Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

People are complicated. Love is not.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

I really should read my own blog.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

In my day, never was longer.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Come on, man.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Clown Shoes Open Thread: Maine Gov. LePetomane LePage Lets Out Dog Whistle Siren

Clown Shoes Open Thread: Maine Gov. LePetomane LePage Lets Out Dog Whistle Siren

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Via commentor LAMH. Report from Maine’s Portland Press Herald:

… About 30 minutes into the meeting, which was rebroadcast Thursday night,[Gov. Paul] LePage responded to a question about how he was tackling substance abuse in Maine. He began talking about how much of the heroin is coming into Maine from out-of-state drug dealers.

“These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty … these types of guys … they come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home,” LePage told the crowd. “Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue we have to deal with down the road.”

Peter Steele, the governor’s communication director, said in a written statement Thursday night that LePage’s remarks were not about race, but about the emotional toll drugs have on children.

“The governor is not making comments about race. Race is irrelevant,” Steele said. “What is relevant is the cost to state taxpayers for welfare and the emotional costs for these kids who are born as a result of involvement with drug traffickers. His heart goes out to these kids because he had a difficult childhood, too. We need to stop the drug traffickers from coming into our state.”

Steele, who rarely answers telephone calls from reporters and insists on email communications, did not respond to an email requesting an interview with LePage; nor did he respond to an email follow-up question to his statement.

Phil Bartlett, chairman of the Maine Democratic Party, said in an interview that the comments “at best were coded racism,” designed to divide Maine people. He said the comment fits into a national narrative being expounded by Republicans, who are increasingly using “pretty overt racist language and imagery rather than talking about the merits of public policy.”

“It’s outrageous,” Bartlett said. “Everybody should be denouncing his comments and what they’re intended to provoke. I would call upon all Republicans to stand up and say this is wrong and it’s not acceptable in our public discourse. It’s simply indefensible.”

Lance Dutson, a Republican operative who runs the Get Right Maine website, which seeks to restore a more moderate brand of Republicanism in Maine, described the remark in a blog post as “one of the most offensive statements yet from this Governor.”

Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine Republican Party, refused to comment on the governor’s remarks, instead he took aim at Dutson. “We don’t respond to attacks from disgruntled former staffers,” Savage said…

Additional Repubs in Disarray! details at the link. With all due respect, Mr. Dutson — if I were you, I’d switch my registration before these guys devolve to actual cannibalism.

Reader Interactions

102Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    which seeks to restore a more moderate brand of Republicanism in Maine

    It’s My Party Too!

    Wanker.

  2. 2.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    The grand old part of the party left a long time ago. I’m telling you that it is getting scary up here.

  3. 3.

    ? Martin

    They’re handing out Brita filters to residents in Flint to deal with the drinking water lead issue. Brita doesn’t filter lead – so everyone who has been avoiding the tapwater will now unknowingly start drinking it again with no real protection.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    @MomSense: I read a while ago that you were going to move. That’s sad. I’ve come across good people in Maine. Sad to see this happen in which used to be a community oriented state.

  8. 8.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    It’s time. I just spoke with a cousin who is also looking out of state. I never thought she would consider it but she is also feeling discouraged about things here.

    I wish I could tell people that LePage is an aberration but the recent mayoral race in Lewiston brought out this same ugly strain.

  9. 9.

    schrodinger's cat

    How did this classless jerk get elected and reelected? I actually had a lot of Republican friends when I lived up there, many of them started voting for Democrats since Dubya happened.

  11. 11.

    MomSense

    @? Martin:

    Wow. That is just more evil on top of evil. They really need to replace the pipes in these homes as they are irreparably corroded.

  12. 12.

    Frankensteinbeck

    A young WHITE girl? Well, so much for dog whistles. It will be interesting to see who is able to convince themselves that such a blatant statement is even debatably about race. I wonder if there’s a way to check how the major media outlets describe this specific story? My Google Fu is not strong.

  13. 13.

    The Pale Scot

    BS: Heroin is distributed in white communities by locals going to cities, making the buy, and marking it up 100%(+). That’s the way it has always been, junkies curbing their costs by buying for others on their runs. And they get their money up front, or the price is jacked up considerably.

  14. 14.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    CD1 is reliably blue. CD2 is less so. CD2 is also difficult to canvas as so much of it is really spread out. The Republicans picked up a Congressional seat in 2014.

  21. 21.

    Mike in NC

    A friend of mine once claimed he met more rednecks in Maine than in Georgia. But I was stationed there in 1981-82 and really liked the place.

  23. 23.

    David Koch

    Jon Favreau ‏@jonfavs

    [email protected] getting tough gun questions on live TV from people across the political spectrum was a good thing – there should be more of that

    42 retweets 81 likes

    karnow venice, ca

    Thank you, Mr. President. Sad to see you go. You will be a tough act to follow. Not sure we will again see such greatness in our time.

    608 Recommend

    Jonathan Yukich New Haven, CT

    Thank you, Mr. President, for continuing to do all that you can. You will always have my admiration and gratitude for what you’ve done in the face of heartless, obstinate, often obtuse opposition. I was so proud to vote for you in 2008, prouder still in 2012. I doubt I’ll see a better leader in my lifetime. I only hope that you’ve set a standard for grace, class, poise and compassion in the office that many will follow after you.

    326 Recommend

  26. 26.

    MomSense

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Yes and also in Portland. My older kids ran cross country and became friends with the Somali runners on the Lewiston team. They would tell some horrible stories about some of the comments they heard people say.

  27. 27.

    Brachiator

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I wonder if there’s a way to check how the major media outlets describe this specific story? My Google Fu is not strong.

    Even if you just google “Maine,” the top stories on the page feature variations on a quote about “Drug dealers named D Money impregnating young white girls.”

    Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine Republican Party, refused to comment on the governor’s remarks, instead he took aim at Dutson. “We don’t respond to attacks from disgruntled former staffers,” Savage said…

    And with this the Maine GOP doubles down on purging moderates, or at least letting them know they are not welcome.

    Crazy times. It is hard to know where all this polarization is going, but it cannot be good.

  28. 28.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    Smoothie and Shifty are not Connecticut drug dealers. Take it from a Nutmegger: Look for a Volvo with CT’s “Preserve the Sound” license plates and occupants named Mr. Moxie (an alias to blend in) and Sunny D.

  29. 29.

    Patricia Kayden

    It’s not about race but he’s worried about White women getting impregnated. That really makes sense.

  31. 31.

    SFAW

    @MomSense:

    Isn’t Lewiston LePage’s home town? (Yeah, I guess I could look it up.)

    Mrs SFAW and I talk about moving up your way after the kids are in (or out of) college. We both like it, and finding some nice lakefront place would be good. But then I start thinking about that Contender for Teh Most Evul Governor in America, and I have second thoughts. And now you say that you’re going to leave? You’re adding to my depression.

    Elliot Cutler and Charlie Crist should move to the Land of Clueless Assholes, for all the good they’ve done to America.

  32. 32.

    David Koch

    U.S. soccer legend Abby Wambach will criss-cross the state[NH] Friday [for Clinton].

    Wow. I’m impressed. That’s a BIG get. Jettisoning the cronies and bringing in Obama’s wiz kids have made such a difference – ths campaign is so competent and lacking in drama that marked prior Clinton cycles.

    Planned Parenthood.. said Thursday that it would endorse Hillary Clinton — its first endorsement in a presidential primary in the nonprofit’s 100-year existence.

    Uh-oh. I haven’t looked, but I imagine the berniesphere is throwing one of their patented tantrums.

  35. 35.

    cokane

    ha, even if you could excuse the made up names as not being about black people… under a very very generous reading… he said “impregnate a young, white girl…” you can’t say race is irrelevant without disowning that comment completely i.e. “the gov. misspoke and apologizes”

  36. 36.

    debbie

    @? Martin:

    Has anyone given the number of kids that have suffered brain damage as a result of Snyder’s drive for bottom-line efficiencies?

  38. 38.

    MomSense

    @SFAW:

    My extended family will be here and they are cool! It is a great place to retire. Lots of music, theater, great restaurants, etc. My challenge is that our economy has a lot of service jobs and lower paying jobs. I started looking at what I could earn elsewhere and it is enough of a difference that it’s worth trying.
    If you do look seriously at a move, I would consider Rockland, Brunswick, Bath, Portland, (pricey but a great city) Bluehill, Belfast, and a couple others.

  40. 40.

    D-Money

    Nyeah, seee? We’re gonna round up Shifty and Smoothie and Mugsy and head up to Maine. We’re gonna peddle the white horse and then we’re knock up some white broads, see? Then we’re gonna head back home.

    Nyaaa.

    Forgot to add, this all has to be done in a traditional bad Jimmy Cagney voice.

  41. 41.

    JGabriel

    Portland Press Herald via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    Lance Dutson, a Republican operative who runs the Get Right Maine website, which seeks to restore a more moderate brand of Republicanism …

    Give it up, Dutson, that ship’s already sailed – it left port about 55 years ago. Time to register as a Democrat.

  42. 42.

    SFAW

    @MomSense:

    Thanks for the advice. We’re looking at four-season stuff in Raymond (Panther, Crescent), Poland (Thompson), possibly Windham or Bridgton (the two Highlands), but we might do an in-town condo with a “camp” on a nice lake. [If I win Powerball, it’ll be a really NICE camp.] Belgrade’s a little far, Acton is too far from our friends near Sebago. I used to want to find a place in Pine Point, but the (anticipated) sea level rise has pretty much killed that idea for me.

    Of course, I’ll be lucky to be able to retire before 70, which is still a decade away. But by that time, LePage should be gone. If he isn’t, then …. well, I don’t want to think about it.

    From some of your previous comments, I got the idea that you’re in Cumberland or maybe Androscoggin counties. If you’re in Aroostook or even Piscataquis, then I don’t blame you for looking elsewhere

  44. 44.

    Davis X. Machina

    @MomSense: MomSense is right — if relocating, as a rule of thumb, stay east of the Turnpike, it’s New England.

    West of the Turnpike, it’s Pennsultucky…

    LePage, IIRC, was mayor of Waterville before his elevation to the Blaine House….another declining mill town, only without the cosmopolitan flair of Lewiston-Auburn.

  45. 45.

    rikyrah

    uh huh.

    And so, you have BLACK drug dealers, from OUT OF STATE, because you have like, 3 Black people in the entire state of Maine, who have nothing better to do than drive hours to find them a Becky to impregnate.

    okey-dokey then.

  46. 46.

    Renie

    @MomSense: My husband and I are already looking ahead on where to retire. It’s getting to the point where I have to look at the politics of a location in addition to the regular factors of cost, weather and health care. There are too many crazy state legislators out there, we really have no idea where to look. We live in the NYC metro area but the high cost of living is having us want to live in a less expensive place but I don’t know where those places are that are still sane.

  49. 49.

    SFAW

    @MomSense:

    Thanks. I had already looked at Maranacook a little, but we’re trying to keep it within easy drive to Raymond (and Portland, which is where Mrs. SFAW will probably work, if she’s still working when we relo).

    I’ve gamed out a number of scenarios in my head, not sure where things will fall, but Panther and Thompson are both alluring (although Poland’s a tad far of a commute from Portland). I like Panther for the lack of a public boat-launch area (keeps them Massholes away).

    If I had been born rich, instead of good-looking, this would be a lot easier. Of course, I ain’t good looking, either, so maybe I should quit whining.

  55. 55.

    MomSense

    @SFAW:

    If she is commuting to Portland I would definitely look at Brunswick or Topsham. 30 minutes by car, Amtrak stop for travel, great restaurants,lots of musical offerings, bookstores, small theaters, Bowdoin college, a good hospital, and lots of beaches and state parks close by. I just looked at some condos, assisted and independent living places for my Mom. They have a community run shuttle so you can get around without a car. I

  59. 59.

    Mike J

    Philip Rucker ‏@PhilipRucker 4h4 hours ago
    Trump on Vermont protesters: “Throw them out. Throw them out into the cold. No coats. Confiscate their coats.

    ”

    Confiscate their coats? Does he really think that even if he were elected he would have the power to do that? And did his brownshirts actually try it?

  60. 60.

    WJS

    The best part of a story like this is how quickly some helpful young fellow at Breitbart.com will explain that there have been at least 43,000 young white girls impregnated in Maine by a handful of men named Shifty since 2011 and that the Obama Administration has been marketing undersized condoms to African Americans through their condom and Obama phone program.

  62. 62.

    Peale

    @The Pale Scot: I don’t know. Maybe Maine is a special case. Like the drug dealers named T-Bone and Oatmeal looked at Maine and figured a place with such loose and fertile women was worth goining to themselves.

  67. 67.

    cmorenc

    SURPRISE! Over at Faux News, not a single mention about LePage or his racist comment. Instead, filled with the usual sort of Fox propaganda – focusing tonight on purporting to expose “lies” in Obama’s town hall comments about guns tonight.

  68. 68.

    SFAW

    @cmorenc:

    Hey, you should be glad that they didn’t Photoshop a picture of the Kenyan Mooslim usurper dressed up in O’Keefe-style pimp duds, and saying he used to go by the name C-Honky* when he’d try to deal placebos to the virginal white girls in Dover-Foxcroft and T4 R9.

    *Which is short for “C-I-L-L a Honky”

  70. 70.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @ruemara: LOD made that point as well, so tRump is encouraging crime among his supporters.

    ETA: I’m old enough to remember when Republicans were the “Law and Order Party”.

  71. 71.

    SFAW

    @ruemara:

    That’s called theft

    I think it’s robbery, if they took it from the victims directly (as opposed to from the coat closet). On the other hand, I could be full of it.

  74. 74.

    andy

    Well, wikipedia says LePage did grow up hard. But since suffering doesn’t necessarily confer any kind of virtue on the victim, there’s no reason he would have developed a speck of empathy, either. My dad was much like that, too, though not as huge a dick as LePage turned out to be.

    Then there’s this little tidbit:

    LePage applied to Husson College in Bangor, but he was rejected due to a poor verbal score on the SAT because English was his second language. He has said that State Representative Peter Snowe—the first husband of former U.S. senator Olympia Snowe—persuaded Husson to give LePage a written exam in French, which allowed LePage to show his reading comprehension skills and gain admission.

    Very inspiring- too bad he didn’t learn a damn thing from someone giving him a hand up.

  75. 75.

    beltane

    @ruemara: Worse than the theft aspect, Trump was under the impression that it was -10 out tonight and that he’d be tossing protesters into subzero temperatures without their coats. Thankfully, it was relatively warm out so no one suffered frostbite or worse. Trump’s intentions were still quite evil.

  78. 78.

    AxelFoley

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    A young WHITE girl? Well, so much for dog whistles. It will be interesting to see who is able to convince themselves that such a blatant statement is even debatably about race. I wonder if there’s a way to check how the major media outlets describe this specific story? My Google Fu is not strong.

    CNN will have Don Lemon or Anderson Cooper explain to us how it’s not about race.

  79. 79.

    gene108

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    If a white person does not say “nigger, nigger, nigger” there’s no way to tell if he is racist, and even if does say “nigger” he might not be racist because black people use the word all the time.

  81. 81.

    Another Holocene Human

    LePage is just jawing in the grand tradition of Whitey Bulger, pinning drug trafficking on black drug runners while protecting the white ones.

    We had a visit down here in sunny (lol) Gainesville, Florida from some violent white Mainiac drug dealers. US Marshals came looking for them, they did. (Sadly, like Whitey, someone had tipped them off.)

    Seriously, though, the drugs are coming via Boston or, these days, maybe even Vermont. Never mind what’s getting brewed at home. What a prick.

  84. 84.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Patricia Kayden:

    It’s not about race but he’s worried about White women getting impregnated. That really makes sense.

    He’s not racist, he’s just concerned about illegitimate Black voters swinging the next election. He said they came in buses–school buses?

  85. 85.

    Another Holocene Human

    @David Koch:

    Planned Parenthood.. said Thursday that it would endorse Hillary Clinton — its first endorsement in a presidential primary in the nonprofit’s 100-year existence.

    Uh-oh. I haven’t looked, but I imagine the berniesphere is throwing one of their patented tantrums.

    IDK, that’s assuming they care. Women’s rights will be “fixed” in the revolution, so who needs NGOs like PP? I don’t recall if Bernie himself has been stupid enough to do this but his crowd has a record of denigrating women’s reproductive health/rights issues as distractions.

  86. 86.

    Another Holocene Human

    @efgoldman:

    They always forget about poor but proud Rhode Island. Our dealers are as good as anybody’s!

    I know, right? CT? Do they teleport across the rest of New England?

  87. 87.

    Another Holocene Human

    @SFAW: Why not? RI was settled by robber barons who set up a low tax state and it’s been economically disadvantaged ever since.

    It used to be–maybe still true?–you could tell when you cross the MA-RI border by the state of the private residential properties.

    Low tax = low wage = low infrastructure and fuck Kerry for registering his yacht in RI to evade taxes also, too.

  89. 89.

    SFAW

    @Another Holocene Human:

    I think you’re focusing on the “poor” part of “poor but proud” more than I was.

    It’s like this: Vo Dilun (as Atrios calls it) seems to be inordinately proud of such luminaries as Buddy Cianci and Ray Patriarca. (I can here ef going “Again with the Buddy thing? What is it with you?”)

    I don’t hear too many Massholes extolling the virtues of Joe Barboza or Steve Flemmi. (The jury’s still out on Butchy Doe.)

    Although, to be fair, Buddy’s “crimes” – if you want to call them that – are nowhere near those of Barboza or Flemmi or Patriarca. And if Buddy were mad at me, I don’t think he’d put out a hit on me.

  92. 92.

    Matt McIrvin

    As a resident of the (fairly white) town where the drug dealers all actually come from, I am offended by his refusal to mention us.

    I’ll always think of Paul LePage as the governor who stated in a public speech that wind turbines have secret motors hidden in them to make them look like the wind is turning them.

  94. 94.

    Tripod

    Francophones in glass houses….Montreal is the primary transit locus for the Maine drug trade.

  95. 95.

    SFAW

    @Tripod:

    Montreal is the primary transit locus for the Maine drug trade.

    C’est vrai? Merde!

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I’ll always think of Paul LePage as the governor who stated in a public speech that wind turbines have secret motors hidden in them to make them look like the wind is turning them.

    I was about to ask if you were serious, then figured you probably are.
    Somewhere, Sigmund Freud and Isaac Newton are weeping. Or laughing.

  96. 96.

    Paul in KY

    Will repeat a comment I made on a below thread:

    This shitheel makes Evan Meachum (former nutwad governor of Arizona) look like Seneca.

  102. 102.

    John

    @David Koch: I stand corrected and contrite, for it was Robinson of whom I was thinking. May James Cagney’s immortal soul forgive my error.

Comments are closed.