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There are just so many Republicans these days willing to throw around inflammatory rhetoric it's difficult, even for political junkies, to keep up. This knucklehead's from Maine, but fits the pattern of loudmouths running amuck in this new Tea party era.

Consider this statement:

“We the people have been told there is no choice. You must buy health insurance or pay the new Gestapo – the IRS.”
Statement during radio address, July 7, 2012

The new Gestapo, not genocidal Germans this time but some jackbooted tax collectors. Words fail me.

Story by The Portland Press Herald. Video by WMTW.

AUGUSTA - Gov. Paul LePage used his own editorial judgment when he described the IRS as the "new Gestapo" in his radio address last week.

But the governor acknowledged Monday that his reference to the Nazi secret police "clouded" his message about the federal health care law.

LePage's written statement stopped short of a public apology, which had been demanded by national and local Jewish groups. However, Emily Chaleff, director of the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine, said LePage called her to personally apologize for his remarks.

At the same time, LePage told WMTW-TV in an interview Monday: "It was never intended to offend anyone and if someone's offended, then they ought to be goddamned mad at the federal government."

Monday was the third day of a controversy that has drawn national media attention, over a comment that LePage added to his weekly radio address, which aired Saturday.

Adrienne Bennett, LePage's communications director, often writes the governor's radio message.

She wrote the address for last week, but said the governor inserted the "Gestapo" reference after she and the staff had finished editing it.

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As Ed Schultz noted tonight, the GOP governors appearing on the Sunday bobblehead shows all had their talking points ready and were on the same page with their defense of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker -- Wisconsin is broke, Democratic Senators are cowards and public employees have it way too good.

But as Ed noted, one Republican governor in Maine let the cat out of the bag with what their real agenda is: enacting so-called 'Right to Work' laws and busting unions.

LePage: 'We're going after right-to-work':

Maine Gov. Paul LePage said Saturday he would push forcefully ahead with right-to-work legislation in his state, even if it means a Wisconsin-style fight with unions.

In an interview at the National Governors Association, the Republican praised Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and couched his own proposal in the language of liberty loved by tea partiers.

"He's got a big challenge, and quite frankly, once they start reading our budget they're going to leave Wisconsin and come to Maine because we're going after right to work," LePage told POLITICO.

"I believe that the Declaration of Independence says 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,'" he said. "Whenever someone forces me to do something against my will, they're infringing upon my freedoms and my liberties. And that's what I think we're doing in Maine when we have fair share, which means that you are required to belong to a union, you're required to pay dues but you don't want to participate. I find that to be against everything the United States of America stands for." [...]

LePage said he's "never inspired by a fight," but that Wisconsin is unquestionably an impetus behind a renewed GOP push to demand concessions from public-sector employees and to go after union power. [...]

LePage said people who want to join unions have that right, but stressed that no one should be forced into the decision.

"I believe if an individual wants to join organized labor and work under a union contract, they should have the legal right to do so," he said. "At the same token, a person who does not want to work under organized labor and wants to work should have the ability to do so without the threat of having to join and having to pay dues to organized labor."

"It's that simple," he said. "It's all about freedom and liberty."

"Freedom and liberty" huh? I don't think so, Governor LePage.

As Ed pointed out, Maine workers cannot be forced to join a union already:

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Alabama Republican Governor Robert Bentley was sworn in Monday and wasted no time in offending his constituents.

Speaking to Dexter Street King Memorial Baptist Church, a church once led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Bentley declared himself to be the governor of all Alabamians, but added that non-Christians were not his brothers and sisters.

"I was elected as a Republican candidate," he said. "But once I became governor ... I became the governor of all the people. I intend to live up to that. I am color blind."

"There may be some people here today who do not have living within them the Holy Spirit," Bentley continued. "But if you have been adopted in God's family like I have, and like you have if you're a Christian and if you're saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister."

"Now I will have to say that, if we don't have the same daddy, we're not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother," he added.

Bentley was later asked if he was trying to be insulting to non-Christians.

"We're not trying to insult anybody," he replied.

"I don’t think he was trying to disenfranchise me, I just think he needs to be a little more sensitive to the fact that there are many different types of Alabamians," Sheldon Rosenzweig, a member of the Tuscaloosa Jewish synagogue Temple Emanuel, told Tuscaloosa News. "I have real mixed feelings about it. I just hope this is not going to be done in repetition. Many of the people in Alabama who are not Christian are good people."

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Tuesday was shocked by Bentley's remarks.

"His comments are not only offensive, but also raise serious questions as to whether non-Christians can expect to receive equal treatment during his tenure as governor," ADL regional director Bill Nigut said.

He expressed concern that the new governor may be using his position to evangelize.

"If he does so, he is dancing dangerously close to a violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which forbids government from promoting the establishment of any religion," Nigut noted.

Bentley was the second Republican governor who found himself in hot water during the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.

After the NAACP complained that Maine Gov. Paul LePage, a tea party favorite, was not attending their events, the governor responded to a reporter by saying: "Tell 'em to kiss my butt."

"They are a special interest. End of story ... and I'm not going to be held hostage by special interests. And if they want, they can look at my family picture. My son happens to be black, so they can do whatever they'd like about that," he said.