BY BECKY FENGER | JULY 20, 2011

Political potpourri


Becky Fenger Fenger Pointing

I didn't think I could find a match for Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey for telling-it-like-it-is, but, as one person describes it, the new Maine governor is making Christie "look like an enabler." He is Paul LePage, and he doesn't suffer fools or union thugs gladly.

As reported, he brought down the house at his inauguration when he shook his fist towards the media box and said, "You're on notice! I've inherited a financially-troubled state to run. Observe ... cover what we do ... but don't whine if I don't waste time responding to your every whim just for your amusement."

When a constituent complained to a campaigning LePage that Obama came to Maine and met with union leaders but declined to meet with fishermen who are struggling under onerous federal fishing rules, LePage said, "I'd tell him to go to hell and get out of my state." Of course the mainstream media had a hissy fit over someone daring to speak of their demi-god in such fashion, but (get this!) his poll numbers went up 6 points as a result.

Here's a dirty trick that the NAACP played on LePage: They asked him to spend Martin Luther King Day visiting with black inmates at the Maine State Prison. When he told them that he would meet with all inmates if he went there, the NAACP withdrew their request and put out a press release claiming that LePage refused to participate in any of the MLK events.

When the governor arrived at the event anyway, he stepped in front of a TV camera and declared: "If they want to play the race card on me they can kiss my ass." (For the record. LePage has an adopted black Jamaican son and always attended MLK events in his previous position of mayor of Waterville.) Lordy, I like that in a governor.

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"It's About Time" Item: The ubiquitous Dick Morris polled Jewish voters and found that if the election were held today, President Obama would get 56 percent of the Jewish vote against a generic Republican candidate, down from the 78 percent he won in 2008. All I can say is, "What took you guys so long, and who is that 56 percent?" Upon taking office, Obama made it rather clear that he has no qualms about sacrificing Israel is he feels it necessary. Lately, Obama tells Israel that it should give up the land it occupied after the 1967 war except for some adjustments. This most assuredly would be the demise of Israel, but Obama cares not. Why a single Jew would cast their ballot in 2012 for the anointed One is a mystery.

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"So long, Michelle": This next item tickles me pink. Former White House communications director Anita Dunn, who worked under President Obama in 2009, is now employed as a lobbyist at SKDKnockerbocker, a public relations firm. You will remember that Dunn's idol is Chairman Mao. She is now managing a campaign for the Sensible Food Policy Coalition, which includes such capitalistic pig companies as General Mills, Kellogg, PepsiCo, Time Warner and Viacom. The Washington Post reported that foodmakers, fast-food chains and media companies have coalesced to fight government efforts to create voluntary nutritional guidelines for foods marketed to children. Dunn is managing this battle which is at cross purposes to Michelle Obama's war on obesity. Or maybe Dunn is just hot for Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants.

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Outrage of the Year (so far): If it turns out that Obama's Stimulus Funds actually did fund the insane "Fast and Furious" gunrunning scheme that landed two thousand guns in the hands of Mexican drug cartels, so many heads should roll at the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security that we mistake it for a bowling alley.

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A British study finds that electric cars may not be so "green" after all. Why so? Because electric cars could produce higher emissions over their lifetimes than gasoline equivalents due to the energy consumed in making their batteries. And this is the first the industry is figuring this out? An Australian newspaper claims that this undermines the case for tackling climate change by the rapid introduction of electric cars. I'll be happier when the global-warming fearmongers admit that man cannot influence nature's climate swings and quit spending trillions trying.