There was a recent report that Maine independent Senator Angus King, who now caucuses with Senate Democrats, could switch to the Republican Party in 2015 if that GOP wins control of that body.
When first elected to the Senate in 2012, King declined to choose a party until after the election. He choose the Democrats, certainly a more comfortable fit for him than the Republicans.
It was a great story that sent shock waves of dismay through the ranks of Democrats for what appears to be a craven move of someone with no fixed ideology.
The only problem with the story is it is not true.
Senator King (conflict of interest note: I was a college classmate one year apart with the Senator at Dartmouth) has no intention of caucusing with Republicans in January. It was a case of bad reporting and a scribe drawing inferences of his own choosing.
In fact, King tossed out an off-hand comment as he was getting on the Senate subway his stock line that “he would do what is best for the people of Maine.”
He in no way suggested he was thinking about changing parties – and has told his Senate Democratic colleagues that the story is wildly off-based.
In fact, should he join the party of Ted Cruz (TX), Rand Paul (KY) and Mitch McConnell (KY), he would look like a nudist at a black tie party.
He would no more do that than abandon the mustachioed caucus.
But once an intriguing story gets told and ricochets around the internet and Washington gossip, it is hard to turn it around.
