The President has kicked off his re-election campaign with a quote from a individual who says he doesn’t agree with the President on many things but he is still going to vote for him because….because (cue sound of crickets)….because (yes, I’m bringing back the crickets)…because (well, it’s Obama campaign promise time, that’s why)….because (you have to be careful with crickets this time of year, there’s not a lot to go around)….because (what? you’d rather have frogs?) …because ….ummmmmm …..becaaauuusssse………..  Yeah, he couldn’t think of a good reason either, but, kudos to the producers for editing out the part where he says, “Check, please?”  FELLOW CITIZENS, IT’S TIME, IT’S TIMMME, TO PLAYYYY….. REASONS TO VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT WITHOUT…having…a reason…tooo….?  Huh??  Ohh mannn, didn’t we just do this?!!

Yes, here come the Democrats again with their most powerful weapon.  Say a whole lot of nothing about nothing, the media will drool all over themselves trying to cover it, Chris “Tingle’s” leg will go numb again listening to a speech about nothing and we’ll be right back where this all started in ObamaMainia with nothing.  Democrats will hope to change things right back where they had it, doing nothing and sipping martinis from the slush fund filled with your life blood’s earnings.  In order to do this, Chuck “call everybody that disagrees with me the chattering class” Schumer has told his Democrat buds to just call everything the Republicans do “extreme”.  How’s that for meaningful dialogue?!  This with a Government shut down looming on the horizon.  I mean, imagine, shutting a government down that with every minute keeps driving us…. billions….of dollars…. in….debt….imagine shutting…that….thing down…hmmm.

Here in Maine, with a looming budgetary crisis of our own, Democrats answer to balancing the budget is to throw the proverbial “hissy” fit over a…mural.  I’ve always been amazed how quickly my books get balanced when I throw screaming temper tantrums on completely irrelevant issues.  Kick the walls a few times and those numbers, columns just line right up like a faulty soda machine.  With all this nonsensical behavior from the Democrats, one would expect their political demise would be imminent.  Spending $60,000.00 on a mural to themselves,  $54 million for a capital building renovation that Libby Mitchell never asked taxpayer permission for, which included taking the top off the building to lower her massive desk in and building an underground tunnel to keep their legislative hienies sheltered from the weather (now that’s representing Mainers) and $157,000.00 in gift certificate favors from the turnpike authority (wasn’t that money for fixing roads?) would normally be a death sentence for a political party in the face of a voting electorate as frugal as Maine’s, but, the Democrats have an ally, a knight in shining armor, if you will.

The moderate wing of the Republican Party is, once again, behaving out of force of habit.  After spending forty years licking the boots of the Democrats, they seem to have acquired a taste for it.  Rather than leading, some Republicans have been falling all over themselves trying to appease the minority Party. This past November voters declared war on the Democrat Party and handed Republicans an historic mandate to effect change in Augusta, unfortunately, Republicans forgot to keep their powder dry.  Moderates immediately moved to exploit Conservative fervor and, with back door manipulations, were able to complete a last ditch effort to maintain power.  The end result was a weak Senate President and a corrupt Speaker of the House.  Neither has been able to exact control and offer direction over his respective chamber of the people’s house, and the people’s business sits languishing as a result.  One is afraid of losing friends in the Democrat Party if he makes anyone angry, the other is afraid an investigation might be forthcoming if he ruffles the feathers of a fellow legislator.  Borrowing a page from the Democrat playbook, the latest in the Kennebec soap opera is to write an editorial blaming the Governor for the legislative inept lack of focus.  Yet, it is the job of legislative leadership not executive leadership to keep legislators focused.  President Raye and Speaker Nutting would be better served spending less time wringing their hands over perceived, or real, faux pas by the Governor, pandering to the media, placating the Democrats and more time concentrating on their job at hand, which is not to smooth over the rough edges of Governor LePage.  If the Republicans can maintain a majority in the coming election, it may be in the best interests of the legislature to seek better focused, more competent and more effective energetic leadership that will move with a sense of urgency that is more befitting and appropriate to the crisis that faces our beloved State.  In the mean time, it should be suggested to these moderates to sit their taxpayer-funded butts back at their desks, shut up and, in a quote from coach Bill Belichick, “DO YOUR JOB”!!!!  GET TO WORK!!!!  Mainers are desperate for motivated leaders.  Leadership is not waffling and pandering.  Leadership is doing your job and letting the chips fall where they may which is something the Governor, however crusty and crude, is, to this point, alone in accomplishing.