Republican Gov. Paul LePage is a remarkably consistent guy. LePage doesn’t just do stupid things in public. He can be just as big an idiot in private.
Unfortunately for LePage, his tendency to insult people behind the scenes could have greater consequences for his fledgling administration than all the headlines he generates by suggesting the NAACP kiss his butt or President Obama go to hell.
The reason is simple. There aren’t a whole lot of LePage supporters among the ranks of the NAACP or in the president’s cheering section. Those folks may be offended, but they weren’t going to support the governor, anyway, even if he offers to reverse things and kiss their butts.
It’s not a matter of politeness. It’s about politics.
Which is also the main point of contention with the enemies LePage is making outside the spotlight, at least one of whom might prove to be vital to his political future.
That person is Charlie Webster, the chairman of the Maine Republican Party and the architect of the GOP’s stunning victories in last year’s legislative races.
On the face of it, Webster and LePage appear to be a perfect match of blunt-talking, working-class overachievers. The platforms they’ve campaigned on over the years have been nearly identical: fiscal restraint, lower taxes, less red tape. LePage should be grateful that Webster’s expertise at the grassroots level supplied him with majorities in both the state House and Senate. Webster should be overjoyed that LePage’s Blaine House win will allow all those legislators he got elected to actually accomplish something.
Best friends forever?
Not exactly.
As with so many seemingly ideal computer-dating matches that turn out to be blind dates from hell, there are a couple of little problems. And they aren’t as simple as one potential partner wants to raise the kids as Catholics, and the other wants them brought up as Satanists. The LePage-Webster conflict revolves around two of most potent words in politics:
Power.
And ego.
According to knowledgeable sources, the dispute began shortly after LePage’s election. The governor-to-be was attempting to solidify his base within the Republican Party, so he told Webster he wanted to fill one or more vacancies (accounts vary) in the state committee hierarchy with a few of his friends. Webster, sensing that LePage was installing spies to keep an eye on him, politely declined the offer, saying he had his own choices for the openings.
It’s not known if LePage then suggested that Webster place his lips upon the gubernatorial posterior, but whatever was said created the sort of chill in relations the governor normally experiences from environmental activists and public-radio reporters. When Webster visited the State House recently, planning to discuss how the LePage administration and the party apparatus could present a unified message, he discovered nobody of consequence was available to meet with him.
According to an observer with sympathies for both sides, “Charlie was walking down the hall and saw Dan Demeritt [the governor’s communications director], and Demeritt wouldn’t even acknowledge his presence.”
Asked about the squabble, Demeritt was uncharacteristically uncommunicative.
“I’m not going to have anything for you on the Webster matter other than to say the Governor respects Charlie and what he accomplished this cycle,” he wrote in an e-mail. “He has many strengths as an organizer and campaigner. We’re going to keep working at working together.”
Subtly put.
Well, more subtle than telling me to go to hell.
All this squabbling would be of little importance if Webster and LePage were secure in their positions. But the GOP’s total control of state government is built on a shaky foundation.
In 2012, Republicans will have to defend their legislative majorities, which depend on holding a lot of seats – particularly in the Maine House – in nominally Democratic districts. These are places where LePage has little popular appeal, but where Webster had groomed candidates who reached out to independents and swing voters frustrated with Dem economic policies and other ineptitude.
Those folks wanted change, although there’s no guarantee they’ll be happy with the kinds of change LePage is planning. If the governor’s policies prove unpopular, Republicans stand to lose a dozen or more House seats and their majority. Webster will have to work his campaign magic again next year to make sure that doesn’t happen.
No matter how miffed the party chairman is at the governor, he’s unlikely to sabotage any legislative candidates just to get even. But if Webster’s differences with LePage cause him to be less inspired, less committed, less of a take-no-prisoners, kamikaze commando than he was in 2010, the GOP will likely notice the difference in the vote tallies.
LePage needs Webster a lot more than vice versa. If the governor is smart, he’ll fix this problem quickly by kissing and making up.
And no, not on the butt.
Tell me to kiss off by e-mailing aldiamon@herniahill.net.
A pretty good column.
So….what ever happened to the alleged death threat against Mr. Webster. Was this simply conjured up in order to make Democrats look as violently zealous as some republican supporters?
Always good columns. He speaks the truth and doesn’t mince words. Facts are always accurate.
Facts? This editorial is sprinkled with copious amounts of conjecture, hear-say, and assumptions. I believe Mr. Diamon is interested in the role of entertainer, not political insider. If that’s true, I will at least say he is succeeding.
I know you would like to see a big fued Al, but I dont think its there.Good luck hoping for one though.
I knew there was something satanical about those cresent moon black shutters. Glad Al clarified all this for me.
Wow, we have a Haszko sighting, welcome back, i have been worried about you since the elections.
Hutch Cant blame Hazsco for not swimming up to the surface much. He gets hammered in a special election a ways back, and his whole party got the living bejeezus slapped out of them last November. Kinda makes a guy want keep his head down. If LePage follows through on the things he said he would, it could be a really rough 8 years.