Maine Gov. LePage Has a Message for All Those Outraged Republicans Who Were Offended by So-Called Personal Attacks

Maybe You Ought to Look at Me First

Listen to any conservative Republicans and the one theme that dominates is how outraged they are over people who disagree with them, and people who occasionally put those disagreements into inappropriate personal attacks.  President Obama of course heads the list of poeple who offend them, but everyone else who is not a rabid conservative is also on that list.

In Maine though, the current highly conservative Governor has a long history of denigrating in a highly personal way those with whom he would disagree.  And in his latest fulminations he shows just what a nasty piece of work he is.

Gov. Paul LePage on Thursday said a Democratic lawmaker, Sen. Troy Jackson of Aroostook County, “claims to be for the people but he’s the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline.”

LePage also said that Jackson has a “black heart” and that he should go back in the woods and cut trees “and let someone with a brain come down here and do some good work.”

Now we are not sure exactly what the Vaseline reference refers to, and no we don’t want to speculate.  But contrast the Governor’s statements with the response from his Democratic opponents.

Jackson, a logger by trade, responded by saying that though he’s often at odds with the governor, the chief executive’s bluster doesn’t bother him.

“I don’t think I have a black heart; most people know I have a good heart,” Jackson said Thursday afternoon. “I don’t have any problem with anyone saying anything about what I stand for. He can say whatever he wants; I just think it’s inappropriate the way he said it. We can be disagreeable without making nasty comments like that.”

The people in Maine are an intelligent, generous and thoughtful group.  We assume that when they voted for the current Governor they had no idea what they were getting, and we hope that given the next opportunity they vote his sorry butt out of office.  And if they do let’s also hope that they give him some Vaseline to ease the slide.