I must comment on Sen. Angus King and his supposed independent status. There have been a few major policies and statements he has made that have stayed with me throughout his career.

First of all, he ran as an independent only to avoid a primary with former Democratic Gov. Joseph Brennan. The senator is, and always will be, a liberal Democrat.

Sen. Angus King of Maine talks with David Simpson of Peaks Island before a March 5 town hall meeting on Neil Gorsuch's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. King's independent status was nowhere to be seen when he followed Democrats in opposing the court nominee, a reader says. Staff photo by Carl D. Walsh

Secondly, I remember his first inaugural speech as governor, when he said that he had spoken to an older man about cigarette use. The man asked him to do something about young people smoking. So the governor proposed a tax increase on a pack of cigarettes to dissuade people from smoking.

Then, at his next inaugural, he said that he had spoken to another older person who was concerned about learning in the schools, and how important it was to this older man for young people needing access to computers in school. So, Gov. King put forth his program of giving each student a computer.

Was he getting his ideas from the same older man who was dying of lung cancer but survived long enough to, four years later, be concerned with the education of young students in our school systems? That was a tough old man!

In a recent news article (Page B1, April 5), Sen. King said that after a lot of research and soul searching, he could not, in good conscience, vote for Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court. I believe the only research he did was to listen to Minority Leader Charles Schumer and the other Democrats in the Senate.

Sen. King is as much an independent political person as Gov. LePage is a liberal Democrat!

Lou Napolitano

Westbrook

Related Stories