative, Cheryl Lehman: full support for the public option from day one. Period.

Good news, right? But what Snowe giveth, she taketh away. After the jubilation at the senator's finally taking the same position as the majority of her constituents, she now says that isn't her position at all, that she still wants to give insurance companies lots and lots of time to prove they can do a better job after all--while still maintaining record breaking profits. Huh?

Look and listen for yourself. While many websites have, at the Senator's request, removed video of Saturday's statement, Daily Kos has not. Listen...no trigger here, just the public option Mainers are asking for. And more....take a look at why Senator Snowe might just feel that her constituents' voices are not the loudest ones she hears.

Senator Snowe, you got it right in Portland. You owe this one to Maine.

Morning Surprise from the KJ

While the blogosphere has been well aware of the smear campaign launched by the so-called Maine Christian Civic League against both the chair and the vice-chair of the Kennebec County Dems, it hasn't yet hit the newspapers...until today.

Imagine my surprise when I checked the Kennebec Journal's Letters to the Editor and found this one:

Kennebec County Democratic party chairwoman Rita Moran is one heck of a woman. As a Maine pagan myself, I've been acquainted with her for years now and have always found her to be incredibly warm, intelligent and devoted to the service of others. The Maine Democratic Party is very lucky, and smart, to have placed her in a leadership role.

Michael Heath and the Christian Civic League do not share my opinion. Lately, Heath and his organization seem to be involved in a smear campaign against Moran and the Maine pagan community. Pagans have been featured more and more often on their hate-mongering Web site. It's more of the same vitriol and blatant misrepresentation that the League is so famous for spouting against the gay and lesbian community.

I was raised Baptist. I've read the Bible several times. I'm not sure Michael Heath has. He is one of the least Christ-like people I've ever had the good fortune not to meet face to face. From what I remember, Christ suffered so that others might live. He seems to live to make others suffer.

L D (didn't want to use name without permission)
Hallowell

I honestly can't say whether I'm happy about this, or not. I guess I have felt that, if my "outing" were limited to the lefty blogs both the Kennebec Dems and our bookstore would be safer.

As blog readers know, my concern has always been that being "outed" would have a negative affect on the Kennebec Dems (why don't those people smarten up and get rid of that Pagan woman!?!?), or on the business that puts food on our table, Apple Valley Books in Winthrop.

Sure, every once in a while customers come in to say "Oh hey, are you really the same Rita Moran we've been reading about?" as though I were some sort of celebrity instead of just a hard-working business person who stepped up to run the county organization when a new hand was needed. But lefty blogs are read by folks whose support I could count on (and thanks to all who donated through our county committee's Act Blue site to the very sweet tune of over $800 so far). The local paper is not.

So here we go again, folks. Wish me luck! Better yet, send help.

Learn To Take "NO!" For An Answer!

The Maine Heritage Policy Center is preparing to revise the so-called Taxpayers' Bill of Rights, their usual Republican wedge issue in recent elections. Bill of Rights, indeed. It's an overly-complex, one-size-fits-all set of rules imposed on our towns that will reduce local services without any guarantee of actually reducing local taxes.

As before, this attempt to substitute state fiat for for local control will be financed from away, and will originate from an organization which claims to be

a 501 (c)3 non-profit, non-partisan, independent public policy think-tank

Let's see how true that claim is.

Their home page invites us to have lunch with Jeb Bush. OK, wanna know how to have your picture taken with Jeb? Follow the handy link and start putting your pennies together, 'cause it's $100 for the photo op. Guess I'll have to find something else to cover our dart board with.

Wanna actually get to talk to Jeb? No problem, you can have coffee with the guy for only a thousand bucks. Who are they kidding? Access to the guy who's not running for pres, and we gotta pay a grand? This guy is really raising the bucks to reduce the local control Mainers hold so dear.

So, more on the nonpartisan nature of this group:

President Bill Becker was the finance director with the Republican Cianchette for Governor campaign and a fundraiser at the Republican National Senatorial Committee.

The Center's vice president and economist, J Scott Moody, is also associated with the national Heritage Foundation. This is a prime conservative group which, when it's not telling us how dangerous liberals are, is relieving us of our misconceptions about Gitmo Bay:

Misconception #1: The U.S. must either put Guantanamo Bay detainees on trial or release them.

Misconception #2: The Guantanamo Bay detainees received inadequate due process when they were designated enemy combatants.

Misconception #3: The Guantanamo Bay detainees are entitled to habeas corpus relief.

Conclusion
While U.S. troops are deployed in the field in Afghanistan and Iraq, Congress should focus its efforts on strengthening their ability to succeed. Congress should not hamper our troops' efforts with shortsighted legislation extending unprecedented rights to foreign terrorists and other enemy combatants. Rewarding or releasing captured Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters is not any way for legislators on the home front to support U.S. troops fighting abroad.

And this is the guy directing the economic policies being foisted on the Maine voters....again!

Tarren R. Bragdon is in charge of health care initiatives. He's a Republican, formerly in the Maine legislature, and was special assistant to the President of the Maine Senate, Republican Senator Richard Bennett.

Jason Fortin, their director of communications, served in the same capacity for the Republican House Caucus.

Oh, and in case you missed it, the Jeb Bush event sponsored by the supposedly non-partisan Maine Heritage Policy Center is listed as an upcoming Maine GOP event...check it out!

So this bunch of Republicans in disguise is going to tell us how Maine Democratic governor, and Democrat-controlled legislature is spending too much money. We don't really need those libraries; there's only book anyone ought to be reading, and you can get a free copy in any motel room. We don't need good schools; let's teach our kids at home. Feeding the hungry, taking care of the sick....we don't need that either. Oh wait....do I remember hearing that somewhere that those were actually good things?

Bill Becker and the rest of you at the so-called nonpartisan Maine Heritage Policy Center, here's my message to you: be honest about who you really are and about your clearly partisan agenda, and learn to take "no" for an answer.

Is Homophobia Really a Christian Value?

If you take a gander at Michael Heath's blog entry, you'll find links to some interesting homophobic websites.

MassResistance appears to be run by folks who will never forgive Republican Mitt Romney for somehow destroying all marriages in Massachusetts by allowing gays to wed.

Imagine those dykes thinking they should be treated like real people!

Of course there were objections and lots of protesters. I wonder if the Dignity people remember why they got married in the first place. Quick, get my walker, I think I see my wife coming! Or is that my girlfriend? Quick, get my glasses too!

Give it up, folks, you lost in Massachusetts, and you'll lose elsewhere as well. Find another wedge issue, as long as it isn't Harry Potter.

If you're looking for something a bit more, well, contemporary, try Americans for Truth (or what passes for truth in the homophobic would-be Christian community at any rate). Here you snowbirds will find a link to extensive sex cruising locations in Florida, including the toilet in the Fort Lauderdale Home Depot. Do they use orange condoms? Hand tools? Will we ever go into the Augusta HD without wondering what's happening in their bathrooms? Forget it, folks, stick to Aubuchon's!

So I guess we should thank Michael Heath and the would-be Christian Civic League for this travel guide and other useful information. Have fun exploring these sites, then let me know if you can figure out why Michael Heath and company are offering a links to a list of gay cruising locations on their website. We can be thankful they didn't post any vacation pictures.

Thank You, Susan!

After months (years?) of pretending to understand how her constituents feel about the Iraq War, Susan Collins (seen here telling us how well Homeland Security handled things in New Orleans) has finally taken a public stand supporting the patriarchy of King George rather than the Mainers who elected her.

This is, of course, the best possible news for Democrats. I'd loved to have been at Tom Allen's campaign headquarters yesterday when Collins' statement was announced. I heard it on Maine Public Radio (where else?), on my way into Augusta to mail some "begging letters" for a fundraising efforts, and cheered.

Sitting on the fence, talking the moderate line and voting the party line, is something both of Maine's Senators have become experts at. Collins' admission that she intends to vote to continue this bloody war is a clear departure from her usual MO, and I hope it will be just one more thing that will bury her under a landslide of Tom Allen votes next year.

Blog Wars...the movie

Just got a chance to see the Sundance Channel movie Blog Wars. OK, so I'm six months behind my TIVO...chalk it up to having to get to too many meetings!

Anyway, I loved the Lamont stuff, even knowing that he ended up losing the general election. As a county committee chair, I was encouraged by how the bloggers worked together to support a candidate they believed in.

Too many "political insiders" think bloggers just talk a good game, but don't actually do anything beyond doing a bit of research, and writing controversial blog postings. Not so! It's time bloggers took their rightful place in the political arena, and got the respect they deserve from the "mainstream" political parties.

How to do that? It's easy...just do what we saw the national-level bloggers do on Blog Wars: show up at meetings, make phone calls, and help out doing what else is needed. The reality is that political groups are all pretty small ponds, and becoming indispensable is the key to getting the biggest lily pad.

The world is run by those who show up. If you truly believe our political parties need to change direction, grab hold of the steering wheel.

Perjury, What Perjury?

Yesterday, despite the overwhelming opposition of the American people (3 to 1 against, according to recent polls), George Bush decided that Scooter Libby will not serve a day of jail time.

Does this president care what the people (including the Republican base) believe is right and just? Clearly not. His actions, from signing statements to warrantless wiretapping, prove he believes he's above the law. And now he's proved he puts his hired staff above the law as well.

Commuting Libby's sentence is a violation of the Justice Department's policies, as well as a slap in the face of the American people on this week in which we celebrate the founding of this nation in justice and freedom.

OK...so I'm preaching to the choir. You've already called your Senators and Congressmen to tell them you're not happy with this. You've already gotten dozens of e-mails from others who share your core values. Why am I telling you this?

Here's why: as others have said before me, all politics is local politics, and I need your help to keep Kennebec County blue. Between now and the 2008 election we will need your time and your money if we are to run an effective campaign, both on the federal and on the state, county, an local levels (and believe me, it all matters).

If you are outraged, as I am, and want to join in our efforts, go to our website, and follow the links to donate or volunteer.