{"id":182706,"date":"2015-06-26T18:35:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-26T23:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/06\/26\/if-he-doesnt-get-impeached-paul-lepage-should-be-horsewhipped-in-the-public-square\/"},"modified":"2015-06-26T18:35:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-26T23:35:00","slug":"if-he-doesnt-get-impeached-paul-lepage-should-be-horsewhipped-in-the-public-square","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/06\/26\/if-he-doesnt-get-impeached-paul-lepage-should-be-horsewhipped-in-the-public-square\/","title":{"rendered":"If He Doesn’t Get Impeached, Paul LePage Should Be Horsewhipped in the Public Square"},"content":{"rendered":"
In the Maine State House, Speaker Speaker Mark Eves has been a consistent thorn in the side in the side of Governor, and Teabagger Supremo, Paul LePage.<\/div>\n

Because of this, LePage threatened to pull funding a the school that had recently hired him<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The board of Good Will-Hinckley School withdrew its job offer to House Speaker Mark Eves just days before he was to become the school\u2019s new president, making the decision after Gov. Paul LePage apparently threatened to withhold state funding for the school.<\/p>\n

The school said Wednesday that the board of directors had \u201cvoted to seek a new direction for the institution\u2019s leadership\u201d in order to avoid \u201cpolitical controversy.\u201d But Eves\u2019 attorney said the state legislator had been \u201cterminated \u2026 without cause\u201d and hinted at legal action against the governor.<\/p>\n

Eves, meanwhile, released a statement accusing LePage of \u201cblackmailing\u201d the school for at-risk youths by threatening to cut $500,000 in state funding. He said that could potentially cause the loss of another $2 million in private funding for the school, which has an annual budget of $4.5 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor knows that these financial losses would put the school out of business, but he has refused to back down,\u201d said Eves, D-North Berwick. \u201cThis is an abuse of power that jeopardizes Maine children. The governor\u2019s actions represent the worst kind of vendetta politics Maine has ever seen. If it goes unchecked, no legislator will feel safe in voting his conscience for fear that the governor will go after the legislator\u2019s family and livelihood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good Will-Hinckley, in Fairfield, announced June 9 that it had hired Eves as the school\u2019s new president despite a last-minute intercession by LePage<\/a>. On Wednesday, board Chairman Jack Moore announced the decision to withdraw the offer to Eves, who was scheduled to begin work next Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe basis for this decision is grounded in the institution\u2019s desire not to be involved in political controversy that will divert attention away from our core mission of serving children and has the potential to jeopardize the future of our school,\u201d Moore said in a prepared statement. \u201cGood Will-Hinckley has a very dedicated staff. The board\u2019s first priority is to act in the best interest of students and educators alike and the board\u2019s actions reflect its unwavering commitment to them.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Eves is seriously considering suing LePage, and it appears that “Hizzoner” made his threats in writing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Maine Attorney General is also, “Very troubled<\/a>,” by the Governor’s behavior, though she has issued no further comment.<\/p>\n

My first question was, “Where is the impeachment investigation?”<\/p>\n

Well, here it is<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Six lawmakers said Thursday they will attempt to launch impeachment proceedings against Republican Gov. Paul LePage for his alleged role in pushing Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves out of a new job at Good Will-Hinckley School.<\/p>\n

Independent Reps. Jeffrey Evangelos of Friendship and Ben Chipman of Portland and Democratic Reps. Pinny Beebe-Center of Rockland, Lydia Blume of York, Roberta Beavers of South Berwick and Charlotte Warren of Hallowell said Thursday they are exploring disciplinary action against LePage, including impeachment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m asking my fellow legislators to study abuse of authority, conduct unbecoming and possible misuse of public assets,\u201d said Evangelos, who is leading the effort. \u201cI believe that Gov. LePage has violated his authority by intimidating a private entity with the end objective of violating speaker Eves\u2019 civil rights, his ability to seek outside employment and provide for his family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The House of Representatives has \u201csole power of impeachment\u201d according to Article 4 of the Maine Constitution. The Senate has the \u201csole authority to try all impeachments.\u201d Impeachment requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, the leadership in the House are going all wobbly on this:<\/p>\n

Democratic leaders on Friday said they are reviewing all options to deal with what they describe as a disturbing pattern of behavior by Republican Gov. Paul LePage. At the same time, they have asked their colleagues to not act rashly and to stay focused on legislative work \u2013 especially an override of an expected LePage budget veto that will require a bipartisan, two-thirds vote.<\/span>

<\/span>House majority leader Rep. Jeff McCabe, D-Skowhegan, and assistant leader Rep. Sara Gideon, D-Freeport, said that \u201cnothing is off the table,\u201d when it comes to possible actions against LePage, but they urged restraint among activists and rank-and-file lawmakers.<\/span>

<\/span>The two spoke a day after House Speaker Mark Eves, D-North Berwick, said that LePage threatened to yank state funding from the Good Will-Hinckley school unless it broke its contract to hire Eves as its next president. The story has dominated discussion at the state Capitol, where attention had been focused on getting a state budget passed, with members of both parties expressing concern that LePage overstepped his executive power by using funding for the school as a weapon against a political foe.<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>The Eves controversy has prompted a call for impeachment \u2013 unprecedented in Maine gubernatorial history \u2013 among some liberal lawmakers and activists. On Friday, McCabe and Gideon didn\u2019t rule out such a proceeding, but focused more on the possibility of an investigation, by either state or federal authorities.<\/span>

<\/span>\u201cBased on some of the comments that the governor has had recently, as well as his actions with Speaker Eves and impeding Speaker Eves from obtaining a job, I think there\u2019s a lot of research that\u2019s going to go on,\u201d McCabe said. \u201cThere\u2019s also some pending legal matters. So there\u2019s nothing that\u2019s off the table, but there\u2019s a lot of research that needs to be done.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Too many weasel words from the leadership.<\/p>\n

This sort of sh%$ has former Texas Governor Rick Perry under indictment in Texas.  Do the people of Maine really want to be on the wrong side of abuse of power and Texas<\/span><\/b>?<\/p>\n

In that case, Perry had the fig leaf of a  DUI arrest for the DA, but here, the Governor is claiming that his threats are only as a result of the political stances of an opponent.<\/p>\n

I hope not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Maine State House, Speaker Speaker Mark Eves has been a consistent thorn in the side in the side of Governor, and Teabagger Supremo, Paul LePage. Because of this, LePage threatened to pull funding a the school that had recently hired him: The board of Good Will-Hinckley School withdrew its job offer to House …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[970,975,969,978],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption","category-employment","category-evil","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}