Maine Independent Senate Candidate Angus King Brings Unprecedented Level of Craven Self Interest into Senate Contest

Tops Even Ct. Senator Joe Lieberman in Working for Only His Own Ego-maniacal Agenda.

The state of Maine will have a Senate race this fall in which neither the Democrat nor the Republican will be favored to win.  Instead the leader in the polls, and the person expected to win is former Gov. Angus King, who is running as an independent.  Mr. King has said that he has not yet determined if he will caucus with the Democrats or the Republicans if he were to win.  For some reason this stance seems to be drawing praise.  Here is the otherwise relatively rational Frum Forum.

Angus King - Soon to be the Most Un-Principled Member
of the Senate

If I ever ran for national office, I would focus like a laser on rooting out the causes of political paralysis and actually try to make government function. So it's encouraging to see Angus King, a popular former governor of Maine running for Olympia Snowe's Senate seat, planning to do exactly that:

Uh, no, what is going on here is that Mr. King is withholding his decision on whether or not to be a Democrat or Republican until he sees which side will do the most for him.  No principled persons, or even partly principled persons can say that they are indifferent between the positions of the Democratic party and the positions of the Republican party.

The positions of the two parties are simply too far apart to bridge any gap.  One can be a Democrat, one can be a Republican, one can even be an independent.  But one cannot say that the decision to be a Democrat or Republican is dependent upon future circumstance.  But that is exactly what Mr. King is saying.

Mr. King has already said that in part his decision will be made on how hard the parties go after him in the election, meaning that he is more likely to caucus with the party that is ‘nice’ to him.  What rubbish. What he is really hoping for is a Senate that is divided 49 to 50 and that his vote will be deciding.  Notice it doesn't matter which party of has the 50 and which has the 49, when you have no principles that sort of thing becomes irrelevant.

It is clear that Angus King has closely observed Joe Lieberman, and seen how Mr. Lieberman has been able to betray almost every principle he ever had in order to play off the Republicans and Democrats for the glory, and solely for the glory of Joe Lieberman.  It was with great joy that everyone greeted the decision by Mr. Lieberman to leave the Senate.  It is now with great misery that we all learn his replacement is waiting in the wings. 

What did the United States ever do to deserve this?