Another new low for a once-proud paper

Would a Maine Sunday Telegram columnist call President Obama a liar for saying with Obamacare you can keep your own insurance?

Would he call former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a liar for saying she had no culpability in the Benghazi massacre?

Would he call gubernatorial candidate Mike Michaud a liar for saying he was a good Congressman?

No, of course not.

But today one of the paper's columnists called our governor a liar.

Last weekend the Democratic machine blasphemed our senior Senator Susan Collins by tweeting a video that spoke of her "giving brain" - an urban reference to oral sex - to the people of Maine.

This weekend they call our governor a liar.

I know what you're thinking. Wait a minute, that story about calling him a liar wasn't from the Democratic machine. It was in the Maine Sunday Telegram, the state's largest newspaper with a proud tradition of impartiality and public service.

And you'd be absolutely right, except tradition is the right word. That was use-to-be. This is now.

For those of you who don't know, the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram are owned by Donald Sussman, a billionaire in hedge funds, who bought the papers to please his wife and further her political career.

Who's his wife, you ask? Why, none other than the U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat representing Maine's 1^st District, which encompasses southern Maine, including Portland.

The district consists of all of Cumberland, Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc and York counties and most of Kennebec County.

Sounded like a good fit for Sussman, who wanted to please his wife, like any man, and bought the newspaper a few years ago.

The Democratic machine denigrated our senator last weekend. This weekend they Insult our governor who has brought the state back from decades of tax and spend liberals.

Good grief, what do they have left to accuse him of? Perhaps he ate a few babies or pulled wings off moths. By the way, I'm sure the columnist is chasing that story as we speak.

The Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram are both part of the Democratic machine. They're like a PAC that makes money. Every news story involving government and politics is an ad. Reporters want to please their editors. Editors want to please Sussman and Pingree.

When you read these stories remember who the messenger is, take it with a grain of salt - and reality - and we'll all get through this somehow.

And to the columnist, let me explain something to you that I don't believe you aren't aware of.

In a political campaign, you normally say a candidate "misrepresented the facts" or "that isn't exactly true." These are euphemisms for lies. In other words, you attack what the person said, or did. You don't just call them a liar to their face. At least not in what we have left of a civilized society. Politics is often about saying a candidate said an untruth, but I've always thought journalism was to lift up the discussion, not toss it further into the gutter.

You have taken yourself, your paper and a proud and vibrant Democratic Party to a new low. The sad thing is I think you'll do it again several times in the next 37 days.