The Maine Concern

In what has been for most of the coverage a convoluted issue, I have some very basic, starting thoughts on the latest accusation against Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate from Maine.

1. I have no idea what the truth is, but I think that any such accusation by any woman against anyone should be taken seriously and investigated.

2. As a local election, the public in Maine alone will decide whether or not to vote for him, if he decides to stay in the race.

3.  Whatever the discussion, whatever the opinions, I don’t want to hear one word of “outrage” by MAGOPS about it.  We will, of course, this is the MAGOP.  But I don’t want to hear it.  Nor should anyone.  A woman testified under oath that Trump raped her, and he was adjudicated twice by a jury, and MAGOPs were perfectly okay with that and voted for him to be president.  A woman testified under oath that Brett Kavanaugh raped her, and MAGOPs were perfectly okay with that and not only supported his nomination to a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court but their senators voted to confirm him.  And a dozen women claimed Trump sexually assaulted them – and MAGOPs as a united party dismissed them all out of hand, and voted twice for Trump to be president.  So, any “outrage” by MAGOPs – no matter what the outcome of the situation is with Graham Platner – is meaningless and just empty, outlandish hypocrisy in its purest form.  In fact, the only impact MAGOP “outrage” here has is to draw attention to the fact that a woman testified under oath that Trump raped her, for which he was twice adjudicated by a jury.  And that a woman testified under oath that Brett Kavanaugh raped her, and MAGOP senators voted to confirm him to the Supreme Court.  And 12 women publicly stated that Trump sexually assaulted them, and MAGOPs voted for him to be president, twice.  So, as the expression goes – sit this one out.  This is for others to deal with.  MAGOPs are disqualified on the issue and lost their right to that long ago, and lost it repeatedly.

And one other reason MAGOPs should sit out voicing any hypocritical “outrage”.  The Maine Democratic Party has called on Graham Platner to drop out of the race.  Numerous Democratic senators have withdrawn their endorsements.  And it appears that the Democratic Party overall is putting pressure on Platner to quit the race.  The same as Democrats did when accusations were made against Rep. Eric Swalwell who had been leading in his race to be the Democratic nominee for governor of California.  Contrast that with the zero number of MAGOP officials and national MAGOP party itself who called on Trump to resign as the party’s nominee when he had been literally adjudicated twice for what the judge said was the equivalence of rape.  And the zero MAGOP senators who voted against confirming Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, despite a woman testifying under oath that he had raped her.  Zero.  Nada.  None.  So, again, sit this one out, MAGOPs.  Save your “outrage” for a rainy day.  Your “outrage” only shines an eye-pummeling, bright light on your profound hypocrisy regularly supporting sexual abuse.

My opinion doesn’t matter here.  But I suspect that Graham Platner will drop out. He’s lost many endorsements already, and this might be one scandal too many, especially since the accusation here is more detailed than most.  I don’t know the truth, though, and this is no more than a guess.  So, for all I know, he’ll stay in the race. 

But if he does drop out, it’s not clear to me how Maine would select a replacement candidate.  But since it’s still four months before the General Election the Maine Democratic Party has at least some wiggle room.  But it’s an uphill situation.  That said, not knowing who the candidate would be -- let alone the process, the most likely options seeming to be a "pop-up" convention in a couple weeks or a statewide caucus -- there is also the question on how unpopular incumbent Susan Collins is.  And for all we know, enough Mainers would be happy to vote for any respectable Democrat rather than Collins.

So, if Graham Platner does drop out, the Maine Senate race can’t be written off – though it’s on life support.  And conventional wisdom has been that without Maine, Democrats won't be able to flip the four seats they need to take control of the Senate.  So, MAGOPs are likely celebrating.  But – I’m not sure if the conventional wisdom is true.

I think Democrats will flip North Carolina with the state’s popular, one-time governor Roy Cooper.  Ohio is tight, rated a toss-up, however Sherrod Brown has a strong chance to flip the seat, bringing a great deal of credibility as a “former” three-time senator in this anti-incumbent year -- especially when his incumbent opponent was never elected, but only appointed to his seat, and is tied to his party leader with a 34% approval.  And right now, James Talarico is actually tied in Red Texas (and polls show his supporters are far more “extremely motivated” than his MAGOP opponent.).  Further, in Red Iowa, Democrat Josh Turek very surprisingly has a lead in the polls.  So, that’s the four they need.  But even if one of those falls through, lest it be overlooked, Democrat Mary Peltola in Alaska is down by just two points in a July poll – though up by five points in a different poll taken in June, running against a MAGOP incumbent Dan Sullivan who has one of the lowest approvals in the Senate, just 39%.  And the race made even more difficult for him with an Independent candidate also on the ballot named...Dan Sullivan!  Which together makes five highly possible flips.

So, even without Maine, Democrats still have a serious possibility to take control of the Senate.  They need to hold all their own seats, the most at-risk being Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia, but he’s up by 13 points in a July Fox poll.  And holding Michigan could be tight, with Sen. Gary Peters retiring, but right now, before their primary, the leading Democrat has a solid lead against the MAGOP nominee.

And at this point, who knows what will happen in Maine?  But unexpectedly, Democrats have a path to win the Senate regardless of what occurs there.

Democrats have a record that that consideration doesn’t always hold much weight.  (Add in them pushing out Sen. Al Franken for using bad judgement when taking a raunchy joke-photo years before he was in the Senate.  And for that matter, putting pressure on President Biden to drop out when he showed cognitive decline.)  Whether they do take control of the Senate – whatever happens in Maine, when Graham Platner drops out…or doesn’t – the future will hold.

For now, I just hope MAGOPs stay out of crying “outrage” over something they don’t care about.  But they won’t.  Their fake morality is too ingrained.  So, my next hope is that the Klieg light of hypocrisy shines back on them.

​What Graham Platner and Democrats in Maine do is now on them.  And them alone.