One side tried to palm it off as a victory – “Democrats praise reapportionment commission vote” – but there was no putting a happy face on the ugly truth: Congressional redistricting in Maine is mired in partisan quicksand. If the two parties were any farther from a compromise, one of them would be in Massachusetts.

As the days dwindle down to a precious few – to be precise, a precious two – the 15 members of the state’s Congressional Reapportionment Commission remained unable Monday to reach a compromise on drawing the boundary between Maine’s two congressional districts.

The commission’s Republican and Democratic members apparently are still miles apart (at least on the map) as to where the district line should go.

The Land Use Regulation Commission is still a valuable tool to manage a unique resource.

Bush was wrong to claim victory, but the push he gave the Arab world in Iraq is paying off.

Zero-base budgeting is used by many businesses and some governments as a way to decide how to spend for the future without being enslaved by the past.

Each agency of state government will be asked to start from scratch, not the current budget, to decide how much it needs to meet its goals.