Open mouth, insert foot

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    It’s been a bad week for politicians.
    After State Sen. Mike Willette acknowledged ownership of some tasteless Facebook posts, he stepped down from his co-chairmanship of the Legislature’s State and Local Government Committee last week.
    Willette apologized on the Senate floor for reposting a suggestion from a right-wing website that President Obama’s family reunion might include a few Isis combatants.

    Even the freedom-of-speech advocates rolled their eyes on that one.
    As anticipated, the Democrats were the first ones to organize a verbal firing squad, demanding that Willette step down from his Senate seat and apologize to everyone from Rachel Talbot Ross to Pope Francis.
    Cooler heads prevailed, however, and Willette is now minus a committee chairmanship.
    This came a week after Gov. Paul LePage wrongfully accused author Stephen King of avoiding Maine taxes by living in Florida most of the time. King delicately suggested that the governor was “full of stuff that makes the grass grow green.” I assume he didn’t mean water.
    The governor eventually backtracked and changed his radio address, deleting any reference to the Bangor author. But he refused to apologize, saying that the media quoted him out of context.
    LePage said that if you listen to the complete transcript, he specifically said, “Well, today former Governor Ken Curtis lives in Florida where there is zero income tax. Stephen King and Roxanne Quimby have moved away, as well.” So technically, he only said that King was in Florida at the time of his speech, not that he’s staying in the sunny South to avoid Maine taxes.
    In both cases, the speakers should have heeded the advice of Greek philosopher Epictetus: “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” Or in the case of Internet postings, “Think twice before you post once.”
    State Rep. Larry Lockman found out the hard way that words may be forgotten quickly, but an Internet post is forever.
    Last year, the same blogger that blew the whistle on Willette, Mike Tipping, dug out some rather bizarre beliefs espoused by Lockman back in the 1980s about homosexuality, income taxes and abortion.
    Lockman gave a half-hearted apology after the revelation, noting that his opinions had mellowed somewhat during the past 15 or 20 years. But I doubt if Lockman would accept an invitation to be best man at a same-sex wedding today.
    I predicted that Lockman might have trouble being reelected last fall. I was very wrong. He won by a bigger margin than he did in 2012.
    Foot-in-mouth disease is also bipartisan.
    Vice President Joe Biden once described job growth in his home state this way: “In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”
    And then there was his description of the economic stimulus package early in the Obama administration. “If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there’s still a 30 percent chance we’re going to get it wrong.”
    So if you put Sen. Willette, Rep. Lockman and VP Biden in the same room together, what would they come up with?
    Hopefully, dead silence.
    Mike Lange is a staff writer with the Piscataquis Observer. His opinions are his own and don’t necessarily reflect those of this newspaper.