Today's press release conveys Dr. Hoffman's disappointment that the four town meetings in August were cancelled. 

Ah, Herb, you were never invited.

This year's newest member of the 5:01 p.m. club goes to Republican, George Rawlings Thompson, Jr. He withdrew with the Secretary of State shortly after 5:00 PM (rumor is 5:04 p.m.) and as a result Rep. Nancy Smith (D-Monmouth) will be getting a free ride in the election this November.

Is there any politician in Maine that doesn't have an energy plan?

As far as I can tell we are being told we need more wind mills, more hydroelectric, more oil, less oil, more drilling, less drilling, more nuke plants, no nukes, more conservation, less consumption, more hybrids, less driving, more car pooling, different light bulbs, less speculation, tax credits, more transmission lines, more wood pellet stoves, more weatherization, a tuned up boiler, more solar panels and on and on.......

Herb Hoffman continues to enjoy his 15 minutes of fame which has now been going on for about six weeks, while the Fed UP With Taxes folks make good on step one of the People’s Veto. They are a few of this week's winners in PolitickerME's Winners & Losers list. | CLICK HERE

Chellie Pingree has a love life.

I know -- I was always under the impression that politicians didn't do those things. Anyway, it would appear that Ms. Pingree does do those things and she does them with Don Sussman. I read all about it in the Bollard, which is a nifty local paper in Portland with a very talented writer in Chris Busby. (note: The July 2008 edition)

Great, end of story.

Not exactly -- You see, in politics when you don't quite answer a reporters question in a forthcoming manner, that triggers a reaction in the pituitary gland which in turn forces a reporter to track even the blandest of stories like a lion on the hunt. Bottom line: Someone's going down for the kill.

Just in case you were wondering how much it can cost to get 90 thousand signatures in a few months time, you need look no further than the PAC reports for Fed UP With Taxes. As of July 15th, the group has paid National Petition Management $410,000 dollars, which works out to about $4.50 cents a signature....so far.

Representatives from the group Fed Up With Taxes have turned in 90,000 signatures to the Secretary of State's office. That is about 35,000 more than needed, and should guarantee that the issue will be on the ballot this fall.

Governor Rendell was attending the National Governor's Association and was asked by Human Events magazine who he thought would make a good VP choice for Senator Obama. In addition to a few of the usual suspects,he also mentioned, George Mitchell --which would be like bringing your dad to freshman orientation.

Governor Rendell was also asked who he thought Senator McCain should pick for his running mate. Rendell said he should go with "a governor with a background in economic issues," citing Mitt Romney as the obvious choice --which would be like bringing your son to an open house at the The Villages.

Right Wing News sent out a request to over 200 "right-of-center" bloggers and asked them to send their LEAST favorite elected Republicans in an unranked list (up to ten) in Congress, President, or governors. Forty two responded and came up with the following list (with total votes in parentheses):

Our own Senator Olympia Snowe finished in the top 3 with 20 votes, just one vote ahead of Arnold Schwarzenegger, while Senator Collins was only able to muster 8 votes, in a tie with Governor Crist from Florida.

No word yet from the Collins camp if they will use this ranking for independent voters and soft democrats in election materials in the Fall. Senator Snowe has allegedly sent a thank you note.

This back and forth in the editorial pages is all very interesting for the 50 or so insiders that read it. Unfortunately for Tom, however, he's not running against Libby Mitchell for the State Senate.  He's going for a rematch against Sen. Joe Perry, the chair of the taxaxtion committee and Democrat, who took the seat from Sawyer in 2004.

If I were Mr. Sawyer, I would knock on 50 doors in Bangor and leave the soda wars to the professionals.