As Maine goes

There's an old joke about a little boy who didn't talk, not a word, and his frantic parents had taken him to every doctor for every test and no one could find the cause of the problem.

One day, when the little boy was four years old, he was having dinner with his parents when his mother served him some steamed fresh peas with his hamburger.

The little boy picked up his fork, dug into the bright green peas and shoveled them into his mouth.

"PFFFFFTT!" the little boy said, spitting them out across the table. "That's disgusting! That's the worst thing I've ever tasted!"

His parents nearly fainted.

"Oh!" his mother cried out in joy, "It's a miracle! You can talk!"

"Of course I can talk," the child said.

"You -- you can?" the mother stammered in astonishment, "Well -- then -- why didn't you say anything?"

The little boy looked at her with annoyance. "Up until now," he said, "everything's been okay."

That joke was brought to mind by reports out of Maine that voter turnout in Tuesday's election exceeded all projections.

"Surprised clerks in Maine's biggest cities and smallest towns reported massive turnout more typical of a presidential election for Tuesday's statewide referendums," the Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel reported on Wednesday.

Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap originally projected that about 35 percent of voting-age residents would cast a ballot. But the actual turnout may have been as high as 60 percent, Mr. Dunlap told reporters.

What happened?

There was a state referendum on the ballot to repeal Maine's new law permitting same-sex marriage, which passed by a vote of 53 percent to 47 percent. That might have been the issue that got voters off the couch and out to the polls.

But if that's what did it, Maine appears to have a lot of never-before-seen conservative voters who have just identified themselves. With a few clicks through computerized public records, conservative candidates will be able to find those new voters and send them mail.

That might make life very complicated for Maine's two GOP senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. They could face primary challenges if their 'moderate' positions on issues like cap-and-trade and health care reform rub enough voters the wrong way.

Maybe it's not likely, but it's not impossible.

Senator Snowe voted for the Senate Finance Committee's health care reform bill. "When history calls," she explained, "history calls."

Maybe if the bill ever makes it to the Senate floor for a vote, she can explain that she was only joking.


Copyright 2009

Editor's note: You might be interested in the previous post, "The midnight sausage factory."

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