"POLITICS AND OTHER MISTAKES"
Changin' tires on the road to ruin
By Al Diamon
"I'm working to get things done," Democratic Gov. John Baldacci told the Kennebec Journal, shortly after being re-elected last November with a whopping 38 percent of the vote. "I'm not looking to set up study groups. I'm looking for a lot of action."
A lot of action? Better do something about the comb-over.
A few weeks later, Baldacci was quoted in the Portland Press Herald: "People are angry in Maine about their property taxes. Let me just say, I'm trying to deal with the relief that people are demanding."
In late December, the governor laid out his agenda for the Capitol News Service. "It's jobs, jobs and jobs," he said. "And property tax relief, property tax relief, property tax relief."
In early 2007, he stayed on message.
"We will raise incomes by making investments in key areas," he announced in his inaugural address in January, "to prepare Maine people for good-paying private sector jobs."
"Enough is enough," he told the Maine Sunday Telegram a few days later. "We have to change the way things are being done around here."
In the same newspaper in February, he warned, "I'm just beginning to flex my muscles."
Someone should have told him it's not his muscles. It's his hair.
"It's very clear to me that we have to be innovators in our economy and our education," Baldacci was quoted as saying by Boston University's Washington News Service in late February. "We need to ask more of ourselves in terms of providing opportunities for children to be successful in the future."
He made a similar point in an Associated Press story from around the same time. "In this global economy," the governor said, "it's vital that Maine place itself in a strong competitive position."
But in March, Baldacci's focus began to shift from his promise of action to complaints about the lack thereof. In his first weekly radio address, devoted to his education reform plan, he said, "Right now, those with a vested interest in the status quo - those content to just say ‘no' to any change - are dominating the public discussion. They are using fear and misinformation to hide a simple truth. If Maine is to move forward, to continue to innovate, we cannot do the same old things in the same old way."
Another week, another radio address, this one delivered as the NCAA basketball tournament began.
"March Madness would take on a whole new meaning if we allow bickering and ideological zeal to block meaningful investment in our future," Baldacci said. "It's my hope that the madness will be left on the hardwood courts and not find its way into the halls of the State House. Unlike the tournament, this is no game."
Also, unlike the tournament, there's no action.
In politics, this kind of whining almost always indicates the speaker has belatedly discovered he's losing the battle and is now positioning himself to deflect blame for his failure onto the victors. That impression was strengthened by a May 6 Sunday Telegram op-ed in which the governor re-states his original intentions ("We must change now for the sake of quality education, to reduce the tax burden and to strengthen Maine's economy"), but admits he has "concerns" about many of the alternative ideas proposed by both Democrats and Republicans.
"We must commit to actual change," he writes. "We can no longer afford simply to talk about the possibility of working together in new ways."
Translation: My plan is toast. Whatever happens now is somebody else's fault. If you need me, I'll be out looking for some action.
Blame it on the girl
People often ask me, "Al, can you tell us what's become of former state Rep. Barbara Merrill of Appleton? She wrote a book laying out her ideas for solving Maine's problems. She got 20 percent of the vote as an independent candidate in the last gubernatorial election. She promised to stay involved. But we haven't heard anything from her since she finished third behind Baldacci and Republican Chandler Woodcock. What's she got cooking?"
Actually, no one ever asks me that. But if they did, I've got the answer: Brazilian food.
Merrill and her husband, Phil, are opening a Brazilian restaurant in the village of Manset in Southwest Harbor. The ex-candidate has experience in the food-service industry from her law school days, when she bartended at J's Oyster in Portland. She's also getting help from a relative with a background in restaurant management. The Merrills claim to be familiar with Southwest Harbor, having visited there on summer cruises in their old lobster boat, and are considering moving to the area.
The new eatery's name will be Blame It On Rio, because, as Merrill explained to the Bangor Daily News, "There's no point in blaming it on Baldacci anymore."
You can blame it on me by e-mailing aldiamon@herniahill.net.
