As I sat down to address Christmas cards last week (I know I am tardy as usual), my phone started buzzing.

While I hoped the screen would say Possible Spam, it did not.  Yes, you guessed it, it was her Nibbs, Ms. Pigette. As usual, she started off with a string of invectives I had not heard since I mustered out of the Marine Corps, some (never mind how many) years ago. Then she lit into me.

“As you know, old man, I am running as an unofficial, sort of exploratory candidate for the Maine senatorial seat currently held by Republican Susan Collins. While I was trying to decide whether to run as a Republican or Democrat, something strange happened. Is the political landscape changing? I need to know.”

Frequent readers probably know the lovely, full-figured lady with the very naughty tongue spends her days holding up a mailbox on Route 27, on the way from Boothbay to Wiscasset. As such, she keeps a watchful eye and sharp ear on the gossip and loose talk on this peninsula.

I thought for a minute, then asked the big question. “What are you talking about?”

She answered with some NSFW words and sputtered one word: “Indiana.”

Now I know she is a lot of things, but not a college football fan, so she probably did not follow the top-rated Indiana University squad that is in the hunt for the national championship for the first time since St. Peter was a private.

"Can you give me a hint," I asked her.

“You know, the Indiana Legislature. That is what is going on. You are an Indiana person. You are supposed to keep me up on these things,” she said. "The NYTimes, the Washington Post, the AP, FOX, and the rest of the legacy media are head over heels talking about the Indiana legislature. What does it mean?”

Now, as you probably know, I am from away. I am not a Maine native; I am from Indiana, a Hoosier.

Years ago, I fell in love with a Maine native, a real Maine woman born and raised in the middle of an East Boothbay shipyard on the banks of the Damariscotta River. I took her to Indiana, and she became a city girl, or so  I thought. When I retired from the Indianapolis Star, she presented me with a simple statement. “I am going home. I hope you come with me." I obeyed.

Now, Ms. P., I covered the Indiana General Assembly for years and know, or used to know, a great deal about Hoosier politics. And, I know the NYTimes, and its ilk, do not normally write about the Indiana legislature, unless someone goes to jail or is shot dead on the Senate floor. So, I asked her, "What is this stuff about the Indiana legislature?"

“The NYTimes seems to think the Indiana legislature, a rock-ribbed GOP bastion, where the Republicans outnumber the Democrats 40 to 10, just gave the one-fingered salute to POTUS. What gives?”she said.

As best I can figure it out, I told her, the White House ordered Hoosier GOP lawmakers to redraw the congressional map to cut out all the Democratic districts. Indiana has nine congressional districts. The Democrats control just two.

I do know that Hoosiers, like Mainers, don’t like to be ordered to do something. If you ask them, especially if you are nice about it, they would invite you in, feed you, and help you in any way they could. But if you ordered Hoosiers (and Mainers) to do something, they might balk.

In this case, the White House got tough, spent $$$ on TV ads. They even had POTUS, VPOTUS, and the House Speaker call individual members. Think about the hardball political pressure they put on part-time legislators who got calls at home from the president telling them how to vote.

Other White House myrmidons called these GOP stalwarts traitors and threatened primary challengers. Anonymous callers threatened their families with bomb threats. They were swatted with police raids for non-existent emergencies.

So what did they do? The 21 Hoosier Republican senators just said no. They joined the 10 Democrats and squashed the White House’s pet redistricting bill.

Some pundits say their actions mark the beginning of the end for the POTUS/MAGA takeover of the GOP. That is nuts. That faction is still in control. They still have beaucoup political clout.

But for the first time in years, a group of elected GOP stalwarts, unlike their colleagues in the national Congress, defied the Washington power center. They stood up, in public, on television, for all to see, and publicly humiliated the White House gang.  

Is that a political turning point or a bump in the road? Will others follow? Who knows.

Ms. P., your guess is as good as mine.