AUGUSTA, Maine — The Portland spokeswoman for the NAACP renewed her call Friday for a meeting with Maine Senate leaders and an investigation into several offensive Facebook messages posted by GOP Sen. Michael Willette of Presque Isle.
Senate President Michael Thibodeau offered to meet with Rachel Talbot Ross as long as the discussion did not include Democrats. But Talbot Ross says that's not acceptable.
Nine days ago, Willette admitted on the floor of the Maine Senate that he may have offended some people with what he referred to as "inappropriate criticisms" of President Barack Obama in several posts on his Facebook account. Willette — and other Senate Republicans — had hoped his major mea culpa would set things right.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the Maine Senate, over the past two days there has been significant publicity about posts I have made on social media in particularly Facebook," Willette said at the time. "I would like to stand here in front of you today and apologize for these remarks and those posts."
The "remarks" Willette posted were part of an ongoing rant that, among other things, suggested Obama viewed members of the Islamic State terrorist group as members of his Islamic family; that Muslims in Western countries should be rounded up and air-dropped back to where they came from and that Islam preaches deceit and lying.
While Rachel Talbot Ross, the president of the NAACP Portland Chapter, says she accepts Willette's apology, she remains concerned about how the senator and Senate leadership view the Aroostook County lawmaker's postings: as "inappropriate criticisms" as he described in his apology, or as a more insidious example of bigotry and racism. To that end, she wants Willette temporarily replaced as co-chair of the Legislature's State and Local Government Committee and she wants something else.
"While this situation has been unfortunate, it is also an opportunity," Talbot Ross says. "We ask the Republican leadership to work with their Democratic colleagues to create healthy and inclusive discourse on the issues of race and religion."
Just such a meeting was supposed to take place Friday between Talbot-Ross and Republican Maine Senate President Michael Thibodeau, but it never happened. That's because she's insisting that Senate Democratic leaders also be at the table. And since Senate Democrats put out a press release a week ago condemning Willette and the Maine Democratic Party is now openly calling for his resignation, Thibodeau has found it difficult to collaborate with his political adversaries.
After a press conference held by Talbot Ross and her supporters, Jamie Carter, GOP Senate press liaison, explained why Thibodeau wouldn't be able to agree to the NAACP's conditions.
"They have no interest in the political theater aspect of this, if they want to create a genuine effective dialogue and what happened this morning was about political theater, they'll be happy to meet with Rachel again and to move forward, but not in this way," Carter says.
Democrats say the Maine Senate is a small club of 35 people and Willette's remarks reflect on them all.
"There are 34 other senators that sit in that Senate chamber every day that have had no opportunity to condemn what has been said and move forward in a positive way," says Justin Alfond, the Democratic Senate Minority Leader.
Representatives of other ethnic groups were less diplomatic than Talbot Ross. Former Penobscot Nation Tribal Rep. Donna Loring said as presiding officer, Thibodeau has an obligation to act. As far as she's concerned, Willette should expect to be treated harshly.
"The Senate cannot avoid taking action, we expect the Senate to officially censure this senator and either demand his resignation or take disciplinary action by removing him from his chairmanship," Loring says.
By the end of the day, none of those things — let alone a meeting with the Senate president — had happened.