LePage compares a man ‘beating his wife’ to Eves’ charter school hiring

Photo- Ben McCanna.

Photo- Ben McCanna.

On Thursday, the announcement by Maine House Speaker Mark Eves (D) that he has filed a lawsuit against Maine Governor Paul LePage made headlines across the state and nation.

Filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, the civil suit alleges that LePage was acting out of “personal rage, vindictiveness and partisan malice” when he threatened to pull funding from the Good Will-Hinckley school unless it withdrew an offer to hire Eves as the school’s president.

Good Will-Hinckley is a school for at-risk children.

What flew under the lawsuit headlines, though, was the statement made by LePage on WGAN radio Thursday morning.

Photo- Jonathan Ernst, Reuters.

Photo- Jonathan Ernst, Reuters.

On the show, the Governor expressed his absurd, paranoid belief that Eves is a plant sent by labor unions to destroy charter schools, then he compared Eves’ hiring by the school to domestic violence:

“It’s just like one time when I stepped in … when a man was beating his wife,” said LePage. “Should have I stepped in? Legally, no. But I did, and I’m not embarrassed about doing it.”

If the governor’s story is true, then kudos to him for intervening on the domestic assault, but shame on him for the comparison.

Putting himself in harm’s way to protect a battered woman is a heroic act, but threatening to financially upend a school for troubled kids out of spite, contempt, or both for Eves is about as cowardly as it gets.

Comparing the two events in an attempt to cast himself in a positive light regarding the lawsuit does nothing but further exemplify LePage’s increasingly apparent self-implosion and inability to govern.

Photo- Troy R. Bennett, BDN.

Photo- Troy R. Bennett, BDN.

Chris Shorr

About Chris Shorr

Chris is a sixth generation Portlander who loves all things Maine. He has worked with mentally ill and marginalized adults at a Portland non-profit, on a lobster boat in Casco Bay, at several high-end Portland restaurants, and at a local meat packing plant. He also ran for Portland City Council in 2013, wrote a weekly column in the now defunct Portland Daily Sun, and currently writes a weekly column in The Portland Phoenix.