Maine Gov. Paul LePage Regrets Stirring Up Labor Mural Controversy

WASHINGTON -- Just days after gaining national attention for pulling down a labor mural from a state agency, Gov. Paul LePage (R-Maine) appears to be rethinking the battle he started with the unions.

Last week, LePage ordered a mural taken down from the lobby of the Department of Labor, arguing that it was hostile to businesses and showed just one side of the state's history.

"Were the bosses in the mural?" said LePage. "Were the employers in the mural? ... I think it's inappropriate for [the mural] to be in the Department of Labor when everyone comes in, employers and employees, and they're confronted by one side of the question."

The response from the labor community was swift. Maine AFL-CIO President Don Berry immediately issued a statement saying, "Paul LePage cannot erase our history, and he will not silence the voice of the working class in Maine."

LePage stopped by the GOP caucus meeting on Thursday morning and told legislators that he was surprised at the uproar, several people familiar with events told The Huffington Post.

"He certainly regretted that it happened," said state Rep. Leslie Fossel (R), who chairs the Moderate Caucus and attended the meeting. He added that LePage revealed he wished he had waited to take it up in the summer, rather than the middle of the legislative session.

"It was a distraction that they did not need, and it just got away from them," Fossel said.

The governor's comments stopped short of an apology though, and Fossel said LePage made it clear that he believes the culture in Maine's government agencies need to be changed.

"That change in culture reflects not just changing positions or changing budgets, but gets into symbolic things too," added Fossel.

A request for comment from LePage's office was not immediately returned.

Comments

[Emmayonas]

03:47 PM on 04/11/2011

"That change in culture reflects not just changing positions or changing budgets, but gets into symbolic things too," added Fossel. WELL IF HE REALLY wants to change symbolic things too, he should remove himself from the governor office as he is a symbol of tyranny and intolerance.

[Michael Patrick Monahan]

09:00 AM on 04/05/2011

Take it from a native of the great state of Maine- the man's mouth is far larger than his intellect

[MHT73]

07:34 AM on 04/05/2011

Astounding that anyone would think they could smooth things over with the CLASSIC false apology - I'm so sorry you were upset by the awful thing I did.

[HP ME]

04:57 PM on 04/02/2011

MPBN Article - Artists File Lawsuit Seeking to Have Maine Labor Mural Put Back
04/01/2011
"Charging that the governor and state officials did not have the authority to remove a labor history mural from the Maine Department of Labor, a lawsuit filed in federal court late this afternoon is asking that it be put back in place. The lawsuit is being brought by six people, including three visual artists."

"...we believe that there's a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The people of the state of Maine have the right to receive the message that is contained in Ms. Taylor's mural..."

Freedom of expression and due process can be such annoying things when you have the history of the state to rewrite...

[GardenerNorCal]

09:02 AM on 04/11/2011

I wish them luck and hope they succeed in getting it put back.

[nia122]

04:19 PM on 04/02/2011

"He certainly regretted that it happened," said state Rep. Leslie Fossel (R), who chairs the Moderate Caucus and attended the meeting. He added that LePage revealed he wished he had waited to take it up in the summer, rather than the middle of the legislative session"

Clearly, he thinks he did the right thing, he is just sorry he got caught. LePage is clearly hostile to the middle class and ordinary workers. But more important than taking down the mural which records the history of those who have to work for living is the fact that he is scaling back child labor laws. It is interesting that the press is failing to cover this. We are in big trouble people, if we don't "storm the Bastille."

[spkninglsh]

03:21 PM on 04/02/2011

Hire some children to put it back up...they are the new employees!

[m1jones]

02:17 PM on 04/02/2011

Do the right thing, LePage, and restore the mural to its place in the Maine Labor Building. Otherwise, you are not long for the Governor's office. You remind America once more of the power of representative art to inform and inspire. (Contemporary abstract art - of, by, and for rich people - carefully avoids representing anything specific to workers or ordinary people.)

The mural in Maine spoke to the middle class better than all the words written about how unAmerican the Republican Party and the Tea Party, who are opposed to bedrock American democratic values.

Art (of actual people, not myths) can inform people more than words. Early Christians put the saints and holy family in their churches to teach the illiterate. American democracy needs to do this to save the union. Check out WPA murals in Post Offices during the Great Depression.

The workers mural in Maine depicted actual people stiving for a better life. It celebrated hard physical labor, a woman working for the right to vote, and children wanting to go to school instead of work.

If Governmor LePage had not destroyed this mural (as I suspect - or he would have already reinstalled it) he could reinstall it. America loves to give errant politicans second chances as long as its not gay s-x in a public bathroom in a red state.

Democrats need to learn a lesson - hire some artists. That's how Barack Obama got elected.

[Titan1nyc]

01:56 PM on 04/02/2011

DICKTARD, I red going blue in 2012.

[ElizabethRoo]

01:34 PM on 04/02/2011

Repubs need to think before they act. These people have no common sense.

[Ricky Pollo]

08:47 AM on 04/11/2011

They're not ALL so impulsive. Seriously, we're not gonna get anywhere making straw-man statements like that.

[Millie Lencioni]

01:21 PM on 04/02/2011

LePage is not sorry it happened. He wants the attention that the other rogue Governors are getting. The only thing he is sorry about is that it may affect the next election cycle. He doesn't want any negative fallout. Too bad, that's the price you pay for being foolish.

[PuSencer]

12:03 PM on 04/02/2011

what is inappropriate about solely having labor on the mural? the legislature is devoid of labor and its representatives

[FreedToChoose]

10:54 AM on 04/02/2011

The common view of robber barons was that they did it and the workers should be grateful for any crumbs that they got. It's easier to delay buying your next yacht than to put off buying food to eat.

[KWHOO]

03:16 PM on 04/02/2011

And the robber barons felt entitled, and chosen. They fully believed they were born to rule, due to their superior intellect and unique abilities. They helped foster the wage slave mentality that persists to this day. Think of how many time you hear working class right wingers say that only the rich can help us. Seems like many today are working towards creating the next gilded age.

[beachgirlchix]

04:59 PM on 04/03/2011

I'd rather take their money. Screw their "help!" We can get the rich to pay up--the hard way if necessary. Most rich people who refuse to contribute are straight up cowards.

[michelesda]

07:50 AM on 04/02/2011

"He certainly regretted that it happened,"

Wouldn't you think a man with any common sense would have thought of that beforehand?

[Muskered]

11:04 AM on 04/02/2011

A man, yes. This man, the governor, acted like a child . . . a child who is governor of a state. Good luck Maine.

[michelesda]

12:00 PM on 04/02/2011

Governor for now. Perhaps next election cycle the people of Maine will retire him and let him drift off peacefully into his second chilhood?

[Punchy the Angry Clown]

05:45 AM on 04/02/2011

In other news Carnegie unleashed the Pinkertons on the striking workers, hoping that a few clubbings would make the peasants realize who they had to thank for their daily pittance.

[Peanut Santiago]

04:20 AM on 04/02/2011

Put it back.

Put the mural back.

He isn't sorry, he is just giving a lousy faux apology to get angry workers off his back.

I doubt it will work.

[StaggerLee]

11:40 AM on 04/02/2011

He didn't give any apology, faux or otherwise.

[KWHOO]

03:17 PM on 04/02/2011

Yes, he remains an @ hole