If there’s a Hall of Fame for Bad Excuses, here are six worthy nominees.
A half-dozen Republican legislators switched their votes last month, thereby killing a bill to force the release of bonds funding the Land for Maine’s Future program. This put several conservation projects at risk. Informed sources say what tipped the turncoats was a statement allegedly made by former Democratic Gov. John Baldacci.
That’s the same Baldacci who created the failed Dirigo Health system.
The same Baldacci who championed the unpopular school consolidation law.
The same Baldacci who developed the unworkable jail consolidation scheme.
That’s the Baldacci even Democrats no longer pay any attention to.
Yet the GOP would have us believe this feckless, smarmy stereotype of all that is repulsive about politics maintains enough influence years after he slithered out of office to kill one of the key measures of the last legislative session.
I find it easier to believe Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s screwy arguments for ignoring constitutional limits on his ability to veto bills.
According to insiders, the six GOP representatives – Bruce Bickford of Auburn, Stacey Guerin of Glenburn, Jeffrey Pierce of Dresden, Tom Skolfield of Weld, Michael Timmons of Cumberland and Stephen Wood of Greene – flipped on a measure, which would have required the state to sell bonds for public-land purchases, because they were given this semi-coherent statement said to have been made by Baldacci:
“I think it’s about the next governor and the next administration and their abilities. You have situations occurring because you have a part time citizen legislature and you need to have a strong Executive because they’re going to be there year round but the Legislature is only there 3 or 4 or 5 months. You may have a mill closing, you may have a public safety issue, you may need to have those emergency powers instituted and I think it calls upon a governor and single Chief Executive of the state and I hate to see those powers being eroded.”
For the record, governors can’t issue bonds in emergencies. Nor can they recall bonds that have already been issued. The voters approve state borrowing, and they passed these bonds by overwhelming margins. LePage then refused to sign off on their sale, holding them hostage because he couldn’t get his way on an unrelated initiative.
The weaseling legislators deny they caved in due to Baldacci’s specious argument or because of furious arm-twisting by Republican leadership. That denial required them to concoct even more ridiculous excuses for not sticking with what they originally supported.
Skolfield said he didn’t realize the legislation affected all bonds and not just those for public lands. “I should have done my homework,” he told me. “I was caught up in my emotions. I didn’t have all the information initially.”
That’s probably because the information was hidden in the plain language of the bill, language that only someone of Baldacci’s intellect could have interpreted.
At least Skolfield took some responsibility for his lack of intestinal fortitude. Timmons, under fire back home because the vote scuttled a conservation project in his district, claimed his flip-flop scarcely mattered. According to a story in the Forecaster newspaper, “Timmons countered that ‘the outcome would have been exactly the same, either way,’ regardless of how he had voted.”
His new campaign slogan: Irrelevant And Proud Of It.
Wood said he only changed his vote to side with LePage because … uh … he opposes what LePage is doing. “The governor is being an —hole about this and you can quote me on that,” the Lewiston Sun Journal quoted him as saying. “I would tell him to his face if I ever got the chance.”
Did he just call the guv a pie hole?
In spite of his willingness to compare LePage to one end of the digestive tract or the other, Wood, like his five easily coerced colleagues, yielded to the awesome authority of the Baldacci doctrine that states the power of future governors (Baldacci’s brother Joe? Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew?) shall never be curtailed – even when it’s being employed for the pettiest of purposes.
There are legislative fixes for the problems the slippery six have caused, and they’ll likely be advanced when the next session convenes in January. The bonds may eventually be issued and some of the projects salvaged. What can’t be saved is the reputations of these perfidious politicians.
Having Baldacci induct them in the Hall of Fame for Bad Excuses would be an appropriate boobie prize.
If you think I’m an —hole, email me at aldiamon@herniahill.net.
Don’t forget that there was a timber harvesting plan involved. Never discount the power and influence of the timber/paper industry. After all, It’s been the primary driver of Maine economic policy since Europeans found out it was here.