Maine Gov. Paul LePage has found a uniquely Paul LePage way to get around expected Democratic opposition to his choice of education commissioner: He’s going to name himself education commissioner. Oh, LePage isn’t going to do the job, he’s just giving himself the title to get around that pesky confirmation process. When current acting Commissioner William Beardsley’s time is up, Beardsley will become the deputy commissioner and:
“I will be the commissioner,” LePage said Thursday morning during an event hosted by a Lewiston-Auburn business group. [...]
LePage said he believed Beardsley’s nomination was going to be defeated by the seven Democrats on the Legislature’s Education Committee and he didn’t want to put his nominee through that process.
“You are absolutely right,” LePage said. “It broke my heart to have to pull that nomination, but he was going to get defeated. It was going to go down, 7-6. The Democrats said that they were not going to support it. This way here, I can keep him, he keeps working and when his acting commissioner status leaves he will be the deputy commissioner and I will be the commissioner. That way there I can keep him.”
Democrats were expected to question Beardsley over protections for transgender students. Gosh, I wonder why he’d get questions on that:
On Tuesday, Equality Maine said they opposed Beardsley based on comments he made during his 2010 run for governor, during a radio interview with the Aroostook Watchmen. According to the organization, he said, “I believe that we should not have gender or sexual orientation as an integral part of the Human Rights Act, and I’ll do what I can to change that.”
As a side benefit, of course, Paul LePage will continue to make headlines for his bizarre behavior, an activity he clearly enjoys.