PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s messy GOP convention denied much-needed exposure for six Senate candidates who are hoping to break away from the pack, and the party’s deep divisions that were on display could play into independent Senate candidate Angus King’s complaint that the major parties are broken.
The GOP convention was commandeered by Ron Paul activists whose battle with Mitt Romney supporters took up the time allotted for the Senate candidates.
Denied a spot at the podium, Senate hopefuls who’d refined their 20-minute speeches and created video presentations were relegated to speaking to small groups of supporters in empty meeting rooms or in stairwells Sunday at the Augusta Civic Center.
Candidate Scott D’Amboise, who ended up standing on a chair to address 100 supporters, said all the candidates were frustrated.
“It hurts us all,” he said. “A lot of people come to conventions having not made up their minds yet. We now have to work ten times harder.”
It was a convention that’ll be talked about for years to come.
Paul’s supporters installed their own convention chairman and won 21 out of 24 delegates to the national convention even though Paul finished a close second behind Romney in Maine’s nonbinding presidential caucuses. Romney supporters cried foul, and both sides traded accusations of misconduct.
The divided convention and ugly accusations may play to the advantage of King, who says that both major parties are polarized and that the state needs an independent who can bridge the gap to get things accomplished, said Mark Brewer, a political scientist at the University of Maine.
“If you’re looking at this from the outside, it just gives you the impression that the Republican Party in Maine is a mess,” Brewer said.
King, who declined to comment Monday, will face Republican and Democratic challengers from a field of 10 who are seeking their parties’ nominations for the opportunity to vie for Republican U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe’s soon-to-be-empty seat.
The conventions are important for candidates because it gives them an opportunity to address the party’s loyal members who are likely to vote.
Two years ago, then-Waterville Mayor Paul LePage’s strong showing of support at the convention in Portland underscored momentum that carried him to victory in the governor’s race.
Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College, said the weekend convention “sort of defies rational explanation about how a political party is supposed to function to me. Isn’t the role of the political party to aid its candidates?”
Senate candidate Rick Bennett, a Republican National Committeeman who’s a Romney supporter, said that the convention was a sloppy affair and that he would have preferred to have spoken from the podium to the 2,800 people who registered for the convention. But he said the Ron Paul supporters are bringing new energy to the party that will be helpful down the road.
“Democracy is messy. It’s better than coronations,” Bennett said in reference to King, the two-term governor who has assumed front-runner status.
Maine Democrats will hold their convention early next month, before candidates from both parties vote in the June 12 primaries.
Among independents, King is the only candidate who has filed his nominating petitions to appear on the ballot. Others, such as tea party activist Andrew Ian Dodge and Yarmouth Town Council Chairman Steve Woods, who are mounting independent Senate bids, have until June 1 to file their petitions with the secretary of state.
This news story is an interesting twist on reality.
For first person coverage, go to http://www.talkshoe.com and search for Aroostook Watchmen. Jack and Steve were there and talked about it this morning on their show. The recording is already up.
Really!?……it hurt the Senate GOP hopefuls?? YA THINK! Let’s just extend that thought however: it hurt the entire GOP, it hurt the Tea Party, it hurt their legislative candidates, it hurt their congressional candidates, and most important……..it hurt Maine. Once again, the GOP/Tea Party has captured national headlines in a negative manner. An accomplished author of any stature couldn’t have written a better horror story. If Maine’s GOP had it’s own political cops, then Charlie Webster would be a “person of interest” in this political murder/suicide.
Sorry bud it was great for Maine. I was there it was fantastic to see the old guard get the boot. :)
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it. But Webster naming the Chairman, prior to a convention vote, and they scream rules violations?…….right. That’s like his declaring a winner before Washington counties votes were in….Webster’s a dumbass.
I love seeing the GOP getting a labotomy…..it just solidifies what I’ve always thought, once they attain power, they just can’t seem to stop themselves from seeking more of it.
I find it odd that even though they own the legislature, the constitutional offices and the Blaine House, they’re still mean, nasty and bitter. How could anyone watch the weekend’s show and be heartened? The more one watches them in action, the more one sees a crowd of modified brownshirts – bitter, frustrated and anxious to take it out on anyone.
I would be happy to see Andry Cushing and all his ALEC bills down the road.
I don’t know that the three ring circus nature of the convention actually hurt the GOP hopefuls running for Senate seats. I mean really how much lower can you go than where they started which was and is still haplessly hopeless?
Think Susan Collins. My wife listen’s to her and cringes……….”Do women from Maine really sound like that?” The idea that Susan Collins is a “moderate” is a bit embellished. She’s certainly not as moderate as Sen. Snowe was and has been, but I have a feeling that a bit moderation is going to enter into her forte. Considering the fact that there will not be a republican accompanying her to the Senate after the next election.
I so agree with your wife!!! I can not stand to watch or listen to susan Collins speak.It’s like finger anils on a chalkboard.
You prefer the angry masculine women like Dale McCormick right?
Are you stereotyping?, or are you just taking a dig at her? (Pondlady) How did Dale McCormick affect the republicans? How does what you insinuate mean anything? How did McCormick affect the republicans and their party?, how did she affect this convention?
She didn’t. Republicans did it to themselves. Susan Collins, when she first ran said that she would only serve one senate term…….how’s that for honesty? Let’s look at the republican party and it’s inability to get along, and stop trying to blame people stuck in the middle of what Governor Lepage creates…..chaos.
Thanks for the support, rusjan.
Are insults your specialty? I believe Dale McCormaick did a wonderful job until she was railroaded by the Tea Party. I would never have considered her angry in any shape or form. She had never been found guilty of anything. She was the another victim of this administration having a solution and looking for a problem.
FYI, not that I care about what you think, but I’m about as heterosexual as you can be.
Stay classy.
At least when Collins speaks,she makes sense.Those screeching harpies Palin and Bachmann are both irritatingly shrill and ignorant.
She also had an illness that makes her speak that way. So you might want to think before you speak! I forgot you’re a liberal a-hole who can’t handle the truth!
Too bad Margaret Truman isn’t still around to write her political murder mysteries.
I guess that one could call the Revolutionary War a messy thing. Change can be messy. Good change can be messy. It’s still good. No matter how much the Libs want to spin this into a bad
omen for the Right.
The big difference between the Revolutionary War and Maine’s recent Republican Convention was that the Colonist were all shooting at the British. In Maine the Republicans were all standing in a large circle shooting at each other. Kind of like “we have met the enemy and they are us”.
nice try to blame libs – didn’t work tho
Ok. Fine. But can you explain to me the end game? Is all of this to get Paul the Nomination? Because as far as I can tell, he can’t possibly, under any math get the needed delegates. So seriously, what is the end game? If there is no end game, then this is just chaotic theatre of the absurd.
It was DEMOCRACY IN ACTION at the GOP convention in Augusta, but apparently this AP reporter and those who have been to so many conventions and nodded their heads in agreement during the 5 minute time frame for each vote, did not agree. The Ron Paul supporters were not boisterous, angry, or discourteous–they simply were delegates who had become so, in the same manner as the Romney supporters, and they arrived early Saturday morning to register and receive their credentials.
Too bad the R’s who expected a short day because they thought their agenda would be followed to a “T”, and expected no confusion for lunch or dinner, did not have their ducks in a row, but the quacking has begun on their part, and for the most part, they are not telling the truth. It was the morning chairman who delivered the confusion and the division, but he had done so in an e-mail to the delegates and alternates the day before, and tried during the convention, also.
They call the convention a “mess” ?
what do they call the obviously rigged caucus that called a winner even before the votes had all been counted?
talk about corrupt,
the entire system needs a good overhaul.
RON PAUL 2012!
I’d say it needs an enema to flush out the knuckleheads. Oops, that wouldn’t leave too many.
It is a joke to even suggest, as this article asserts, that Paul finished a close second to Romney in the caucuses. If anything could be described as bizarre and chaotic- as this mornings headline from the BDN for the convention was- it would be the way the votes were tallied, omitted, revised, and announced by Charlie Webster for those caucuses.
This convention, if it proves anything, was that despite the popularity and the publicity of traditional conservative sources of news, like the Fox Network, that pretend to be the voice of the Republican party while still remaining “fair and balanced,” that in reality alternative sources of news are becoming much more popular as time and time again the mainstream news discredits itself by failing to give attention to topics that are popular with the people, such as the message of liberty as defined by our Bill of Rights and Constitution which have not been adhered to because of the threat posed to our security. Benjamin Franklin once famously stated “those who give up their liberty for security deserve neither.” Congressman Ron Paul is saying the same thing that Benjamin Franklin said, and that’s why Americans like his message; although clearly it’s not a new concept, it’s a refreshing message that the mainstream media refuses to give any attention to despite growing popularity amongst freedom loving Americans.
Send in the clowns …
Okay so the Republican Convention turned into what some are calling a circus. Isn’t it very similar to what happened in the caucuses where a winner was declared before all the votes were cast, much less counted? Isn’t it pretty much the same thing that happened in the 2010 Maine Republican Convention when the tea party hijacked it? These are the exact same people who day after day tell us that they are the ones who are best suited to make the laws we all have to live under and are the ones who know how to solve all of our State’s and Country’s problems. If they can’t run a caucus or a convention properly how in the name of all that is sacred can we trust them to run our State of Country?
I like the pic of Webster urging the delegates to conclude business yesterday due to the costs associated with the Civic Center…………LOL…..I think he was more concerned about what this convention’s result were gonna cost him! I think he just wanted to get the hell out of there! Gosh, he couldn’t even get a former republican congressman, David Emery, elected to the national convention! How is he going to help ANYONE running for office if he can’t even get a former congressman a trip to the republican national convention?
It wasn’t that long ago that I posted my feelings that Paul Richard LePage would be the Democrats best friend come this falls election. Now it would appear that LePage has Charlie Webster as a helper in making republican legislators as rare in Augusta after November 6th as black flies at Moosehead in January.
Are you insinuating? That Webster, that “person of interest” had an accomplice? I hope that Webster and LePage like fiddleheads. Since they are one of nature’s laxatives…..they will be able to offer some of the crap that’s gonna hit the fan soon.
What will really be fun to watch is how many republican candidates for the legislature bring LePage or Webster along to their rallies.
I dunno 4mer, let’s let Charlie choose, he’s 0 for 2 on picking winners.
Don’t forget the same day voter registration blood bath that he championed in last November’s referendum .
If I WERE a candidate,…..I would certainly be reflecting on many, many things. A law that was reversed via referendum is the absolute insult to the legislature that passed it, and the governor that signed it.
Same day voter registration to keep elections clean.
Thousands of forgeries in Ca. registration drives. This time it is republican. This time it doesn’t make the news.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9291
Thanks for the link Charlie!
Maine is not CA.
Hey now, let’s leave the fiddleheads out of this, they are a delicious dish that goes in just as easy as they go out. Unlike the convention. But seriously I think it’s a good thing that it was “messy”, it’s good to get people thinking even if it is disruptive for something like this.
My Bad!!!……sorry Kired. I’m a fiddlehead fool myself! I promise……..I will never, ever, never pick on fiddle heads again……..never!
I talked today with a delegate to the convention. She was not impressed to see (and smell) Paul delegates openly smoking pot at the Civic Center entrance. After waiting until 8pm Saturday before casting her first vote, she decided Sunday would be a better day for golf and didn’t go back for a second session.
When asked about the now famous Youtube video of Romney supporters passing out fake Paul candidate lists, (link)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcgOuuM1VkM
she said both sides were cheating equally.
Nice link……but “cheating equally?”……naw. I think that the whole maine caucus was cheated by obviously Webster; probably Kevin Raye (who is a Romney supporter) and probably LePage, who needs unity for his next legislature.
There was cheating. The Tea Party did the same thing in 2010 at the caucus. It’s their rules, they get to choose which ones to follow and which ones not to, if republicans manipulate their own selves; how can they not manipulate others?? How can they continue to say that they are the party of unity, when they themselves are not unified and nearly polarized?
In my opinion, the Tea Party is what has led to this calamity. They were quick, grabbed power, and all of a sudden, didn’t know what to do when pressed and questioned for answers. Their leader in Maine is obviously the Governor, but he is NOT the leader of the republican party in Maine, that’s critical, and potentially catastrophic.
From the 14 points of fascism
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause The most significant common thread among these regimes was the use of scapegoating as a means to divert the people’s attention from other problems, to shift blame for failures, and to channel frustration in controlled directions. The methods of choice—relentless propaganda and disinformation—were usually effective. Often the regimes would incite “spontaneous” acts against the target scapegoats, usually communists, socialists, liberals, Jews, ethnic and racial minorities, traditional national enemies, members of other religions, secularists, homosexuals, and “terrorists.” Active opponents of these regimes were inevitably labeled as terrorists and dealt with accordingly.
If you can’t win on the issues, call the opposition hippies.
What a lame comment. Someone supposedly smoking pot really???? I can tell you on Saturday the Civic Center was crawling with police so I doubt anyone was smoking pot at the entrance, come on. Just because the Paul supporters were organized and out numbered the supporters for other candidates doesn’t mean they were cheating.
Maybe they all have glaucoma or migraines and have their medicinal marijuana cards.
I actually hope the Dems take over again, and redirect us back to our slow death spiral. I personally like pompous bowtie twits running the show as they have for the last thirty years, stealing from the turnpike, turning DSS and Maine housing authority into mismanaged basket cases. It’s oddly comforting to me. These Republicans are way too mean to stop the looting of the state treasury. Bring back the Liberal bowtie twits! Catch campaign slogan if you ask me!
You “actually hope”…….that’s a sign of weakness. I can show you a “basket case”, right square in the Blaine House, the man is so unpredictable that his own press secretary has to make up things that he makes up.
What is DSS? if you are referring to DHHS, then that’s your problem, with relation to the budget numbers, not anyone elses.
And looting the state treasury?….OMG, the man who runs that department won’t even abide by the state’s constitution; the attorney general’s recommendation (a person who is know his political opponent), nor will he even file the reports necessary to verify anything that he has done, according to state law.
I hope the State Treasurer wins t he nomination, and I hope that Charlie Webster predicts him to win
When it comes down to it, a hack can only do so much, right?
Bravo! Well said.
It certainly was a circus, and it even had the biggest clown in the state making a speech.
The Maine Republican leadership is as big a mess as the national Republican leaders. They should have known better than to give Webster a vote of confidence after he messed the caucus vote up so badly. And, Charlie Cragin, really???? He has not been a part of Maine politics for years and years.
I agree with you on that one. Dinosaur cr— on their shoes.
It’s just funny to see the GOP twist and spin: everything is either good or evil, and what’s good or evil is completely relative.
What would you expect when the lead man is BOZO aka Charlie Webster ???
Don’t worry!! I’ll NEVER vote for Angus King or any other crook like him!! D’Amboise all the way!!!!
Long live the King!
Well that is one vote I guess
This Headline has to be in the running for AP Understatement of the Year !
Everything went according to the Rules of any convention held before..
Webster and Company were the problems for not wanting to follow the Maine Republican party rules. Has anyone seen or heard anything different than that…
I guess the Corporate Republian party that Webster runs forgot that the Teaparty put them in power for the first time in 40 years and then he slapped them in the face by denying them the right to count all the votes the first time..
Webster lost respect for the people and paid for it, rightfully so.
The Republican Party and it’s committee had a choice; whether to continue with Webster or not. This was after the caucus, they decided to keep him. THIS is what it led to at the State Convention. The republicans are making bad decisions, …. worse.
Now, they are saying that the national party will not seat the delegates? Why? They were elected, and are perfectly capable and earnest in their endeavors and obviously got a majority vote, leave them alone, they have a legitimate complaint against their party.
Obviously I’m a democrat, but sheeesh……but, my word? To sit there and say that “you can’t do this” ….when, 2 years ago it was done by the Tea Party? This is now how our state is being administered, and look where it has got us.
I do respect your honesty and post. You are an honest republican, and have demonstrated your frustrations well. All answers, politically, lie in the middle.
P.S. to whoever is running for Olympia’s Seat, Be careful having Webster on the stage with you. It won’t get you any votes.. Choose your friends carefully…
That goes double for having Lepage in the same spot.
That’s the problem with Ron Paul supporters. They are so far to the right that they highjack a convention against the poplar support. True the Republican party is shattered right now, but forcing your will on people isn’t the way either. The only reason Paul hasn’t dropped from the race is because he is hoping for a platform at the convention to expound his right wing views.
They are so far to the right? Do you even know what Paul’s views are? I don’t think following the constitution makes him a right wing extremest like you seem to be pointing out. Paul is running as an R for the exposure to his ideals. In reality he’s a Libertarian and the more people read about his views rather than just listening to some talking head the more their seeing that he’s right on many levels.
Have you ever seen the Peter Sellers movie Being There? Ron Paul is Chance, the gardener, come to life.
Great film!
And really, really overboard on others. I think anyone can find one or two things about him to like, but some of the bat-spit stuff, is like vote repellant.
This is different from OhOh bama’s campaigning for the last year using taxpayer’s money because very few liberals are willing to donate to a marxist . OhOh bama needs all the money he can get.
Hopefully the GOP will come to an end in November. Time to vote these Thugs out of office.
Yes absolutely..and then you can vote in some democrats because they aren’t just as corrupt, greasy, inept and utterly incompetent…haha..and the mindless R v.s. D fight will continue into perpetuity…as if there is a difference…they have the people so well programmed it is sad…so f#!%ing stupid…
LePage’s victory can hardly be called as having momentum that carried him to victory, unless you would also describe a stumbling drunk as having momentum that carried him across the street. Also, BIG SURPRISE that the Republicans are turning another election into a three ring circus, a joke, and a sign of utter incompetence.
At least the stumbling drunk might get up with a pounding head the next day and try to change his ways.Not so our Gov. and Leg.
How mature of you,calling the Governor of Maine names.You must have tons of other thoughtful ideas, and beliefs-I’m sure.
If Romney had support in Maine he would have got his delegates elected. It sounds simple enough to me.
Keep in mind a good many Mainers moved from or have family/business interests in Mass.Yet Romney had zero organization here.Not like he couldn’t afford it.Maine’s a cheap media buy.He should’ve rolled through and gotten all the delegates without blinking.
I hope no Republican candidate for any office frets about my not hearing all about them. I’m not casting my precious vote for any one of them.
This stuff is so ridiculous. Both sides behave badly and the people really don’t get served. I’m including Independents and that as well. We are not doing the people’s business when we are busy arguing and pointing fingers. Agh. I wouldn’t trust people to govern themselves yet either. Where is the happy and effective median?
There is no medium/middle.. This country is so deep into corporate socialism we need out and to start over with what made this country great in the first place. The Consitutition… I don’t care what the repubs or dems think, we need to start over. There are less and less people who are living in that comfort zone and that is why people are waking up.. Our country sold us out to the owners of the federal reserve note to enslave everyone into making payments… People are now working just to make payments, thats all they do. they will never get ahead. Of course some will think I’m full of it because they are doing well today… yet their days shall come also. sooner then later… When Nafta and Gafta allowed our factories to move overseas not only with the blessings of our government but were paid to do so by our government, it all went bad.. I think the 35,000 people that worked in our shoe factories paid their bills, raised their families and paid taxes without sucking from the resourses that was used to care for the infustructure… There is no middle ground because they are both courpt.
Every now and again….it happens. It’s happened many times in Maine politics, some people aren’t right at the tine when it’s chosen to be. Le Page isn’t right for Maine, nor is the divided GOP. They are divided because of one reason……the Tea Party. You cannot co-mingle Tea Party republicans with moderate republicans, which is sort of what happened. They both think that they are right, but yet, they say that each other are failing the party. I love it, it only demonstrates how ruthlessness and power management will turn.
Didn’t we learn that from OhOh bama?
What the heck is OhOh bama supposed to mean?
Sound it out. OhOh bama. Not one that I will follow for honesty,life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness.
How mature of you, calling the President names. You must have tons of other thoughful ideas and beliefs, I’m sure.
Calling the president names?
How about unqualified? How about useless? How about thug?
I think if Nathaniel wanted to call the President names he could have done better. There are so many words to choose!
The like button didn’t work.
“If you’re looking at this from the outside, it just gives you the impression that the Republican Party in Maine is a mess,” Just in Maine? Really? …
What about in Arizona, Wisconsin, Ohio, Virginia, Florida and the other states with
extreme governors?
The Republican Party has become the New Fascist Right, Neo-Nazis. Not all Republicans fall into this group, if you’re centrist no worries but your party doesn’t want you anymore, you’re not extreme enough.
All those worried about Socialist and Communists never seem to mention Fascists? Let’s look at Arizona, the flagship of fascism in the US. A week or so ago some nut named JT Ready (a serious Nazi) shot his family and himself. This guy had direct ties to Russell Pearce for years, who was an Arizona congressman and the man who sponsored Ready into the Mormon Church, he was also one the architects SB 1070. I’d call that the smoking gun, no pun intended. It means these people are in elected office, Neo-Nazis that we’ve elected to state and federal positions of power.
Here’s the bad news, its world wide … you don’t believe me …. Check out what’s going on in Greece. Right-wing extremists Golden Dawn won 6.9% of the vote and will have 21 seats in Greek Parliament.
Those who realize that corporate influence is an issue have a clue but many don’t. One thing I’m sure of if we don’t rid ourselves of this “mess” it will be a negative “impression” that will last a long, long time. We had all better wake up to the reality of what is smacking us in the face before it’s too late and we’re truly up against a wall.
So called Fascists have extreme manisfestations representing “law and order” where there is pseudo-religious attitudes and the brutal use of force for getting and keeping power. Gee,except for the term.that really represents the Marxist left of OhOh bama and his administration. Martial Law anyone?…
Describing President Obama as Marxist left is foolish. Just look at Mitt Romney as testimony to capitalism being alive and well. Romney made over $20 million in each of the last two years. At least his money did. I don’t understand why Mitt Romney isn’t campaigning for President Obama’s re-election. What did he think – that if he had been president, his money would have made $30 million?
Thats right. Describing him as a Marxist is foolish.
He’s a socialist.
Please, tell us more about the great one; How about;
Where he was born?
Who his father was?
How he went to an Indonesian school when foreigners were not allowed to do that?
How he traveled to Pakistan when American citizens were banned?
Who paid for his trips abroad?
Who paid for his College?
Did he actually go to Occidental University as a foreign student?
Why does he have a Social security number from CT.?
Why are we not allowed to see who visits the Whitehouse?
I could go on and on. So just answer a few of these questions, please. Or at the very least please tell us one other President that we did NOT know all this information.
I love to hear an Obama supporter spinning around in circles trying to defend this clown they put in the Whitehouse.
Say, do you have that footage of the moon langing hoax? I’ve been looking everywhere for it.
No I don’t.
But can you answer any of the questions, and or tell me another president that we knew this little about?
I read somewhere that Chester A. Arthur was born in Canada.
Correct! Chester Arthur, Vice President, became president after an assasination of Garfield. It was not found out until many years later that Chester Arthur was not a Natural Born Citizen. So he was actually the first ineligible president. He did nothing during his term, so fortunately there was no harm done.
Can we say the same today?
Sure, I could. But why would I? You obviously know it all already. Nothing that has been provided so far has changed your mind. I find it sad, but you are free to believe what you wish to.
1. Honolulu, Hawaii. Where was Ron Paul or Mitt Romney born? How do we know?
2. Barack Obama, Sr. Who was Ron Paul’s or Mitt Romney’s father? How do we know?
3. On foot, maybe by bus, possibly by car. What source do you have showing foreigners were not allowed to go to school in Indonesia? Remember his mother was married to an Indonesian.
4. Probably by airplane. When have American citizens been banned from Pakistan? I doubt if Pakistan has ever banned American citizens. Do you have a source?
5. People travel abroad pretty regularly. That’s why there is a travel industry. You must suspect some sinister source of the money? How about SMERSH?
6. Scholarship money? Loans? Working while in college? Like everyone else?
7. Did he? Source? Maybe it was like someone from Maine claiming Florida residency in order to get in-state tuition.
8. His social security number is not necessarily from Connecticut, and it is not that of Jean Paul Ludwig.
9. Do you suspect someone has made a clandestine, surreptitious visit to the White House? Did they come through a tunnel? Darkened limousine? Disguised as a tourist, maybe? Maybe they used the ever effective glasses, nose, and mustache combo.
Everything you put in your comment comes from looney, right-wing, internet baloney.
Truths but not really answering the questions-like so much of the liberal myths.
Not so.
In his own words, “People who have nothing to hide, hide nothing”.
So why then seal his birth documents, his passport records, his elementary school records, Occidental records, Harvard records, etc. etc..
What proof do you have other than a questionable record of live birth?
The difference between what I’ve written and what you write is I hope none of what
I wrote is true, but the facts tell a different story. That’s just one incident and I’d bet you “10K” there are many more involved and that they’re as thick as thieves. I dare you to follow the story and see the direction it goes.
Say what you will about Obama but again the “brutal facts” point in the direction of the
Republicans.
Restricting healthcare, restricting voting rights, “the war on women,” lining the pockets of their rich friends, Union busting, the war on gay marriage, the lack of separation
between church and state, killing all social programs, and oh yeah “Papers Please” – SB1070, to mention a few.
You got to admire the Greeks, at least they have the spine to identify what they really
stand for, and though we have the same bunch here they’re apparently nothing more than cowards who hide behind the a cross wrapped in a flag.
Hope and change-not in the direction that this country needs to go. Following OhOh bama will get us in the same mess or worse than what Europe is at today-they even told us not to follow their path or that of Kenya under OhOh bama’s father’s rule-down the drain.By the way, it is proven that the so called”war on women” was fabricated by the left, and OhOh bamacare was to cut $500 billion from Medicare-also find me the wording in the US Constitution that talks about separation of church and state. Unions are busting themselves with $300-$400,000 jobs for the union bosses,and Stephen Lerner of SEIU fame who on video wanted the Occupy Wall Street to occur-only Clinton helped along with others to force banks to give big loans to South American countries which could not pay back the loans.
Better bone-up on your talking points …. Europe is failing because conservative austerity is an abject failure.
Their term for conservatism is between moderate and liberal. People in Europe believed in the government controlling the people-thinking and doing what is right for the liberal governments and not for the people. Go to Hillsdale College Constitution 101 and you might begin to understand. Socialism has never been on the side of conservatism-maybe in name but not in their actions. You still haven’t answered my talking points, or do you like talking points which don’t say anything.
I’m not going to answer your rabid talking points, just because you’re foaming at the mouth is no worry of mine.
Answer this Crosby …. Is it more conservitive to drive a VW or a Range Rover? and Do conservitives actually conserve anything or are they only conspicuous consumers?
How could it hurt? No one is voting Republican this year, anyhow.
OK…so here’s the truth. My wife and I now live in Oregon. We moved from Maine nearly a year ago. We came here because: she had family out here and our children are now adults. I’m not ashamed of anything, and we are always made fun of our accents. I’m 48 and she is 46, so we know what Maine is like……….and I will continue to comment. ALL of our family lives in Maine, our kids, her parents, my dad…..everybody. I have 2 grandchildren, and 2 on the way; I also have a son that died at 21 in a car accident.
Pain is manageable, but the republicans don’t seem to manage anything well. I’m still a non-resident here in Oregon, so I intend to vote accordly
I post this information for one reason only, and thats so the Tea party/ divisive republicans can say…..”hey look”…..see! He’s trying to vote illegally! Didn’t happen,,,,,,won’t happen. And I did work at the Me. St. Legislature for many, many years. And people accuse me of harboring “Likes”……yea man!
Just vote in Oregon. Whats the issue?
Please enlighten us as to when the Republican party claimed that you voted illegally? When was that?
I didn’t vote illegally. That’s the point.
I welcome Ron Paul supporters to the Republican Party, but they need to understand what being part of a party means. The Republican Party is not the RonPaulican Party. Much of what happened at the convention was unnecessary and divisive. The MaineGOP has legislative candidates for all 151 districts this year and convention attendees did not get introduced to any of them on the main podium. We did not get to hear our 6 Senate hopefuls speak. Our US House candidates got cut back to 7 minutes of time.
They may get what they want concerning Ron Paul this year, but the damage done to the Maine GOP this year will not be forgiven easily. The party is more than an individual candidate. If the Paul supporters plan to stick with the Republican Party, hopefully they will come to understand this.
I saw videio of Mitt supporters forging documents to look like they were issued by the Paul camp. Paulers caught them red handed. This blatent cheating, even in your own party, is the reason the Republicans can’t get together. Most people are honest and straight forward, and these ones that cheat make us sick, republicans, democrats, and independents alike. What do you want from a party that has as speaker of the house a man who got away with MaineCare fraud.
Conspiracies seem to be a common refrain from Paul supporters. It’s a bit creepy.
With Ron Paul winning 11 states, but without the media even mentioning this for the most part-not a conspiracy?
What 11 states has Ron Paul won?
With over 50% of the delegates:Alaska,Colorado,Iowa,Louisiana,Minnesota,Missouri, Washington,Maine,Nevada,Arkansas,and a part of Massachusetts.
Go to:www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEhFbDflWmw&feature=share.
As usual,BDN has its problems: after QEh…FbDflWmw & feature=share
Also, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18ej8a-E6Fs
again after (v=18ej8a-E6Fs
You Ron Paul supporters really need to get out of Ron Paul YouTube Land and have a reality check. The only two states where Ron Paul has the majority of delegates right now are possibly Maine and Minnesota–but only because Ron Paul supporters are willing to disregard the people’s will to further their candidate. Sure, they may be working within the GOP rules technically. But to what end?
Ron Paul has received about 10% of the popular vote so far in the primaries. It is the least popular support of any of the 4 candidates who were running until just recently.
And yet, Ron Paul supporters don’t seem to care one bit that their candidate– who has been given just as much exposure in the primary debates, and just as much access to the people of this country as any other candidate, in addition to running multiple times for the presidential GOP nomination so that he certainly has no claim to a lack of name recognition–still has been unable to muster up a majority of voters in any state to vote for him. The truth is Ron Paul has not won a single state’s vote.
The truth is the vast majority in this country do not agree with Ron Paul. But, in the name of “liberty” his supporters are hoping to force him upon us for our own good. Because we just don’t know any better so we keep voting the wrong way.
Bonkers.
It is obvious that the Republican party has not wanted the Ron Paul supporters in their party and if you look at the organizations within Ron Paul’s arena, they are more together than the Republicans and even more so than the Democrats.
I am no longer a Democrat or a Republican, I will fight as a human being.
And I hope you do too,
Why is democracy exercised defined as “messy” ? Huh ? ……it’s what Our forbearers died for and current brave soldiers are defending and dying for, democracy!
Any politician – even down to the “select” man /person level – who will not participate in the education and pursuit of Monetary Reform – is not worth the paper their election ballot is printed on … because THIS is an issue that underlies nearly everything else in our world.
Remember the old saying “As Maine goes, so goes the nation”?…
After the election in 1936, that was changed to “As Maine goes, so goes Vermont.”
Never heard that. But I will say that if the rest of the nation was like Maine, we would be in a deeper hole than where we are.
Conservative principles have been under attack now for a number of decades even though President Reagan offered a brief respite from the encroaching mayhem in 1981. The process of compromise vis a vis core values like fiscal accountability and an unwavering moral compass have eroded America to the point that Mother Teresa’s words concerning abortion resound ominously: “America need no words from me to see how your decision… has deformed a great nation”. We have been forced to accept Republican offal with unpalatable servings featuring George Bush and John McCain in recent years… and now Mitt Romney. Like paltry table scraps, these candidates were coerced upon the American public under the ruse that a vote for the opposition would be unconscionable. The deeds of Bush, McCain and Romney are all too well known. Each in their own inimitable way has contributed to the decline of America by refusing to stand for the truth: each, in an instance of compromise, has contributed to our financial and social demise because they were beholding to a political entity and not to the American Constitution and the people whom they pledged to represent. In Revelations, Christ offered an insight into this malaise, saying: “so then because thou are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.” Perhaps that is why Romney was resoundingly rejected by Ron Paul supporters in Maine. A bankrupt nation that is aided and abetted by a social class of dependents who continues to elect lukewarm candidates will surely come to no good.
How can anyone say an independent will be the best choice for what happened last week end? After over a year of almost non- realization of Ron Paul, he gets the delegates from Romney(the annointed GOP candidate). Mr. King was just trying to position himself for his run on the US Senate.What is the substance of his positions-don’t think he will be even voting on important Maine issues wisely-very liberal and a spender. Nice guy, but we don’t need another one of them-we have one in the POTUS but not a leader in the correct direction that Maine and the USA needs to go.
Maines GOP party hurt themselves,along with the state and the country, long before this convention.
Why isn’t a Mainer writing about the debacle of a republican primary. Outsourcing Maine jobs? No qualified writers?
Contrast the GOP riots with the Maine Green Independent Party convention, held in Portland on Saturday. While the Republicans were fighting, the Greens had real-time conversations (via Skype) with all three Green party candidates for President. The keynote address was an inspirational in-person speech by a former Green Party Vice Presidential candidate. Greens elected convention officers, steering committee members, national party delegates, national convention delegates and Presidential electors with courtesy and without conflict. They shared a meal together and had civil discussions on platform issues.
And still won’t get more than 2% of the vote.
thats because there were probably 7 people there.
Will Rogers once confessed that he belonged to no organized political party – he was a Democrat. Today’s GOP, once very epitome of scripted political conventions and party affairs would have the cowboy reworking his confession, that’s for sure.
this is all the Dems have left.Is to disrupt the republicans. After the last year or so of exposing their using the poor to fill their own pockets and the corruption over the last 30 years.The Dems know people are educated to these facts.No more hiding these issues.
Why are you blaming Democrats for what went down at the GOP convention? So much for personal responsibility.
Iam not naive enough to see the dems doing anything possible legal or illegal to keep their pockets full of working voters money.
So you’re saying you have no evidence or facts to support your suspicions. You’re saying that despite the fact that Ron Paul supporters are Republicans, still somehow Democrats are responsible for this.
Just follow the corruption,stealing and fraud it will lead to the democratic party.
Democrats didn’t make the mess here. You’re being ridiculous.
Are You Serious?
Exactly what party has had control of the Senate and legislature in this state for what, over 20 years?
So you are saying that everything was perfect, budget, balanced, no corruption until LePage took office?
In your own words, “You’re being ridiculous”.
The article is about the GOP Convention and the mess it has been. You want to try gloss over that and just point a finger elsewhere. What you’re talking about is irrelevant and it’s ridiculous.
Do yourself a favor and at least loosen that tinfoil hat. No one says you need to take it off, just give your head room to breathe.
How in the name of time can you think Democrats disrupted the Republicans? They were too busy laughing.
Reason for the problems ??? ALL the GOP candidates and GOV. are HYPOCRITES…..!!!!!
Democracy should be messy.
I for one will not vote for Mitt as I have never care for him so it will be Ron or someone else besides the two big parties. As far as the Senate goes, I do not need to hear these people lie and tell me they will do this and stand up for the people of Maine. We all know that when the person reaches Washington all bets are off, the first time they may not take that lobbist money but it will not take long for big bussiness to buy them off. Lets stop thinking these bozos really care about you or I, all they want is that big free money.
Don’t forget the unions,acorn,media matters…
What a cluster.Absolutely no surprise.For anyone undecided,the choice is crystal clear-D all the way!
The democrats will continue to give America a “D”-delusional,devastating.and dumb if you can’t figure out why the USA has been doing so poorly.It’s 3 1/2 years way beyond George W. Bush’s reign. Even with the mega-mania media trying to cover up the massive mistakes made by the OhOh bama Administration, will we take some differcult medicine to get back on the “right track”?
Bush was like an airplane pilot who sent the aircraft into an out-of-control dive straight into the ground. Obama has gotten the plane leveled off at least. Putting the right-wing back into control would be like correcting the flight by flying the plane into the nearest mountain.
You must be a fan of Timothy Leary-flying high but not knowing what you are doing until it is tooooo late.
Do you mean Timothy Leary?
Europe is providing a good lesson right now. Austerity isn’t the answer, and that is exactly what the Paul Ryan types are proposing. It just won’t sell.
You’re right all they have to do is look at what is happening in Europe. The Austerity progams have put them in another recession. That’s what the republicans want to do here and that is what Lepage is working on now. With the tax cuts and slash and burn mentality without looking at the consequeses.
You’re right-it is Timothy Leary
Too bad he stole the plane, can’t fly, and took off without any fuel.
The right can’t even choose proper candidates.
This is Bush’s DEPRESSION wake up. Two wars on credit cards. Tax give aways to the 1 %ers. Bank regulations thrown to the winds, all Bush’s doing. Now you want to have FLIP Romney continue with this insane policy. Time for the Tea Party and Republicans to explode upon each other and leave the political scene for good. Vote Democrat and end these Republicans Fools power.
You forgot the billions of dollars not paid for, to start up and maintain Medicare Part D
Bush tried eleven times to better regulate banking,but the liberals wouldn’t allow it-side bar-before the democrats regained Congress in the last two years of his second term, the unemployment was 4.6%. Today with those who have given up,underemployed,or still on the unemployment rolls-it is closer to 20%.
Are the Bosses losing control of their minions?
Still want that popcorn concession.
too bad “we now have to work ten times harder.” D’oh, all of us work for what we believe in. WORK. Too bad one has to work. Geesh.
Anyone who is willing to work and is serious about it will certainly find a job. Only you must not go to the man who tells you this, for he has no job to offer and doesn’t know anyone who knows of a vacancy. This is exactly the reason why he gives you such generous advice, out of brotherly love, and to demonstrate how little he knows the world.
Time for a change in vision and LEADERSHIP.
so they imploded in their own midst? that is no surprise… the party is in total denial of how badly it is going for them right now…
So let me get this straight republicans that support Ron Paul are labled as “activists” but republicans that support Romney are just labeled as “supporters”. And if you attend a political event if you are with the majority you commandeer the event. And David Sharp the time was “used up” because the GOP could not figure out how to run a convention, were you even there??
If this wasn’t so sad it would be funny.
GOP has deteriorated into a deceiving..self-serving entity that would hardly be recognized by President Lincoln! So much corruption.. as is shown by Maine’s current Gov LePage’s actions to date..prove that no Republican candidate for office can be trusted.
Ron Paul needs to sit down and shut up.
D’Amboise will take a plurality of the vote come November….
So glad that all the liberals love this. If this had been for the Democrats you would be applauding. You are all a joke and should be ashamed of yourselves!
The convention was simply a reflection of the deep divide that is engulfing the entire country right now, so what happened is far from surprising. In fact, with the rampant political
discontent, we’ll probably see more of these shenanigans in the coming months. Woe to us all.
Charlie Summers will be our next Senator…!