Looks like Tom Connolly decided to start his trick-or-treating early.

On Tuesday, the “marvelously eccentric” Portland attorney ditched his trademark long-billed fishing cap for white pajamas, plastic – as in Rubbermaid – explosives and a faux AK-47 for an impromptu Halloween homage to terrorist Osama bin Laden.

The barrister, who lives in Scarborough, donned a bin Laden mask and a sign around his neck that proclaimed “I love TABOR.” While in this garb, the former Democratic gubernatorial nominee paraded in a highway construction site on I-295 in South Portland.

The stunt can only be generously described as a “political statement.”

Police acted swiftly because they thought they had a madman on their hands. They did, but at least one harmless to everything but his reputation. As television cameras captured this oddball Osama being carted away by police, it sealed Maine’s 2006 election season as finishing its evolution from genteel to bizarre.

It’s a wonder Connolly wasn’t killed over this cheap stunt. Police take a dim view of brandished weapons, real or fake. Others have been shot for less.

Some will laud Connolly for his brave political speech. If bravery is dressing like a murderer, and then proclaiming this murderer supports a tax-and-expenditure limitation law, then perhaps bravery should be stricken from the English language.

The Taxpayer Bill of Rights is splitting Maine down its social and economic grains. It’s a serious piece of legislation that some say could either spring Maine from its taxation and spending malaise or harm our social and educational programs. We feel its an imperfect solution, but a solution nonetheless.

Connolly, one knows now, is against TABOR. His opinion, as a citizen of Maine, is valued, and he should have been encouraged to spread his views in a responsible manner. His notoriety as a lawyer and former gubernatorial candidate would have probably granted his sentiments a weight unavailable to many.

His decision to share his opinion, however, as a bin Laden look-alike waving a fake rifle near a Maine highway is questionable. And his notoriety, which could have had his opinions heard far and wide, only exacerbates the absolute ridiculousness of his behavior.

Perhaps Halloween fever struck Connolly. Perhaps, like that famous movie line, he was just fed up and couldn’t take it anymore. Perhaps he really thought that by dressing like a terrorist who supports TABOR, he might spur an impassioned and realistic debate on the merits of the legislation.

Or perhaps he simply didn’t think at all.

In recent weeks, several students who had realistic guns around Maine schools have been charged criminally and expelled. The punishment for a childlike adult who waves a toy gun near a Maine highway should be equally grave.

Next time Mr. Connolly, write an op-ed. Sign a petition. But please, keep the make-believe terrorism to yourself.