I joined a conference call with state representatives Diane Russell (D-Portland) and Adam Goode (D-Bangor) this afternoon. Also speaking on the call were Harriett Spencer of AFSCME Council 93, and Maine citizens Judy Morgan and David White. The point of the call was to mark President Obama's first 100 days in office, and also to express appreciation for US Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, and Reps Mike Michaud and Chellie Pingree.

Though Jeff wondered yesterday if Maine's Republican senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, are far behind Arlen Specter in defecting from the GOP, Snowe's New York Times op-ed today indicates that she's more focused on reforming her party and making sure it learns lessons from this most recent blow.

"When Senator Jeffords became an independent in 2001, I said it was a sad day for the Republicans, but it would be even sadder if we failed to confront and learn from the devaluation of diversity within the party that contributed to his defection," she writes, before blaming the GOP's lack of perspective for "the disasterous elections of 2006 and 2008."

The growing prominence of women in Maine politics, as evidenced by Chellie Pingree's election (she's the first Democratic female elected to the US House or Senate from Maine), and the selection of Hannah Pingree and Libby Mitchell to lead their respective state legislative houses (both have set records -- Pingree is the youngest woman to serve in her role; Mitchell is the first person to have served as a leader in both state houses), is in line with national trends.

Todd Palin shows up in a GOP mailer sent to rural Maine...making Al Diamon's October 22 column even more relevant.

Jeff Inglis adds:

While the flier suggests that the next president will have control over whether snowmobiling is allowed in national parks, it's certainly difficult to argue that snowmobile access is the most important decision the next president will make.

I spent a night in a replica of a Guantánamo Bay prison cell last week, time during which I reflected on the perilous status of the men held at the offshore prison even the president says he wants to close. They are held in legal limbo, not charged with anything, rarely, if ever, having seen a judge - and if so, then only a military judge whose chain of command starts at the president and works its way down (not an independent judge who is a member of the third branch of government).