Imagine, if you will, that the U.S. Congress, led by Republicans John Boehner in the House and Mitch McConnell in the Senate, passed and sent 65 bills to President Obama that the president opposed. Many if not most of these bills would never have been truly intended to become law because everyone knew that they would be vetoed. So, in addition to some legislation that would do what the Republicans really want, much of it would be symbolic legislation more intended to satisfy or rile-up the right-wing party base. In other words, a lot of the legislation would be things that the Republicans would never pass if they had a Republican president because they (generally) know the difference between insane policy and workable legislation.
Now, imagine that President Obama simply forgot or neglected to veto the bills and they all became law by default.
What would that do to his legacy? What would that do to the Republican Party’s brand? It’s almost like calling their bluff, except that it’s a bet the president would never want to win.
Well, this is basically what happened in Maine, except the legislature isn’t controlled by Republicans and the governor is not a Democrat.
Governor Paul LePage has lost in court, and there are 65 laws now on the books that he should have vetoed. I don’t mean these are all bad laws. Most of them are probably good, or at least well-intentioned. I just mean that most of them were crafted with the understanding that they would probably be vetoed.
The 65 bills in question cover a wide range of policy areas, including General Assistance for asylum seekers, expanded use of a medication to treat drug overdoses, property tax breaks for Vietnam War veterans and birth control for MaineCare recipients.
What this means is that Paul LePage’s record as governor is going to be a great deal better (or, at least, progressive) than it would otherwise have been.
It also means that he let down the people who worked to elect him in a massive way.
Finally, it means that he’s without a doubt the worst governor in the country and among the worst in our national history.
This guy makes William J. Le Petomane look like a rocket surgeon.
this thing is warped…
I find it fascinating that both parties have basically moved to have the legislature run the state. Also I think you are incorrect about bills intended to become law. They’d already overridden his veto a number of times already so most of these are laws they’d be able to override as soon as he veto’d them.
With the initial 19 bills this happened to, the intent was to pocket-veto the lot, sparing LePage the embarrassment of having the lion’s share of them overridden if vetoed conventionally.
did the leg [pronounce “ledge”] want the bills to pass? and he was going to thwart them w a pocket veto?
They were not symbolic bills, or just veto bait.
They all had the kinds of majorities that would have overridden a veto. The legislature’s been running that way for a year or more, knowing what it’s up against. Actual bipartisan governance…
This was pure spite, and low cunning that backfired.
Exactly, Booman has not gotten the situation quite right. The Republicans were really mad when he cost that one Dem an education job for instance. They are basically making common cause to marginalize an crazy governor and that means passing laws that can beat a veto.
I don’t live in Maine but I find this story fascinating.
I don’t know, competition is very, very strong.
at least from the corruption/ grifter pov
Indeed: Christie, Walker, Brownback, Rick Scott, Snyder, Abbott, Jindal (!) …
Kind of hard to beat out Brownback, but LePage certainly has done that.
Not an impressive record against the duopoly.
Are we sure that the Clintons didn’t bribe a lot of Republicans into being covert agents? That’s starting to seem like a more reasonable explanation for the behavior of the GOP.
hmmmmm…How much do you think it would take to bribe LePage?
I don’t think Lepage’s corrupt — although his administration is another story entirely.
I think he’s not very bright, and very taken with himself.
His prior political experience was as mayor — under a city manager charter — of Waterville, pop. 17,000 or so.
So what you’re really looking at is a small town businessman, more of the old “running the state like a business” nonsense.
It’s a small state, so it was possible to climb into the governorship on such a thin track record.
Maine’s fascination with amateurs, non-politicians, anti-politicians and independents has a lot to do with his rise. He’s basically a little tiny Trump.
Having the opposition (i.e., Democratic) vote split two ways in both elections helped LePage as well.
Elliot Carter, the human totebag and walking MPBN membership premium came close in 2010, and delivered a late and grudging message to his troops to engage in tactical voting.
He’s the real Democrat, of course — he didn’t leave the party, the party left him. There were voters who weren’t going to vote for LePage — too Teahadi — but weren’t going to vote tactically either.
Michaud was too ethnic; from the wrong, poor end of the state; a union man; and too redolent of the mill-towns the Volvo vote want to pretend don’t exist — unless they’re doing loft conversions in them.
jais comprenez,
He’s a closet progressive.
2 bills…maybe overlooked.
65?
come on, now.
I agree that this guy is a joke, but I’m not convinced that the passage of those bills is a bad thing for Maine. Birth control for MaineCare recipients? Hell yes!
What’s a concrete example of a bill that the dems passed that we would oppose because it was written without concern that it might become law?
Cotton supports in 1965.