"POLITICS AND OTHER MISTAKES"
Bad history
By Al Diamon
It's not as if Democratic state Sen. John Martin of Eagle Lake doesn't have any positive qualities. He's politically adept. He's loyal to his friends.And, uh … that's about it.
During a legislative career dating back to 1964, Martin, currently the Senate's assistant majority leader and formerly the speaker of the House, has earned a reputation for being ruthless, vindictive, arrogant and obstructive.
On his good days.
Martin also has a tendency to use the past as his personal plaything. Having hung around the State House for so long, he knows that whatever spin he puts on historical events will be accepted as fact by legislators - who, thanks to term limits, have no institutional memory - and journalists - who, thanks to timidity, incompetence or laziness, have no desire to challenge Martin's myth-making.
A case in point: One of Martin's protégés, a lawyer named Chuck Dow, got hammered by Republicans after he was nominated for a District Court judgeship by Gov. John Baldacci. Most of the criticism centered on Dow's age - he's 33 - his lack of courtroom experience - less than five months - and his background as a political operative for influential Democrats. In spite of his questionable qualifications, Dow was confirmed for the job by the Democratically controlled Senate.
Even though his guy won, Martin felt compelled to defend Dow in a Feb. 11 op-ed published in the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel. Martin argued that Dow was the latest in a long line of illustrious jurists unfairly attacked for their youthfulness and the thinness of their resumes.
His first example: Chief Justice Leigh Saufley of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. When Saufley was nominated for a District Court seat in 1990, said Martin, "she was told she was too young to wear a robe and she lacked the appropriate experience. She was too green, too wet behind the ears."
The clanging noise you hear is the irony alarm.
What Martin neglects to mention is that the people who told Saufley that stuff were Democrats, including some of the senator's closest allies. Barry Hobbins, then, as now, the Senate chair of the Judiciary Committee, was among those who claimed that numerous (unnamed) lawyers planned to show up at Saufley's confirmation hearing to oppose her nomination.
In fact, none did, because Hobbins and the other Dems weren't really interested in derailing the nomination. They just wanted an at-large judge, one of their cronies, transferred to the Portland court seat Saufley was supposed to get. Once GOP Gov. John McKernan agreed to switch Saufley to an at-large slot, Democrats forgot all about her alleged lack of experience and unanimously confirmed her.
Politics aside, Martin's comparison of Saufley and Dow doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Although she was only two years older when nominated than he is now, she had years of litigation experience in private practice, as legal counsel to the Veterans Hospital in Togus and as an assistant attorney general representing the Department of Human Services. She was then promoted to deputy attorney general, placing her in charge of all child and adult protective cases in Maine, proceedings that constitute a major part of District Court judges' workloads.
Martin's next example: Daniel Wathen, who served as chief justice before Saufley. According to Martin, Wathen "had little trial experience and not many years under his belt when appointed to serve" as a Superior Court justice in 1976. In reality, Wathen, who was then four years older than Dow's current age, had been in private practice for over a decade.
Next, Martin turned to Maine's first women judge, the late Harriet Henry. According to the senator, when she was appointed in 1973, she had "absolutely no trial experience."
For once, Martin is right. Until she was chosen for the bench, Henry hadn't spent much time in courtrooms. Instead, she'd become a nationally recognized expert in marine and environmental law. She was also head of the Portland Housing Authority. And, although she was a prominent Republican, she was nominated by Democratic Gov. Ken Curtis.
One last point Martin neglects to mention: By the time Henry donned her black robes, she was almost old enough to be Dow's mother.
Maybe Martin realized his examples were weak, because in the final part of his essay, he turns from history to hysteria. He attempts to smear those who voted against Dow (coincidentally, all Republicans) by claiming they were motivated by "fear and distrust" of "a person of French descent."
Since Dow's Franco heritage isn't obvious (the name often connotes English ancestry), his opponents were probably surprised to learn of their prejudice. And that bias must have been a revelation to District Court judges Charles LaVerdiere, John Beliveau, Roland Cote, Andre Janelle, Roland Beaudoin, Paul Cote and Ronald Daigle, all of whom attracted GOP support at their confirmation hearings.
Zut alors! You can e-mail me at aldiamon@herniahill.net. But watch your language.
