Two Rebellious Republican Governors

Two Rebellious Republican Governors

Politicians are known to be many things among which is having an ingrained tendency to be, well, political in the diplomatic sense, not speaking their minds, not going out of their way to be overly honest by possibly offending people and certainly not insulting their constituents. It’s what makes them politicians.

It’s also what makes them phonies.

Therefore, when a pol departs from that norm and dumps the typical script in favor of straightforward, honest frankness, it’s refreshing.

On the eve of Martin Luther King Day 2011, newly-elected Republican Governor Paul LePage of Maine added just such a touch of refreshment when he announced in Sanford, ME to the displeasure of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People why he wouldn’t be attending the upcoming MLK festivities.

The governor, born into an impoverished, French-speaking Lewiston family of 18 kids who is a self-made man, said, “They are a special interest. End of story . . . and I’m not going to be held hostage by special interests.” He added when asked if this was part of a pattern, “Tell ‘em to kiss my butt. If they want to play the race card, come to dinner and my [adopted, black Jamaican] son will talk to them.”

Not attending MLK festivities? The NAACP a special interest playing the race card? Telling them to kiss his butt if they didn’t like it? What is this guy, anyway, an honest man or a politician?

The answer is obvious and his honesty should have been just as obvious since he didn’t pull any punches as a candidate, either. Then he had said that if he were elected governor, headlines would read, “Governor LePage tells Obama to go to hell.“ He later said he regretted his choice of words but stood behind their intent: http://tiny.cc/7j7ld

Another new Republican governor, Chris Christie of New Jersey, hasn’t yet taken on the president with such blunt language but give it time. What he has taken on during his brief, one-year tenure in Jersey is Obama’s most highly-favored groups, public service and especially teacher unions, whose benefits, salaries, and pensions are in process of bankrupting over half the states in America. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3428)