10/12/2008
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Staff photo by Thomas Michael Corcoranfrom the Kennebec Journal
Rep. Pingree hears varied proposals for health-care solutions
HALLOWELL Fire that cut communications labeled arson
MONMOUTH Police defended after slim budget rejection
State's schools chief to parley
Wasser will lead newsrooms at KJ, Sentinel and in Portland
BRIEFS
Hockey still in picture for Harrington
Portland boxer to face legend's son
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
$1.3 MILLION FOR HEALTHREACH
Families Matter grows to meet special needs
Chellie Pingree listens to ideas on health care reform
FARMINGTON Rain alters plans for 4th of July
District regroups after budget failure
Vote on county budget hits snag
Burnham driver wins checkered flag at 2 tracks on same day
Maine boxer gets unique opportunity
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
"They're going to do low taxes and put the government back to the side of the people, and also control wasteful spending," said Palin, self-proclaimed "first dude" of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee.
To shouts of encouragement from the crowd, Palin touted his wife's work as Alaska's governor, saying she had reduced property taxes and reduced business-inventory taxes when many previous governors had tried and failed.
He called the requests for state dollars a "feeding frenzy" and said Gov. Palin eyes them carefully.
"She just shakes her head on a lot of these wasteful spending projects that are not best for what these communities need," he said. "Both McCain and Palin will be putting control back in state control."
Palin's comments were part of very short speech to nearly a thousand Republicans who rallied outside the Moosehead Trail Trading Post to eat hot dogs and hamburgers, listen to country music blasting from loudspeakers and pledge their undying support for presidential nominee John McCain and his running mate.
Especially his running mate.
It definitely was a Sarah Palin crowd that assembled for nearly three hours before Todd Palin showed up at about 2:30 p.m. with his entourage of Maine state troopers and secret-service men.
"Sarah is the best thing that ever could have happened to this country," said George Hockstadter of Stetson. "She knows how to relate to people. It's the most important thing in this county to have someone we can relate to."
"She talks to the people, not above the people," his wife, Lorrie, chimed in.
Palin said nothing about an Alaska ethics report that concluded his wife had abused her power as governor when seeking to have her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired. Palin also did not mention that, according the the probe, he had repeatedly contacted senior Alaska officials to raise concern over the conduct of the trooper. He has said he acted on his own and that he did nothing to influence his wife's decisions as governor.
Members of the news media were not granted access to Palin to ask questions.
None of that would have mattered anyway to the people who assembled at the Moosehead Trail Trading Post on Saturday. They chowed down on 500 hamburgers, 800 hot dogs, 700 bottles of soda and water and 700 bags of chips, according to Alan Brown, owner of the Village Square Restaurant in Corinna and Noah's Landing Restaurant in Dexter, who volunteered to organize the barbecue.
The Republicans were there in loyal support of the McCain-Palin ticket and the party's last-ditch effort to garner electoral votes in Maine. There was no changing their minds.
"It's a trust issue with me -- and I love Sarah Palin," said McCain-Palin supporter and Corinna Town Manager Dalton Mullis.
"What she is is what you get," said Bernard Weingart of Stetson.
Likewise, said Philip Roy, state GOP treasurer and chairman of the Somerset County Commissioners, who defended Palin's actions with Monegan.
"He was part of her cabinet and works at the pleasure of the government. In reality, she hasn't done anything wrong," Roy said.
Joshua Tardy, House Republican leader and vice chairman of McCain's Maine campaign, said he thinks the McCain-Palin ticket has a good chance in Maine.
"It's impressive how close this race is," said Tardy, who organized Palin's visit to Maine. "This is a meet and greet to connect people who have a lot in common with the Palins."
Angela Brown, a teacher at the Somerset Middle School in Hartland, sported a pink T-shirt bearing the words "Maine's 2nd District Welcomes Alaska's 1st Dude."
"The Palins support the same kind of values that I'm trying to teach my kids and that I was brought up with," Brown said. "Their character speaks for itself. They're not perfect, but character is important."
Palmyra Selectman Herb Brindley said he is "110 percent" behind McCain-Palin, but Palin is the real reason he's voting for them.
"I'm not real big on McCain, but I like Sarah Palin. I think she stands for all the right things," Brindley said. "She stands up for her own feelings; she's not a talking dog for someone else."
Jim and Lisa Spraggins, owners of the Trading Post, said they were happy to host the event because they are Palin supporters and because Palin represents their values.
"We're all for guns, we go hunting, we're glad to be Americans and we're happy to be here for everyone," Lisa Spraggins said. "It's amazing that (Tardy) was able to bring the presidency right here to little old Palmyra, Maine."
However, there were some Americans who were not welcome on the Republican turf Saturday.
Katrina Bisheimer, of Bucksport, who carried a sign seeking "Freedom for Women and Polar Bears," and "Women & Polar Bears Against Palin," was asked to leave the trading-post parking lot, with a little nudge by Somerset County sheriff's officers.
A psychiatric nurse, Bisheimer said the newspaper had said the event was advertised as open to the public.
"I just have another view that ought to be expressed; I'm offended," she said.
Bisheimer said Palin is for abstinence as the only means of birth control and she opposed that stance: "We need to have a choice."
She also said Palin is suing the federal government to remove polar bears from the endangered-species list, a move she opposes.
Jan Rowe Shepard, president of the Sebasticook Riding Club, told Bisheimer she once lived in Wasilla, Alaska, where Palin served as mayor from 1996 to 2007, and where Shepard's sister was a former mayor. She doubted Bisheimer's claims. She said the polar bear would readjust to the climate change.
At one point, the event threatened to get a little nasty when two men from the event challenged the very small contingent of sign-carrying protesters out beside the road.
Julie Martin, of St. Albans , carrying a sign "Obama for President," said she had a son in Iraq and was opposed to the election of McCain and Palin.
"Anybody who follows the Bush doctrine is not fit to be in the White House,'"Martin said.
Buddy Gough pointed his finger at the sign carriers and railed against their signs.
"Obama will bring terrorism to this county. You'll also lose gun rights and you'll lose every other freedom you have," he said.
Gough, pastor at the Newport Church of God, also said Obama as president would take the Bible and God out of everything and "we would be a country without God."
But the minor confrontation was a blip on an event that turned out to be just what was expected, an assembly of supporters carrying signs such as "Sarah is my Heroine," hoping to convince the rest of Maine to make McCain and Palin the next leaders of the country.
Darla L. Pickett -- 474-9534, Ext. 341
dpickett@centralmaine.com
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