Did one of Maine’s U.S. senators secretly aid Bill Clinton during the height of his impeachment hearings? That’s one possibility mentioned in the former president’s 957-page memoir, which went on sale this week.

Among many other things – including a roasted goat head and a stripper in a Matamoras, Mexico, dive – the book talks about the days in February 1999 leading up to the impeachment vote in the U.S. Senate.

One Republican senator who was opposed to the impeachment kept the Clinton administration informed of what was going on among Republican senators, Clinton wrote.

When the vote finally came on Feb. 12, only five Republicans voted against impeaching Clinton and against charging him with obstruction of justice.

They were Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, Rhode Island Sen. John Chafee and Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.

Slate Magazine online speculated Thursday that one of those five must have been Clinton’s mole.

Representatives for both Maine senators raced to deny their involvement Friday.

“As if we don’t have enough to deal with right now,” said Snowe spokesman Jason Galanes. “Now I have to get a copy of the book.”

– Scott Taylor
Bad “s” gone

It looks like Auburn is finished with not going backwards.From now on, it won’t be going backward.

City crews filled in an errant letter “s” this week on one of two columns that frame the Court Street entrance to Auburn Hall.

The column and its facing mate spell out the city’s motto – “Nulla Vestigia Retrorsum” in Latin on one and “No Steps Backward” in English on the other.

The English version had the trailing “s,” as in “backwards,” when the columns debuted in December.

City officials defended the extra consonant, pointing to entries in Webster’s New World Dictionary that allow interchangeable use of “backward” and “backwards.”

A handful of residents and the Associated Press Stylebook disagreed.This week, crews filled in the offending letter with concrete, putting an end to any controversy and setting the city’s motto in stone, once and for all.

– Scott Taylor