Pirate's Cove

This is a pretty wild opinion piece by Joan Vennochi, which also notes Maine gov Maura Healey’s support

For women, Platner vs. Collins is a tough choice because of abortion rights

What’s more important: How a man talks about and treats women, including his wife, or whether he supports abortion rights?

With Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, support for abortion is trumping what Democrats, especially women, would consider abhorrent behavior from a Republican.

Consider Governor Maura Healey’s explanation for why she plans to back Platner in the general election if he wins the Maine Senate primary. During a Tuesday appearance on GBH radio, Healey said, “I’m disgusted by what he posted and I’m disgusted by his other behaviors and antics. But, here’s the thing, come November, there’s going to be a clear choice: There’s going to be Susan Collins, on the one hand, who has stood with Trump.”

In follow-up comments to the Boston Herald, Healey was more specific, saying, “We need to do everything we can to defeat Susan Collins, who is the reason that we have the Dobbs decision, the reason that Roe v. Wade was overturned.”

So, because Orange Man Bad and abortion (which is purely legal in Maine, as a state right per the SCOTUS ruling) she will support Platner? As will so many Democrat women? There’s no reason to reiterate how horrible Platner is, right? Or that the media would be in Category 5 apoplexy if Graham was a Republican, right? Or that the GOP would have dropped all support for him from the minute the Nazi tattoo came to light, right?

To that end, Democrats, including powerful women like Senator Elizabeth Warren, have backed Platner despite a series of controversies, including a tattoo inspired by Nazi symbolism that he has since covered up and old Reddit posts in which he downplayed rape in the military and used crude language to suggest that rape victims should take some responsibility for what happened, especially if they drink too much. He has since apologized for those comments. (snip)

Warren, who famously called out Michael Bloomberg on the 2020 presidential debate stage for past sexist comments, is still backing Platner. And Healey, who initially endorsed Governor Janet Mills in the primary, is now saying she will be with Platner in the general election.

It’s all about the power and the Democrats 1st Commandment, abortion on demand.

How can Democrats like Warren challenge questionable tattoos from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and sexism from Republicans in general when they accept it in one of their own? Once you give up the high ground, you never get it back.

Hegseth’s tattoos are Christian in nature: Platner’s is a Nazi symbol.

(Breitbart) Several women who previously dated Graham Platner have described “unsettling” and controversial behavior by the Democrat looking to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).

The New York Times profiled several women who shared a romantic past with Platner, further piling onto the controversies that have plagued the candidate since discussions about his Nazi tattoo. In one interview, conservative commentator Lyndsey Fifield, who dated Platner between 2013 and 2015, said that he would often be rough with her while discussing violence, clarifying that he never physically assaulted her.

“He said this a lot: If anybody ever broke in here, I would rape them,” Fifield told the outlet. (snip)

Regarding his Nazi tattoo, Fifield also expressed doubt as to Platner’s claims of being ignorant of its meaning, saying that he would sometimes describe it as “my Totenkopf.” Jewish Insider previously reported that a former acquaintance described him using that term.

Good on the Times for actually covering this, and not burying the article. Democrats won’t care. They don’t care about any of it. How bad would Platner have to be for them to drop support? If he was shown to be a member of, say, Stormfront or some Nazi organization, would that drop their support? Or, is winning the election and abortion more important?