Nuggets from the notebook while waiting for Gov.-elect Paul LePage to unveil his secret plan for health care …

Campaigning is a world apart from governing.

Exhibit A: “Dirigo will be Diri-gone.”

The comment, made by Tarren Bragdon, the CEO of the free-market think tank Maine Heritage Policy Center and co-chairman of LePage’s transition team, came at the tail end of a recent New York Times story. However, it became headline-worthy here in Maine, as Dirigo Health proponents portrayed the governor-elect as flippant about the plight of the 14,000 currently enrolled in the insurance program.

“Diri-gone,” some may recall, was an oft-repeated phrase by GOP candidates on the campaign trail. LePage in particular made no attempt to hide his disdain for the program, or his vow to fight the national health care law.

But LePage’s plans have new context now that campaign rhetoric is speeding toward fruition.

Good luck getting Team LePage to say it publicly (we tried), but they know Bragdon’s quip was a political boo-boo. The fledgling administration seems to be trying to transition from the clenched fists that sent disenchanted voters to the polls, to the extended hand required to govern.

As “Diri-gone” received more play in the news cycle, Dan Demeritt, LePage’s press secretary, responded to a Sun Journal inquiry about the governor-elect’s health care strategy, even though Bragdon had been touted as the transition team’s health care policy expert. 

Demeritt wouldn’t say if Bragdon was no longer handling media requests. However, during the interview, he added a little levity to the flap. He joked that the “Diri-gone” fallout reminded him of a “West Wing” episode, during which Josh Lyman, a brash policy adviser, gets in trouble for sarcastically telling the press about President Bartlet’s “secret plan to fight inflation.”

Lyman was covering for Bartlet’s press flak, C.J. Cregg, who needed an emergency root canal.

Demeritt, it turns out, was out of the state when Bragdon was interviewed by the Times.

Collins no fan of Palin (this year)

National pundits last week were making a pretty big deal about comments U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, made to a Kennebec Journal columnist about tea party darling and speculated GOP presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

According to the column, Collins insinuated that Palin’s attraction to the presidency was more about popularity than public service.

“I think she likes being a celebrity commentator for Fox and a speaker and being able to provide for her family,” Collins said. “I think that life appeals to her. It’s a lot easier to charge people up than to actually govern.”

Pundits at MSNBC and elsewhere read the comment as evidence of Collins’ frustration with the tea party’s sacking of GOP moderates.

However, the blog Collins Watch, a site devoted to debunking Collins’ moderate image — and according to a 2006 post by New York City-based playwright Dan Aibel, to soften her up for a future Democratic challenger — had a different view.

Collins Watch, or Aibel, noted that Collins’ criticism of Palin is an about-face from the laudatory comments she made after Palin was selected as Sen. John McCain’s vice-presidential running mate in 2008.

Wrote Collins Watch, “So this isn’t about a moderate going after a conservative. It’s about a creature of the GOP establishment going after an outsider.”

Snowe removal?

The forecast for 2011: Lots of Snowe, Olympia Snowe, accompanied by intermittent speculation about the Republican U.S. senator’s future.

And of course, over-worn, pun-riddled headlines and leads like the ones deployed above.

It began in earnest last week, as national pundits wondered if the ascension of far right conservatives and the tea party spelled doom for Snowe. She’s up for re-election in 2012, and she could face a primary challenger from the tea party.

At this point, Snowe’s threat from the tea party seems very real. Last week, Andrew Ian Dodge, of Maine’s Tea Party Patriots, told The Washington Times that the senator is the tea party’s “next target.”

“There is going to be a primary, and she is going to have at least one ‘tea party’ candidate against her,” Dodge said. “If it is done correctly, she can be beaten.”

Comments like that, plus a recent Public Policy Polling survey showing Maine Republicans favored a more conservative candidate, have led to rumors that congressional Democrats are trying to convince Snowe to switch parties. (John Gentzel, Snowe’s communications director, could barely contain his sarcastic dismissal of the rumors when asked about them last week.)

Outside the Beltway, the likelihood of Snowe switching parties seems highly unlikely. More likely is that Snowe will subtly shore up her conservative credentials without betraying the image that has made her so popular with independents and Democrats. 

There’s already been some evidence of this. Days before the election, Snowe recorded robo-calls urging voters to support the tea-party backed LePage.

While recently campaigning in Lewiston on behalf of Republican candidates, Snowe was asked about working for candidates advanced by the GOP wing that might try to defeat her in 2012.

She acknowledged that there were differences between her and other members of the GOP, but said they had a lot in common on fiscal issues. As for switching parties, Snowe said, “I am who I am.”

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