Imagine the righteous indignation that would result if someone connected with the Maine Republican Party anonymously posted incendiary, defamatory “facts” about an individual running for statewide office on a website created for the sole purpose of discrediting the opposition candidate. Then picture the website’s authors artfully remaining anonymous, carefully parsing their words through handsomely compensated spokespersons in order to do so. The GOP and its leadership would undoubtedly be buried under a torrent of moral outrage from the left; it’s likely Democrats from both inside and outside the state would loudly vent their eminently justifiable spleen over the sleazy, craven lowlifes who had attempted to subvert the electoral process.
The scenario described above actually occurred last fall, but the individuals who concocted the offending website weren’t Republicans. The “Cutler Files” was created last August when some Democratic Party operatives became concerned that independent Eliot Cutler’s presence in the state’s five-way gubernatorial race might hurt their party’s nominee, Libby Mitchell. The site was designed solely to sabotage the Bangor-born lawyer’s candidacy, displaying less-than-flattering photos of the Harvard-educated Cutler and describing him as “a phony and a fraud.” The second of the two men responsible for the site finally came forward last week, shortly before his identity was likely going to be revealed anyway. Not many Mainers who follow politics were shocked that Thom Rhoads was implicated in the affair, even though he had publicly, categorically and emphatically denied any association with the “Cutler Files” scheme on numerous previous occasions. His written statement last Thursday in which he admitted his involvement was about as surprising as Mel Gibson confessing to having problems with anger management and alcohol. Mr. Rhoads, whose wife Rosa Scarcelli was one of the also-rans in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, piously claimed the site was created merely to better inform the public about Mr. Cutler’s background.
The clear intention of those responsible for the now-defunct website was to discredit Mr. Cutler, but the people behind it took great pains to conceal their identities. Like other Internet bullies who are unfamiliar and/or unconcerned with integrity, they were too cowardly to publicly stand behind their words. Ultimately Cutler garnered nearly twice the votes Mitchell did, so it’s clear the efforts of those who tried to discredit him didn’t do much to help their party’s standard-bearer. However, it very likely aided the Republican nominee, who edged Cutler in the general election by a razor-thin margin.
There are multiple ironies in the episode, not the least of which is that the last thing anyone involved with the situation wanted was a Republican in the Blaine House. But they’ve got one now, and that’s arguably thanks at least partly to the efforts of the morality-compromised dirty tricksters who anonymously authored the hatchet job on Cutler. Just think: Had it not been for the contemptible actions of Rhoads and the website’s co-creator/enabler Dennis Bailey, Maine’s current governor might not be someone who as a candidate pledged that he’d tell President Obama to “Go to Hell,” and since his election has showed how much that incident taught him by advising the folks at the NAACP that they could “kiss my butt” when he opted not to make an appearance at the organization’s Martin Luther King Day function.
Fittingly it was on Dec. 23, the very same day Bailey, who runs his own political consulting firm, admitted his involvement with “The Cutler Files,” that governor-elect Paul LePage announced he was hiring his 22-year-old daughter as a special assistant to his chief of staff. The citizens of Maine will pay Lauren LePage $41,000 annually. She qualified for her job by earning a bachelor’s degree in biology last August from Florida State University, where, since her parents claimed the Sunshine State as their primary residence, she paid in-state tuition. The hiring of Ms. LePage outraged many who accused the governor of nepotism, but like Bailey and Rhoads he can innocently assert he wasn’t aware he was breaking any rules.
When, after numerous denials, Mr. Bailey admitted that he was indeed one of those behind “The Cutler Files” his lame explanation was, “It was a short-lived website launched with the best of intentions that sort of backfired.” To many Mainers that is unquestionably the understatement of the year.
With any luck the aftermath of Bailey and Rhoads’s spectacularly unsuccessful undermining efforts will serve as a cautionary tale for other aspiring political saboteurs about the potential consequences of craven dishonesty. But Mr. Bailey apparently doesn’t feel it will be, at least where he is concerned. According to Friday’s Portland Press Herald the defiant but apparently unrepentant consultant told columnist Bill Nemitz, “I’ll put my reputation up against anyone’s.”
Sadly, given the ethical standards of far too many others in Bailey’s field of endeavor, he’d probably be safe in doing so.
— Andy Young teaches in Kennebunk, and lives in Cumberland.
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