The state of Maine experienced a three-day government shutdown last week and, during the turmoil, Governor Paul LePage privately told state lawmakers that he was going to leave the state while they sort things out.
Naturally, word of LePage's inappropriately-timed vacation reached the local press which reported on it. But LePage did not leave the state and he was apparently never planning to.
According to LePage himself, he makes shit up to discredit the press.
“I just love to sit in my office and make up ways so they’ll write these stupid stories because they are just so stupid, it’s awful,” he told WGAN-AM on Thursday.
You know, conspiring to discredit the press probably works better when you don't disclose your malevolent plan like a low-rent comic book supervillain.
I'm sure it also works better when you don't leave voice mail.
Responding to a Freedom of Access Act request, the Senate Republican office produced a voicemail Thursday in which the governor is heard telling [Sen. Roger Katz ], “I’m heading out of town for about 10 days and I’d like to speak to you before I leave. So could you give me a call please? Thank you.”
A LePage spokesman called the news reports “fake news.”
New Jersey also experienced a government shutdown last week. Here's how that turned out.