Maine’s grim and drawn-out tour as presidential whipping boy took a fresh turn last week, as U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, flanked by a smiling Rep. Laurel Libby and a couple of student-athlete activists from Maine, announced the filing of a federal lawsuit against our state for continuing to allow transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports.

“Today, the Department of Justice is announcing a civil lawsuit against the Maine Department of Education. The state of Maine is discriminating against women by failing to protect women in women’s sports. Pretty basic stuff,” Bondi told the cameras.

Explaining that the administration had exhausted “every other remedy” and maintaining that it did not “like” having to file lawsuits over pretty basic stuff, Bondi expressed indignation at Maine’s refusal to comply, its refusal to “protect women.” 

“We’ve stripped grants from Maine through other departments and we are going to continue to fight for women,” she said.

Protecting and fighting for women is well and good. That’s not what’s happening here, it is not the Trump administration’s concern. Later in the press conference, Bondi veered closer to the hard, emotional truth when, speaking about a trans girl in competition, she said: “Shame on him.” 

“Flashpoint” is no longer an appropriate term for the inflated culture war battle that has been faithfully waged against Maine by the federal government for more than eight weeks now. 

For Rep. Libby, whose irresponsible online agitating first catapulted the Maine state policy on participation onto White House desks, the views of a statistical majority of her “fellow Mainers” continue to take precedence over the separation of powers, the rule of law and the way government is supposed to operate. 

The goal, which is only to win a very narrow battle that is very narrowly understood, is being pursued at any cost. We cannot afford to lose sight of the fact that it’s being pursued at the expense of Maine’s children, patients, small businesses and public servants.

It’s one thing for President Trump, AG Bondi, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon and faraway officials like them to uncap their pens and enthusiastically threaten, strip, suspend and otherwise punish the people of Maine — to the tune of millions of dollars — to make a point.

It’s another entirely for any of our local representatives, with Rep. Libby at the helm, to be cheering on these lashes. It’s unconscionable that people who already understand how cash-strapped Maine’s schools and hospitals are, who know how fragile business is for some of our state’s most significant industries, support their blanket victimization.

Whatever we believe about the terms of this manufactured fight, we should be able to agree that the priorities of Maine representatives who are happy to put populist political points before people are a mess. Whatever we might hope the legal outcome on this question will be, their blinkered, self-serving use of time and energy in recent weeks should offend us all.