This week, the Democrats of Maine called on Congresswoman Chellie Pingree to be their mouthpiece in Augusta and make ridiculous claims, using divisive language, to accuse the governor that his request to the federal government to reduce the eligibility for medicaid was “illegal”. Ridiculous. That’s just not true. Doesn’t she realize that Obamacare is going in front of the Supreme Court because it may be illegal? As usual, Pingree and the Maine Democrats take an opportunity to sit down and work with the governor, and turn it into a negative, personal attack that tries to take everyone’s eyes ‘off the ball’. This is what they do when they can’t argue an issue on the facts, and expect a lot more of the same from them this campaign year.
It’s absurd to think that a sitting U.S. Congresswoman should take time away from her elected duties, to travel back to her state to accuse her governor of breaking the law!? If Representative Pingree wants to step down from her seat to run as a STATE representative, then please do so. Otherwise, represent the state of Maine in the U.S. Congress, and leave the state level issues to the state representatives. Instead, she’s inserting herself into a situation that just happens to get her media attention in time for campaign season. We applaud Pingree for coming to meet with the Governor, but then to use that meeting to “grand stand” and publically criticize makes one wonder what the real purpose of coming to the meeting was.
For her to have scheduled the meeting in Maine at 8:45 A.M. on a day that the U.S. Congress was in session, and to have missed a very important vote that was taken later that night, seems that she is shirking her duties that she was elected for. She has a privately owned jet and could have easily made the vote in D.C., but instead, opted to fill the vacuum of leadership in her party at the state level, and to start her 2012 campaign for Congress.
Charlie Webster
Chairman, Maine Republican Party
