Both of Maine's Representatives, Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud have announced their support for the House health care reform bill due to be voted on tonight.

Pingree has always been a champion of real reform. Here are her remarks today from the House floor:

Michaud waited a bit longer to announce his final intentions, but issued a statement today supporting the legislation:

We must come together and get the best possible bill passed so that the Mainers I represent not only have more affordable coverage – but coverage that meets their needs. Later tonight, I will say yes to expanding health care coverage to the thousands of small businesses and people in Maine who do not have it and, to those who do, making it more affordable and better. Today, I will say yes to ending the practice of denying coverage due to preexisting conditions and other abusive insurance industry abuses.

Being able to get quality health care should never be a question for any American. The bill we passed today is a good step forward. It will help make sure that no American goes broke because they get sick or is ever denied coverage. This is an historic day, but more work lies ahead. I look forward to continuing to work toward meaningful reform that is good for Maine.

Maine 2nd District Congressman Mike Michaud appears to be out of sync with fellow members of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of conservative Democrats in the House, on the issue of federal health care reform.

The Blue Dogs today sought to limit the bounds of discussion on reform, releasing a memo outlining the conditions under which they would be willing to support new health care legislation.

In particular, the Blue Dogs are seeking to severely limit the size and scope of any public option passed by the House. They are also demanding a "trigger" in the legislation that would delay the implementation of such a plan until private insurers have failed to meet "specific availability and cost targets."

The coalition has 51 members and, if they voted as a block, could potentially side with Republicans to scuttle health reform legislation in the House.

Michaud apparently opposes placing these kinds of limits on the health care debate.

"The congressman believes that we should explore all options with regard to health care reform," said Michaud's Communications Director Ed Gilman by email today. "He worked with the Blue Dogs to encourage the committees to have an open and bipartisan process in the formulation of legislation. He thinks this is too big of an issue to limit debate."

Gilman also pointed to a statement made by Rep. Michaud less than a week ago in which he called a public plan a "major improvement" and stated that he is "committed to a public insurance option."

While these statements leave Michaud with plenty of wiggle room on the details of any government-backed health care option, it's clear that he doesn't currently support the stringent conditions proposed by his fellow Blue Dogs.

In related news, Jason Levesque, an Auburn Republican and owner of a telemarketing management firm, has announced that he will seek the GOP nomination to challenge Michaud for the 2nd District congressional seat in 2010.

Congressman Mike Michaud is getting some press both at home and abroad for his letter to Obama on how to change America's trade policies. Here's an article in Portuguese from a Brazilian TV Network (which is, interestingly, the most-viewed network in the Western Hemisphere).

Michaud's quote run through Google Translator:

"The correction of our mistakes of the past in trade policy and globalization and the search for a new path can help our nation to confront the major economic challenges," said Congressman Mike Michaud, one of the founders of the Working Group on Trade of the House of Representatives.

The Spanish version of the article has been published by dozens of media outlets throughout South and Central America.

The legislation hasn't been submitted in Congress yet, but the fight over the Employee Free Choice Act in Maine is ramping up quickly.

Yesterday, Congressman Mike Michaud, labor leaders and top Democrats in the legislature gathered at the Capitol to highlight a new study from the Center for American Progress that predicts a 5% increase in union membership would lead to an infusion of $77 million into Maine's economy.

WLBZ has footage from that event as well as a press conference held by Maine business lobby leaders the day before:

Passage of this legislation will likely require the votes of at least one of a small group of moderate Republican senators, which includes Maine's Snowe and Collins. After a barrage of anti-union ads during the last elections, both senators have voiced their opposition to the EFCA, but groups both for and against the bill obviously think there's a chance one of them will change their mind or could be convinced to vote for an amended version.

First District congresswoman Chellie Pingree was targeted as part of a media offensive by the National Republican Congressional Committee against selected Democrats last week.

At first glance, it's hard to understand why they would think her heavily-democratic seat is vulnerable, but perhaps they thought the fact that Second District congressman Mike Michaud voted against the rules package they are faulting Pingree for supporting might have given the issue some traction. No media in Maine seems to have bitten.

This week I take a look at Maine political blogs

Speaking of which, Congressman Michaud has written another blog post at The Hill's Congress Blog. The spelling and sentence structure made me wince.

I'll let all the others talk about (hey, Kaplan's back!) the recent US Senate debates. I'd like to focus on the much more entertaining second district congressional debate between Congressman Mike Michaud and cantankerous Spanish-American War veteran John Frary.

The debate itself was thoroughly enjoyable to watch (assuming you didn't try to watch it on TV), mostly because both candidates seemed to be having a lot of fun.

Here are some highlights of Frary's enthusiastic rantings:

On a more serious note, the part of the debate I found most interesting was Mike Michaud's dance on abortion. Debate moderator Jennifer Rooks also took note and discussed it on MaineWatch the next day. Here's the clip:

Update: Frary's former employer, the Kennebec Journal, has no love for the professor, but he has gained some support from north of the border. Some writers for the Calgary-based libertarian publication Western Standard are big fans.

My Down East post this week is about the effects of a new focus in Maine from the McCain campaign.

One thing I should add: I don't think a McCain push in Maine will work. There are a lot of other states that we'd see turn around for him first before the second district was really at play for McCain, and a bad economy hits a lot of folks here harder than it does in the rest of the country.

I don't think the fact that Palin has hunted moose will magically sway Maine voters, and the idea that it will is rather insulting.

Michaud and Allen made similar points yesterday:

Update: Alaimo catches Palin dissing the Red Sox.

Both Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins have recently used The Hill's Congress Blog, basically an online home for low-key press releases, to post their views on the bailout legislation.

Tom Allen also has a post this week, discussing a piece of legislation he introduced on global mercury reduction which recently passed the House and Senate.

Mike Michaud's last post was in July, when he discussed the federal deficit.

VP of the Bates College Republicans, Matt Cocciardi, quoted in an article on John Frary in today's campus paper:

"[Frary] tells it like it is and speaks his mind, which is rare in American politics today. Unlike Mike Michaud who just votes like Nancy Pelosi tells him and does not take into consideration the people of Maine."

The Press Herald editorial board came down heavily in favor of Allen's vote on the bailout legislation and castigated his northern colleague.

"Michaud is not expected to have a tough re-election bid this cycle, but that's beside the point. Even if he were in a fight for his political life, there's no excuse for not rising to this serious challenge to our collective well-being."

From the Press Herald:

U.S. Rep. Tom Allen voted in favor of the package. In a statement he said it is "unconscionable that the House failed to reach consensus on legislation to stabilize financial markets as America stands on the brink of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s."

Allen, a Democrat who is running for Senate against incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, had voiced reservations about the bailout, which was retooled over the weekend to accommodate concerns about corporate accountability and taxpayer risk.

U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, voted against the measure. "It provided largely unchecked authority to the Treasury Department to spend $700 billion of taxpayers’ money without adequate safeguards," he said in a statement.

The house vote on the bailout plan came down 228 against, 205 for. Michaud voted against the plan, Allen voted for it. Both parties split on the vote.

Local TV news last night carried a good deal of reaction to Obama's incredible speech.

WGME:

WLBZ:

WMTW:

My favorite reaction was from Republican political consultant Alex Castellanos, who said "whoever didn't get picked for Republican VP today may be a lucky Republican."

The Congressman gets a photo on Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 blog:

Believe it or not, our trip here hasn't only been movie stars pretending to care about stuff. We've also seen some honest to goodness politicians who might actually care about stuff like Rep. Mike Michaud of Maine