While most Americans have quietly hoped Republicans and Democrats will come to their senses and drop their relentless party advocacy, another vision that would end partisan gridlock dances in our heads. What if half a dozen independents were elected to the Senate? What if that number grew to a dozen or 20 in a few years? What if 50 were elected to the House of Representatives? Is this a pipe dream or a real possibility?
More to the point, if it were to happen, it would undoubtedly smash apart the bloc voting that too often characterizes the big decisions made by Congress. Instead of party line votes, more concessions would be made by Democrats and Republicans to win favor with the independents. More coalitions would form around issues.
Former Gov. Angus King’s entrance into the Maine Senate race inspires such fantasies. And it’s not as crazy as it may seem. Even as just one senator, an independent of Gov. King’s intelligence, vision and personality could throw a wrench into the body’s political machinations.
Bernie Sanders, the independent, self-described democratic socialist senator from Vermont, and Joe Lieberman, the former Democratic senator from Connecticut who became an independent to save his seat are not the prototypes that a Sen. King would follow. Mr. King could, as he suggests, become “a broker for common sense.” Such deal-making would not be self-aggrandizement but a way to move the country forward.
Should he win, the former governor will be 68 when he takes the oath of office. At the end of that first term, he would be 74, and perhaps be content to retire. Such a self-imposed term limit, if he were to choose it (and, of course, if he were to win) would liberate Mr. King to act on principle.
While it’s true that Mr. King once worked for a Democratic senator from Maine, and that while governor he leaned to the left on social issues, safety net programs and the environment, these positions do not define him. His opposition to the referendum that would have banned clear-cutting in Maine illustrates his modus operandi. He could have ignored it, fought it or embraced it, but instead, Gov. King worked to created a third alternative which aimed to stop poor logging practices while also sustaining the industry.
Mr. King supported George W. Bush in the 2000 election. And he rankled Democrats in the Legislature by leading efforts to downsize state worker numbers. Mr. King also has extensive business experience that should win him some support from Republicans.
As governor, Mr. King was very much of his time — for most of his eight years in office, from 1995-2003, the economy boomed. He built a rainy day fund, but also expanded MaineCare eligibility.
With which party would he most often vote as senator? Probably the Democrats. But Sens. Lieberman and Sanders have not been shy about blasting Democrats on certain issues, and Mr. King would be likely to join that chorus.
While governor and attending the national governors conference in Washington D.C., Mr. King recounted how he would “caucus” at the Red Lobster with independent Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura while Democrats and Republicans withdrew to their separate meetings. The two governors and their wives enjoyed dinner while the others plotted political strategy. We could do worse than send a senator with those priorities to Washington D.C.
Anyone who supported G.W. Bush does not have good judgment and is in fact a Republican. How is another rich old white guy going to do anything different in Washington than all the other rich old white guys?
Actions speak louder than words. King’s record as governor belies the assertion that he is an independent.
Love the bias. BDN is trying to push the progressive to the right.
They mention that King endorsed GW Bush in 2000, but fail to tell the reader that he endorsed Kerry in 2004 and Obama in 2008. ALSO, he is an active and recent contributor to the Obama re-election campaign. Democrat in Independent clothing, who once slipped and endorsed the R because GW Bush was friendly to him.
This article is in the ‘Opinion’ section. It’s not supposed to be unbiased, it’s an editorial.
When opinion deliberately avoids fact to inject said opinion with false authority and deliberately does so to present a reality that does not exist, it matters little whether you say it is supposed to be unbiased or not. It’s dishonest and should be rejected as such.
You just described Rush Limbaugh….
that’s your opinion.
The editorial could have mentioned King’s support of Kerry and Obama, and also could have included his endorsement of independent Eliot Cutler, but there are space constraints. He was very public with the Kerry and Obama support, not so much with the Bush vote. And the point is that while he does lean left, he has parted company with the Dems from time to time — which is more than a partisan senator would do.
What part of this article was dishonest? Why categorize King’s vote for GW as a ‘slip’?
King of the senate? Did Obama annoint him already?
My first response would be to say that King should not be compared with Lieberman, who only quit being a Democrat because the Democrats rejected him. Would King be effective in the Senate? Who would he choose to caucus with? My guess is that yes, he would be effective, and that he’d caucus with whoever granted him the most influence. In a Senate that is close to deadlock, being a free agent is worth a lot. Would that “worth” be in the form of influence for Maine and its voters’ concerns, or just in terms of payola for King? Dunno.
The man thinks windmills can power the world. He also championed the laptop program, which has really done wonders for Facebook skills.
He also mandated Teachers Being Fingerprinted
So let’s deny advanced technology to our students because some misuse it. With thinking like this, no wonder Maine is behind the curve! King had enough vision to see that without computer literacy, our students will be left behind. This is the very definition of “progressive,” and why I will be supporting his candidacy.
He’s got my vote. No more party politics for me.
I’m with you!
The BDN is just giddy about Gov. King’s candidacy. There’s a clear warning for you.
Never forget that Maine’s budget DOUBLED in size during Gov. King’s tenure. We need cost-cutters in DC, not spend-and-taxers like King.
True, but King lists the federal deficit as one of his top concerns now. Times have changed. The spending days of the W. Bush administration are long gone, as are the days that Maine expanded its social safety net.
We need cost cutters. Agreed. Bush and Cheney were not.
The $6.4 trillion debt incurred by George W. Bush accounts for almost half of today’s total $14,3 trillion debt. Two needless wars, the killing of capital gains and inheritance taxes, all helped inflate the deficit. Remember, the Iraq War Bush and Cheney
plunged us into was completely unjustified.
Both wars account for the two trillion dollar plus debt handed to Barack
Obama when he became president. Observers agree, almost half of the total of today’s $14.3 trillion debt was accumulated during the eight-year reign of Bush and Cheney.
You might want to check today’s debt…
$15,499,171,570,679.90
Thanks Barack
Well, if Romney or any of the runners manage to make it past the primaries, perhaps one of them will be able to fix it overnight.
Ahhhh poor baby, you upset because someone just tried to show you reality… Guess your $14.3 T looks a lot better for Hussein than $15.49 T. Keep up the delusional blats, maybe someone will buy it..
lol they will probebly be able to line their own pocket’s in one night and increase your great granchildrens debt’s again all in 1 night.
Former Governor Angus King represents the moderate centrist position that is so badly needed in the US Congress. What is not needed is more of the extreme left or right positions because that leads to gridlock. One just has to look at the current Congress as proof of that. It was the worst, least-productive Congress in my memory of 65 years. I totally support Angus King for the US Senate. Where do I sign his nomination papers?
He supported GWB in 2000….all I need to know……
I used to pretty much ignore politics. Oh, I voted in every election. For the man/woman, not the party. Now, seeing the hypocrasy of Angus King, I’m going to speak out. He is a man with a golden tongue who is more worried about himself than the state of Maine. His recent involvement with First Wind, the wind power fiasco bears this out and shows his true colors. He and Mr. Gardner have sweet-talked and promised jobs, TIF’s and the world, in general, to a number of small towns, plantations, and unorganized territories. If these entities do not agree, he pulls strings and gets his way anyway. I know of none of these entities receiving any of the promised ”riches” they were to receive (and doubt if they ever will). The jobs he has promised were awarded to out-of-state union contractors mostly who do very little to nothing for the local economies. Our small communities are desperate for jobs and promised relief. Instead, the people of Maine are getting their scenic mountains blown up, ugly windmills erected, transmission lines slicing up our countryside so southern New England can have more electricity and Angus King and company can get rich. Do you want a greedy, sweet-talking person who promises but doesn’t deliver to represent you in such a vital position?
The country would definitely be in better shape if we had Independents independently working in harmony with a few, rather than a gabble of frustrated politically-strained hacks pushing draconian party ideology.
Congress is crippled, and so are many people, who are confusedly and hastily pasting labels on others, whilst decrying the president. Their primary duties to serve the American people are lost in this absurd juvenile runaround. It’s like pinning the tail on the donkey.
For many it was hard to understand King – someone outside the bubble. A free thinker, his plans and resolves were a shock especially to the party regimented . His common sense disentanglement of the woods controversy is forgotten today, even though it preserved the Maine forest industry. His opponents quickly thrust his student-computer idea aside as bad. He was ahead of his time. Perhaps it was not finely tuned for the times. Today, computers in classrooms for every student, are a necessity.
His alternative energy ideas were offered when no one else could think outside the gas tank. Some may not sound logical. But ideas are needed, not to be scoffed at. We saw what happened when FDR proposed the Passammaquoddy Tidal Power Plan in the 30s. Laughed at and killed by Congress. Today, 82-years later, efforts move forward to utilize the world’s second highest tides. France has been using the world’s highest tides since the 60s.
An Independent unshackled by party politic is sorely needed by all of us in Washington. Age is unimportant. Many an old fiddle plays a good tune.
King’s affinity for that lunatic Jesse Ventura tells you everything you need to know about him.
King represents the anti-gun, pro-park, extreme eco-liberal agenda, and has no history of reaching out to small business.
Baldacci holds the lowest exiting poles in Maine’s history, and between King and him, have generated enough anti-liberal animosity to create the need for a no BS hardliner conservative like LePage.
Summers for Senate
As a conservative Democrat, I am seriously considering Summers as my pic
I’m sorry, but I can’t support Mr. King – we (the people) need to insure the continuing success of the Democratic party so that we can truly make progress in this country. God bless Chellie Pingree!
Please God, No!
Let us not get confused –the Independents were Democrats in their other life, knowing they could not win as the party member at the time, and Angus King is in that category. He was asked with what party he would caucus, but the easy answer is the Democrats, whose philosophy is his own.
“While governor and attending the national governors conference in Washington D.C., Mr. King recounted how he would “caucus” at the Red Lobster with independent Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura while Democrats and Republicans withdrew to their separate meetings. The two governors and their wives enjoyed dinner while the others plotted political strategy.”
This produces a pretty amusing mental image.
Looks like the pot is calling the refrigerator black.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympia_Snowe Senator
Snowe voted against the Senate health care reform bill which closes the
“doughnut hole” (— a coverage gap in which drug expenses between $2,510 and
$4,050 a year were not insured in 2008 http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-10-30-medicare_N.htm )
http://articles.cnn.com/2003-10-23/politics/congress.medicare_1_prescription-drug-bill-house-leaders-premium-support?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS CNN
Democrats willing to compromise on Bush prescription drug bill in 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9328-2005Feb8.html –
2003 Medicare Prescription Drug benefit estimated by CBO to cost $400 billion
over 10 years before the bill was passed with Democrat compromise. (5th paragraph up)
http://www.cms.gov/ReportsTrustFunds/downloads/tr2009.pdf –
In fiscal year 2008 Medicare Part D cost $49.3 billion (pdf page 114, second
paragraph) [Oops, it was calender year 2008]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/spencer-critchley/why-democrats-compromise-_b_803452.html –
Huffington Post’s 4 reasons Democrats are willing to compromise while
Republicans won’t
great… another progressive, just what the state needs..
The first thing Mr King must do is to distance himself from Dennis Bailey who is already being interviewed for background on what Mr King is up too! Bailey will not fit into Mr King’s statement about running a non-dirty tricks campaign.
I agree with Dannyboy for sure! Living in no other state but Maine my whole life I don’t see exactly what King did that was so great. It is no secret our state is in a state of chaos. No more lumber mills, or much of anything else for that matter. The DHHS system is a joke and now that everybody is unemployed with little children makes it even worse. The new govenor is creating havoc with his type of governing. Never in my life did I ever think the day would come that a new govenor would call the people that voted him in office idiots! No secret that King obviously sat back and watched as Maine slowly went into total distruction. As for all this King educational stuff what a load of crap. Now instead of our children learning do do math by writing it long form, chalk boards, learning cursive writing by pencil on paper we have this wonderful smart board stuff, all children have calculator’s, and now just have to print. The older ways worked just fine and most of us even got college degrees and good jobs.If it is not broken why fix it?