In spite of his temper tantrums, opportunism, and inconsistency, Michael may have to concede his position as Official Campaign Wacko to NaPier, a retired IRS agent who describes himself on his Web site as “Thu Peoples Hero” (no explanation for the odd spelling and lack of punctuation) and “An American Patriot turned Revolutionary.”
The incident that turned NaPier to revolution was his 1995 arrest for threatening Windham police officers with a gun. After refusing to drop the weapon he’d been firing off his front porch at nothing in particular, he was wounded by the cops. During his trial, he claimed the officers ambushed him, subjecting him to what his Web site calls “a brutal savage physical assault.” He was found guilty and sentenced to 15 months in prison. He blamed his conviction on an elaborate conspiracy by “Esquire lawyer judges and their police.”
His platform calls for pardoning all felons, encouraging convicted criminals to move to Maine, banning lawyers from serving as judges, lowering the voting age to 16, and abolishing the state income tax.
At times, he sounds clueless, as when he proposes forbidding the news media from “labeling” people as felons.
At times, he sounds egotistical, as in this 2002 interview: “We need somebody like me [as governor] that knows a lot more than the average person.”
At times, he sounds scary, as in these quotes from his Web site: His enemies are an “uppity bunch of self-appointed aristocrats [who] have become a cancer among us [by] controlling our government and feeding off of our lives.”
Suggested new rule for this year’s gubernatorial debates:
Check all guns at the door.
Email the author
Al Diamon: ishmaelia@gwi.net
