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I met a man who wasn't there.

He wasn't there again today.

I wish, I wish he'd go away.

-- Hughes Mearns

Some of Maine's savviest political observers and operatives are brusquely dismissing Republican Charlie Summers' chances in the 1st District congressional race next year largely on the basis of his physical absence from the contest.

They shouldn't.

There's something that appeals to the perverse in us about the idea of a candidate who isn't there, giving voters a nicely understated alternative to candidates who are very much there.

But the other side of Summers' appeal is not simply that he will be AWOL from the Republican campaign into which he has tossed his cap. It concerns how he will be otherwise occupied during that period.

Last month he began a year's tour of duty in Iraq as an officer in the Navy Reserve. He is of course forbidden to engage directly in any political activities during that time and so will rely on his wife Ruth and other supporters back home to conduct the congressional campaign on his behalf.

To be sure, the military assignment put a big crimp in his political ambitions. On the other hand, who among his political rivals, present or potential, is going to attack him for failing to show up to debate the issues in person? Anyone who even edges close to such criticism will only remind voters about what he's doing instead, bravely risking life and limb in the service of his country -- not exactly a political liability -- while they are safely running around Maine promoting their public office ambitions.

Candidates with military connections who have gone politically missing in action at election time are rare, although not altogether unknown. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower won the 1952 Republican presidential primary in New Hampshire without ever stepping foot in that state or outlining a political position in person.

Nor is this the first time we've seen a surrogate campaign in a congressional race here in Maine, although you have to go back a long way to find another. Nearly eight decades ago, when U.S. Rep. Clyde Smith couldn't campaign for re-election because of a coronary condition kept secret from his constituents, he relied on his wife and office manager, Margaret Chase Smith, to fill in for him.

When Clyde Smith died during the 1940 primary, his wife not only succeeded him as the GOP candidate but went on to win the fall election on her own and subsequently to become the legendary political figure we all remember today.

There may be a lesson here for Ruth Summers, a bright, attractive and good-humored stand-in who, if she performs well enough on the campaign trail in the coming months, could end up as a viable candidate for high office in her own right sometime down the line.

Of course the campaign to replace veteran Democratic Rep. Tom Allen in the 1st District will not be easy for any Republican ... surrogate, absentee or in-the-flesh. These are not promising times for the GOP.

When Allen announced he was giving up his safe House seat to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins' re-election bid next year, candidates to replace him began tumbling out of the woodwork.

Most of the tumbling, however, has been on the Democratic side. About a half-dozen hopefuls have emerged so far, contrasted with only a couple on the Republican side.

Summers and Eliot businessman Dean Scontras are the only committed GOP contenders at the moment. It is expected they will be joined later in the year by Steve Abbott of Portland who, ironically, now serves as Collins' chief of staff.

Summers is the better known of these three, having been a state legislator, an aide to Sen. Olympia Snowe and the nominee of his party to challenge Allen in the 2004 election, in which he garnered a respectable 40 percent of the vote.

He does carry some baggage into the race, including a donor-discouraging $75,000 debt left over from the 2004 campaign.

But it makes no sense to count him out of the 2008 Republican primary just because he's not around to actively campaign. Perhaps especially so.

And if as "the man who wasn't there" he wins the GOP nomination against the odds, who can predict what his standing might be in the general election?

Voters may despise the war in Iraq, but our troops there are still honored and respected back home.

Never underestimate the political value of military valor.

Jim Brunelle is a weekly columnist and has been commenting on Maine issues for more than 40 years. He lives in Cape Elizabeth and can be reached at jbrune@maine.rr.com.

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