title:  Mural Of Gov. LePage Wearing KKK Garb Has Maine City In Uproar (IMAGE)
text: The city of Portland, Maine has been thrown into pandemonium after a mural of the state s bigoted governor decked out in full Ku Klux Klan regalia appeared.The original graffiti art was painted onto the wall of the Portland Water District s wastewater treatment plant and featured Maine Gov. Paul LePage donning the trademark hood and robe of the KKK. Given the slew of racist remarks that he spews almost continuously, the image is fairly fitting. Next to the 6-foot-high likeness of LePage are the words racist,   homophobe  and  moron.   Governor,  the last word listed, is crossed out with a red line.City won t remove graffiti of "racist" Maine Gov. LePage wearing KKK hood https://t.co/9KkhiUSVPp pic.twitter.com/PNvIaJhiob  Talking Points Memo (@TPM) September 6, 2016The wall art sparked a string of graffiti and the image has since undergone several transformations. Portland resident Mark Reilly painted over the image with white paint, then a group of women scrubbed off his cover-up. By 10pm on Tuesday, the image had been reduced to just LePage s face with Mickey Mouse ears above his head. All references to the KKK were gone and the mural now reads only No Hate  and  Hate is Hate. As for city officials, they have been in turmoil over what should be down about the graffiti as well. Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling wanted the image removed. I do not want it up there. It is not reflective of our values,  Strimling said Tuesday.  The KKK has a long, problematic history in the state of Maine, and equating the governor and his rhetoric, as much as we disagree with it, is a step too far. The wall belongs to the Portland Water District and they have not removed graffiti from the wall in decades and has been treated as a public canvas. City officials initially said that they had no intention of removing the image, citing free speech. But later in the day, water district spokeswoman Michelle Clements said that the city and the district s general manager were discussing what should be done about the mural.Strimling, who has been known to be at odds with the Republican governor, clarified on Tuesday that his reasoning for suggesting that the mural should be removed had nothing to do with concern for LePage. I am as frustrated as the next person with the governor s rhetoric,  he said.  It is not appropriate to trivialize the KKK. LePage has a bad habit of letting his racism hang out for the world to see on a regular basis. He made headlines a few months ago when said black guys named  shifty  are coming into his state to sell drugs and impregnate young white girls. More recently, he said that he is at  war  and declared black people to be the enemy. A few days later, when he heard a rumor that a colleague had called him a racist, he decided to leave a ranting voicemail calling him a  cocksucker.  He has since promised that he will never talk to the media again so that they are less likely to catch him saying racist things.Featured image via WCVB