Here’s the debate I’d like to see:

At one podium, Dean Scontras the challenger for the 1st District Congressional seat held by U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree.

At the other we’d have the guy who ran for the Republican nomination for the same seat two years ago. What was his name?

Oh, yeah. Dean Scontras.

It would be a lively one, with the current Scontras, who sells himself as a suburban businessman who wants to bring financial sanity to Washington – kind of an Olympia Snowe in a Brooks Brothers suit, facing off against the culture warrior of 2008, who brought down the house at the party convention two years ago with the very un-Olympian line:

“I will not compromise. I will not moderate. And I will not appease on my way to victory in November.”

It’s obvious what’s going on here. Politicians often tack one way in the primary to win support from the more ideological voters who show up in June, and then tack to the center in the general election, trying to scoop up the independent voters in November.

But a maneuver this sharp is hardly a “tack,” and you don’t see many politicians getting away with being as agile as Scontras is trying to be here. Southern Maine voters will have to ask themselves which Dean Scontras they would get if he wins.

Sitting on the editorial board, I got to see both versions,

The change of emphasis is most obvious when it comes to abortion rights.

Two years ago, Scontras’ views on the issue were the cornerstone of his campaign, and he used it to land vicious body blows on his pro-choice opponent, Charlie Summers, a former aide to the famously pro-choice Snowe.

Summers, Scontras said then, “is tied to the Olympia Snowe element of the party,” while he was not. Scontras had won the endorsement of the Maine Right to Life Committee, and after an interview, Michael Heath of the Christian Civic League said Scontras was a “no- exceptions pro-life candidate” even in cases of rape or incest.

Now, Scontras poses for photos with Snowe and told our editorial board about how much he values her counsel.

As for abortion rights, Scontras says that he is personally pro-life, but that Rowe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that wiped out state bans on abortion, is “the law of the land” and there is nothing that Congress can do about it.

The sound that you now hear is the ghost of Henry Hyde rattling his chains. He is the Illinois congressmen who in 1976 crafted the “Hyde amendment,” a ban on public funding for abortion that is routinely attached to any bill that spends money on something with a health care component, which can be almost anything.

Abortion comes up all the time in Congress, it matters a lot to a lot of people and it is not an issue that a candidate should be allowed to finesse.

Scontras’ claim that Congress’ lacks a role on the issue either shows a lack of understanding about how government works or an attempt to hide his real position until after the election. I guess voters will have to decide which one bothers them least.

The irony of all this is that it’s not Scontras, but his opponent Chellie Pingree who has been blasted during this campaign for being a phony.

Critics charge that Pingree says she’s for small business, but sometimes catches a ride in a private jet, or that Pingree champions campaign finance reform, yet she is world-class fundraiser.

But Pingree also has a remarkably consistent record in public life that has not changed over the years. Anyone who followed her career in the Legislature 20 years ago would not be surprised by any of the stances she has taken since she went to Washington in 2008.

You may disagree with Pingree on the issues, and plenty of people do, but there is no question where she stands on them.

Can you say the same about Scontras?

My Republican friends (yes, I have Republican friends) say it doesn’t matter. They consider Scontras to be “fiscally conservative” and take him at his word that the social issues are his personal beliefs.

And his more whacky economic proposals – like replacing the tax code with a 23 percent sales tax or blowing a hole in Social Security by letting young people opt out of the program – don’t bother them because those ideas are too crazy to be accomplished.

If your only priority is voting against a Democrat, Scontras is your man.

But good luck figuring out what you are voting for. He’s a candidate with a political ideology so flexible it’s double- jointed.

In his latest commercial, Dean Scontras tells voters, “I looked you in the eye and told you where I stand.”

That may be true, but where he was standing depends a whole lot on when he was looking into your eyes.

 

Greg Kesich is an editorial writer. He can be contacted at 791-6481, or: gkesich@pressherald.com

 

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