Corrupt congressmen working at the behest of corrupt corporate contractors. Political gridlock on important issues. Polarization of the national debate.

If you are tired of politics as usual, former Maine Gov. Angus King would like for you to try something different: Unity.

King, always the independent, is helping to spearhead a national movement to push politics away from the fringes and back to the center where, evidence indicates, most Americans live.

Two weeks ago, the cover story on our Sunday Perspective section described a large and broad majority of Americans living between the distant poles of liberalism and conservatism. Terming this group the “Levelheads,” the author described a majority group bound by a handful of common desires: that government should be effective, efficient, avoid moralizing and stay out of their private lives.

They are not particularly interested in following the ups and downs of political polls or in the strategy of winning elections. They have lives, they work, they pay taxes and raise children.

The author concluded that if, somehow, they could be united behind a common banner, they would be a potent political force in this country.

However, as we have seen again in recent days, our political agenda is driven from the extremes. The goal today is to whip up the political base and then try to attract as many votes as possible from the middle.

Why else would a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage be back before Congress? We’ve been over this ground several times in recent years, and nobody thinks the issue has a ghost of a chance in Congress.

It’s an election year, of course.

Now, however, important issues such as unprecedented government deficits and the war in Iraq will take a backseat to this pointless, annual charade.

King last week proposed a new way, a political movement that would start by capturing the middle and moving outward.

It’s called Unity08, and the group promises to hold an online convention in 2008 to nominate a Unity Ticket for a president and vice president drawn from opposite parties. Then it hopes to put that ticket on the ballots in all 50 states.

According to Unity 08, “America may never have faced so many issues crucial to its security and welfare at the same time: worldwide terrorism, dependence on foreign oil, global climate change, the economic rise of India and China, a soaring national debt, the need for affordable health care, a crisis in education and more.”

If Unity08 can get itself off the ground, Americans who have lost faith in both Republicans and Democrats – and there are millions of them – may have an alternative in 2008.