Looking back at my time with the 2010 Levesque for Congress campaign, I have wondered whether we should have supplemented our criticism of Congressman Michaud’s voting record with drawing attention to his competence as a legislator—or lack thereof. The Congressman never misses a ribbon cutting photo-op back in Maine, yet cannot seem to pass any legislation in Washington. He goes to great lengths to tie his image to popular Senators Snowe and Collins in press releases and debates, yet never has the impact Maine’s truly independent Senators do. On the campaign trail he likes to tout one of his few pieces of legislation, the TRADE Act, which seeks to counter foreign trade practices but would invite a trade war, something nearly all economists agree is counterproductive. Congressman Michaud has been so effective in pushing this bill it has gone exactly nowhere since June 2009. I often felt the Congressman unduly sought to take credit for the accomplishments of Maine’s Senators, and we probably should have worked harder to share that information with the constituents of Maine’s Second Congressional District.
For example, Senator Collins maneuvered legislation into law that created a pilot program temporarily increasing the federal highway truck weight limit from 80,000 lbs. to 100,000 lbs. on portions of Maine’s highways. By all accounts, this weight limit change has been a remarkable success. Maine’s federal highways were built to handle the additional weight of freight being transported north to, what was then, Loring Air Force Base. Truckers are able to make quicker trips while using less gas and emitting less pollution. And most importantly, trucks have no longer been forced off the highways and onto smaller, two-lane state roads, where they not only do more road damage, but also pose a public safety risk. The higher weight limit has likely saved lives.
Senator Collins deserves a lot of credit for turning her proposed legislation into law. Michaud has insinuated he deserves a lot of credit for this as well—despite offering little evidence he even played a role in the law’s passage other than voting for it.
The pilot program created by Senator Collins’ legislation is set to expire this Friday, December 17th. Unfortunately, an opportunity to extend the increased weight limits or make them permanent was just missed. The House recently passed a continuing resolution that will fund the government through September 30, 2011. It is one of the last pieces of legislation that will be passed by this Congress, and should have included an extension of the increased truck weight limits for Maine. Michaud, who is a member of the House Transportation Committee, failed to get an extension included in the bill despite the fact the bill was written by Democrats. This failure makes it much more difficult to get the extension included in a Senate companion bill, and exposes the Congressman for not delivering on a top priority for his constituents.
Knowing the importance of extending this law to Maine’s economy, environment and public safety, the absence of an extension caused immediate alarm throughout the state. As Michaud has taken credit for his support of extending the pilot program, media asked the Congressman to explain how an extension, which is also supported by the Obama Administration, was not included in the House bill, especially as Michaud is in the majority party yet Senator Collins had been able to get her bill passed from the minority party.
Initially, Michaud made a statement expressing disappointment and a vague hope the Senate would fix the matter. Monday morning, however, on WVOM’s George Hale and Ric Tyler Show, Michaud made a number of rambling, incoherent, and questionable claims in response to the hosts’ questions about why the extension had not been made in the House bill. The interview can be listened to here. Make what sense of it you can.
What the Congressman offers is either based on poor information, his complete inability to speak coherently, or a deliberate attempt to deflect blame from him and pass the buck on to Senator Collins. One explanation Michaud offers is that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell kept the truck weights extension from being included in the continuing resolution. So Michaud seems to want his constituents to believe that Senator McConnell, who isn’t even in the House of Representatives and is in the minority Republican Party, somehow was the Grinch who stole his opportunity to make the new truck weight limits permanent? Give me a break.
In reality, what Michaud is referring to here (whether he knows it or not is an open question) is an earlier continuing resolution, one passed by Congress to keep the government running simply from December 3rd through December 17th. In that resolution, McConnell asked that the bill be limited to budgetary measures only—so no provisions like the truck weights extension were included. That resolution expires Friday, and was to be replaced by the new continuing resolution Michaud just failed to get the weight limits extension included in—only this resolution covers government spending through September 30th of 2011. In other words, Michaud was not even referring to the same bill George Hale and Ric Tyler were asking him about. Sounds slippery to me.
The bill they were asking about is a continuing resolution that is anything but stripped down to merely budgetary measures. In fact, this bill included 123 pages of additional provisions, and Michaud absolutely should have made sure a truck weight limits extension was one of them. Michaud’s blaming of McConnell is so laughable I have to wonder if he is deliberately trying to mislead his constituents to deflect criticism. No Congressman should ever be so ill-informed to actually believe what he suggests here—that in the just-passed continuing resolution everyone but Michaud seems to be referring to, which includes loads of non-budgetary measures, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell somehow went over to the Democratic House of Representatives and got the truck weights provision removed. Sorry Mike, that doesn’t even pass the smell test. Michaud is either deliberately confusing two different continuing resolutions, or is so confused himself that he doesn’t know they were two different bills.
But the interview gets worse. After blaming Senator McConnell, through some contorted logic Michaud later suggests it is the Senate (where McConnell wields actual power) that will include the truck weights provision in its Omnibus Appropriations bill (the bill the House continuing resolution will morph into). In fact, he says the Omnibus already contains the provision.
Well, well. This seemed to be news to everyone following this issue closely on Monday morning—except, apparently, Congressman Michaud with his insider knowledge or psychic abilities not shared even by Senate insiders who believed the Omnibus had not yet included the extension. Michaud’s rambling can be difficult to follow, but if I understand him correctly, what he is saying is that while the Senate Minority Leader had the uncanny ability to keep the extension out of the continuing resolution in the House, he is going to allow the extension he opposed when that resolution becomes the Omnibus in the Senate. Gee wiz, Mr. McConnell, you are one super powerful, mysterious Minority Leader!
Kidding aside, this debacle, sadly, is further evidence that Congressman Michaud does not have a grasp of what is going on around him, has little to no political sway after eight years in Congress (and will have even less when Republicans take control of the House in January), is deliberately misleading his constituents, or perhaps all of the above. While he has had no problems politicking as if he has been a rainmaker for the increase in truck weight limits on Maine highways, his failure to hold sway with his colleagues on a top priority for his constituents while he is still in the majority party makes one shudder to think how impotent he will be as a no name member in the minority.
Although Michaud dropped the ball in the House, I have to assume Senator Collins is working her tail off to cover for his mistake. In fact, in an interview on George and Ric’s show this morning, she confirmed that she has just secured a one-year extension in the Senate bill. She acknowledged it’s not the permanent fix that she had convinced the President to propose, and that should have been in the House bill. Even so, if the 100,000 lb. truck weights limit is extended for Maine in this Congress, even if just temporarily for another year, credit should go where credit is due. Thank you, Senator Collins. And thanks for nothing, Mike.
Garrett Murch has worked for Senator Olympia J. Snowe, The Heritage Foundation, Townhall.com, and most recently as Campaign Manager for Jason Levesque for Congress
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