Heading into the weekend at the Portland Airport, fired-up Mainers were out at 1:30 a.m. to greet Senator Angus King and Chellie Pingree with flowers, balloons, and heartfelt thanks for their votes against the taxscam.
[If you watch the video at that link, a fun moment near the end is seeing the carpetbagger weasel Bruce Poliquin scurry by as quickly as possible to avoid getting spit on.]
This weekend in Bangor, protesters were at the Bangor Airport waiting with signs and shame for Senator Susan Collins. She didn’t show, but protesters also launched a standing Sunday protest at her home. In her many years of public life, she has never faced protests at her Bangor home:
Annie Clark, a spokeswoman for Collins, said in an email that the protest in Bangor was unusual.
“It is rare for protestors to go to her home,” Clark said. “Almost all of her constituents, even those who disagree with her, respect her privacy. She meets with thousands of Mainers every year — just this week she spoke with protesters who were in her Portland office. But, for security reasons, she does not meet with protestors at her house.”
But demonstrator Walker of Frankfort said bringing the demonstration to Collins’ home instead of her Bangor office in the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building was a deliberate decision.
“She’s coming after me in my house [with the impact of the tax bill], so it’s fitting that we’re here at her house,” she said.
Walker added that the group plans to protest in front of Collins’ home every Sunday for the foreseeable future.
It is rare for Collins not to come home on the weekend, and powerful for protesters to promise she can’t wait ‘em out. It’s a new age in Maine when it comes to accountability for faux-moderates.
This lead story in the local paper, on top of last week’s stories of protesters arrested from both Collins’ Bangor office and her Portland office (those were religious leaders — such a nice visual of them being handcuffed as they sang “This Little Light of Mine”) heralds a new age of discomfort for Collins. Heavy negative coverage in local newspapers and television, with new stories of protests at every Collins office in the state. High time. If we keep this up, we can change her vote on the final bill. It won’t be easy, and it will be unprecedented for her to relent this late, but the momentum is on our side.