Maine GOP Platform HERE.

Have you heard the news yet? Maine Republicans held their convention this past weekend and… well… this is what you get when you invite a handful of over-the-hill white racist birther yahoos!

They decided to throw out the proposed platform out the door and turn the thing into a wild Tea Party.

As Maine Politics reports, “The official platform for the Republican Party of Maine is now a mix of right-wing fringe policies, libertarian buzzwords and outright conspiracy theories.”

Or as Frum Forum’s Jeb Golinkin puts it: “The inmates… are now running the asylum.”

Local reactions have been REMARKABLE. From the TeaBaggers, Maine ReFounders:

My fellow Patriots, Today we crossed a major hurdle on our road to fiscal responsibility and Liberty. With the due diligent’s of Ted Cowan and many other American patriots a new and clear Party Platform was drafted and presented to the convention today. There is no more wishy washy statements in our Platform. With an overwhelming majority this new Platform has been adopted.

This is a great accomplishment, there is no room for interpretation. Our core principles and values are clearly defined. The attendance and the energy that filled the air was absolutely inspiring. Our numbers are growing, True conservative values and the meaning of our Constitution is on the minds of many.

In the attached files below you will find a copy of the NEW 2010 Maine GOP Platform that has been adopted as well as a copy of the Platform that was proposed by the 2010 Standing Resolutions (Platform) Committee Take a look at both of them and I am sure that you will agree with me that the Platform that was put fourth by Knox County was by far the best choice.

They want to eliminate the Department of Education??? A tad ironic, considering their overwhelming lack of proper punctuation, overzealous capitalization, and misues of “fourth” instead of “forth”… and some of those sentences redefine “run-on”.

And, and another thing? If my name were “Horatio”, I’d go by “Ted” too. Good call, Mr. Cowan.

BUT- WE NEED TO SEE YOUR BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!! Your “papers” please…

Some of the Teabaggers themselves were caught off-gaurd by their success- and show just how disorganized a bunch they truly are:

The wide acceptance of the platform at the convention surprised even its co-authors.

“I had no inkling this would pass, and frankly we’d been told as much by people running the convention,” says co-author Steven Dyer, an evangelical youth pastor and vice chair of the Knox County Republican Committee, which sponsored the document. “They didn’t even make copies of it for the delegates. They just read it to them from the podium.”

Mr. Dyer says he and his co-authors aren’t members of the tea party, although some have attended such events.

Onwerd, KKKrischun Soljerz…

More below the fold, including local reactions and video.

One delegate got the implications of this insanity on the first try:

One delegate from Portland, Robert Hains, used the phrase “political suicide” while the amendment was being voted on.

“I believe that there are provisions in there that will scare off many independents who you need to win elections,” he said afterward. “It will make it very difficult for the majority of Republicans to win.”

Another GOP reaction:

Dan Billings, who has served as an attorney for the Maine GOP, called the new platform “wack job pablum” and “nutcase stuff.”

I agree with these

“If I was a Republican, I’d be a little nervous about this. And if I was a Democrat, I’d be cautiously optimistic,” says Mark Brewer, a political scientist at the University of Maine in Orono. He thinks that parts of the platform will play poorly with the general electorate in the gubernatorial race.

…………………

“If you’re not a moderate, you don’t get elected in Maine,” says political consultant Chris Potholm, a professor of government at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. “Any candidate who gets nominated is going to ignore that platform, or he or she is going to lose.”

Olympia Snowe, still officially a Republican, may wanna rethink her party affiliation:

Other elements of the state Republican platform include several initiatives that could only be pursued at the federal level, including imposing congressional term limits — apparently a veiled jab at Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, who gave a keynote address at the convention.

When asked about the evident rise of the Tea Party Movement in Maine, Snowe said that it was important for the state’s Republican Party to work together.

“People are angry, and understandably so,” she said. “The question is how do you channel that anger to be effective and successful at the polls?”

Snowe and other veteran Republicans at the convention said that the platform itself did not drive campaigns and instead represented a set of values and principles that candidates could pick and choose from.

“Nobody is going to agree chapter and verse with the party platform,” Snowe said.

Much to their credit, Maine Dems lost no time in remarking about the Republican mess- and in one of the most effective letters/ fundraisers I’ve yet to see from the party!

Dear Louise,

The Maine GOP passed what can only be described as a “Tea Party” Platform at their State Convention on Saturday. And that’s just a nice way of putting it.  

Dan Billings, attorney for the Maine Senate Republicans, wrote on the right-wing blog AsMaineGoes.com that “Whoever wrote [the platform] is ignorant of the Constitution … What was adopted is idiotic and extreme.”

We think so too, Dan. But there seems to be some dissension in the ranks of the Party elite.

Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster said in the Maine Sunday Telegram that the new Platform “… reflected the values of working-class Mainers.” Webster was specifically asked if the new Platform represented a shift to the right for the Maine GOP and replied: “Absolutely not.”

So, basically a GOP Attorney calls Maine Republicans ignorant extremists and GOP Chairman confirms it. Priceless.

In addition to their perennial anti-equality, anti-choice and anti-environment initiatives, the Maine GOP also added the following gems to their Platform:

Reject the Employee Free Choice Act

Oppose all treaties with the United Nations – including the UN Treaty on Rights of the Child

Term limit all members of Congress to 12 years and eliminate their pension

Reassert the principal that “Freedom of Religion” does not mean “Freedom from Religion”

Defeat Cap & Trade and investigate government collusion about the global warming “myth”

Clarify that healthcare is not a right

Eliminate the Department of Education

The new GOP platform reads like an inflammatory conspiracy theory written by birthers and paranoid Tea Party members. What’s even more disturbing is that Maine GOP Chairman Webster asserts that these are in fact the values of the Maine GOP.

Maine Democrats will not stand by this year and let our state be hijacked by right-wing extremists. Victory 2010, the Maine Democratic Party’s Coordinated Campaign, needs your support to help drown out the Republican hyperbole and make sure Mainers know Democrats about results, not rhetoric.

Please click here to make a donation of $25, $50, $100 or more to Victory 2010.

We already know out-of-state special interests like the National Organization for Marriage and the Republican Governors Association are planning to spend heavily to influence our elections this year. We don’t have a minute to waste. Ultra-conservative groups aren’t coming to spread vicious lies and deception in Maine. They’re already here.

Every dollar you give helps Democratic candidates in Maine fight off GOP attacks. Please give what you can today to ensure victory for Maine Democrats.

As always, thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Arden Manning, Campaign Manager

Maine Victory 2010

That sound you hear? That’s the sound of teacups falling in rapid succession, as the Maine voters get a whiff of the fetid swill the Maine GOP is now forced to serve come November…

Oh, this outta be GOOD!