The sudden and unceremonious resignation this week of the Commissioner of Department of Marine Resources gave the Democrats and the news media a golden opportunity to pig pile on Gov. LePage. He was quickly accused of everything from bad management to sucking up to “special interests.”

But it was a golden opportunity for everyone else to realize that most of these critics have no idea what they’re talking about. All they know, apparently, is how to kick a guy when he’s down to score cheap partisan points.

I’m not suggesting that Gov. LePage is blameless here. Like, maybe he should have fired Norm Olsen sooner instead of leaving him in the job long enough to make a fool of himself. But maybe it would have been wise for the Democratic partisans to hold their fire and get the full story before nominating Olsen for Hero of the Year.

Here’s the underlying issue that ultimately led to Olsen’s resignation: Olsen wanted to change Maine law to allow commercial fishing vessels that drag the ocean bottom for ground fish to keep and sell the lobsters they happen to pull up in their nets. They’re called “by-catch,” and under current rules, the ground fishermen have to throw them back – or take their catch to ports in Massachusetts where they can sell the lobsters, even ones that are too big to be legally sold in Maine.

The ground fishermen, whose numbers have dwindled over the years due to overfishing and strict regulations, argue that if they could keep their “by-catch,” they would land their catch in Maine ports, like Portland, and help revive Maine’s ailing ground fish industry. But it’s a questionable argument. We’re talking about vessels that do their fishing well offshore. Gloucester is actually closer than Portland to most of these boats. Fuel and berthing costs are generally lower in Gloucester, and those big, oversize lobsters that can’t be landed in Maine fetch a good price in Massachusetts. There’s really no financial incentive to land their catch in Maine.

I know all this because a few years ago, the Maine Lobsterman’s Association hired my firm to help kill a bill that would have allowed these draggers to sell their lobster by-catch in Maine. There were good arguments against it. Lobster is Maine’s premier product, and the resource is healthy due to extremely good management. Catching lobsters in traps – as opposed to dragging the sea bottom – is environmentally benign for the most part. And big breeders and females with eggs are thrown back to make more baby lobsters, ensuring the sustainability of the resource. If the ground fishermen had adopted some of these techniques, maybe they wouldn’t be in such dire straits today.

Olsen, a bureaucrat from the State Department who supposedly has some family history with the ground fishing industry, vowed in the very beginning to change all this. Barely a month on the job, before most of his constituents could pick him out of a line-up, Olsen went to the Rockland Fisherman’s Forum and announced his support for changing the dragger law. It was like dropping an F-bomb in church. For one reason or another, he was clearly doing the bidding of the ground fishing industry (a special interest?), and he barreled ahead, apparently unaware or uncaring that Maine’s most valuable and important industry is deathly opposed to diverting from sound management and sustainable practices that have kept them in business.

None of this was apparent, however, in Olsen’s vague, overwrought, wacky resignation letter. (Full disclosure: my wife, Kristen Bailey, the former head of the Maine Lobster Promotion Council, interviewed for the Commissioner’s job, but these views are strictly my own.) His scorched earth letter blamed LePage and his staff for everything. He, of course, was only upholding truth, justice and the American way:

“This administration is more interested in pacifying special interest groups than in responsibly managing Maine's marine resources for the benefit of the entire state,” he wrote.  “I cannot be part of that.”

It was that juicy line about “special interests” that Democratic critics and editorial writers seized on.

“I commend Norm Olsen for his courageous and honest stand against the LePage Administration,” huffed Benjamin Grant, chairman of the Maine Democratic Party in an "action alert." “His letter confirmed many of our worst fears: that Governor LePage is putting special interests and favoritism ahead of Maine people.”

Portland Sen. Justin Alfond, apparently working off the same talking points, said in a statement, “I applaud Commissioner Olson's courage and integrity…..The Governor has consistently put special interests and favoritism ahead of Maine people.”

Even former candidate for governor Rosa Scarcelli – you know, the one who likes to talk about bi-partisanship – couldn’t resist, writing on her blog, “Olsen laid out a stinging indictment of the governor and his unwillingness to stand up to special interests.”

And the Portland Press Herald editorial page predictably weighed in. “If (Olsen’s) initiatives are dropped….we'll know that (he) was right when he said that the administration is ‘more interested in pacifying special interest groups than in responsibly managing Maine's marine resources for the benefit of the entire state.’”

OK, let’s be clear here. The “special interest group” we’re talking about is Maine’s lobstermen and women, around 7,000 licensed fishermen who collectively make up what is indisputably the state’s most valuable and important industry. (In contrast, there are barely a handful of ground fishermen in Maine.) Last time I looked these were "Maine people." So my question to those who seem ready to erect a statue of Norm Olsen for standing up to this evil special interest group is a simple one: does this mean you favor changing Maine’s law to allow commercial fishing vessels to drag the ocean bottom for lobsters, a practice the lobster industry believes would drive down prices and threaten their very existence? It’s a simple yes or no question.

Even if there were good arguments for allowing draggers to haul in lobsters, Olsen’s failure was his inability to do basic outreach to the lobster industry to try and get them to support a change in the law before announcing such a drastic new policy position at his first public appearance. How much research could he have done? He should have known from the 2007 experience that lobstermen are pretty solid in their opposition, and to get them to change their views would require mucho spadework. (It was a point of pride in Olsen’s letter when he wrote, “We would manage our resources based on science – both biology and economics – not based on how many lobstermen can fill a legislative hearing at the Augusta Civic Center.” I agree, but as someone who had something to do with filling the Augusta Civic Center with lobstermen, I haven’t yet seen any science to suggest that dragging for lobsters is a good thing.)

Like I said, maybe LePage isn’t totally blameless. Maybe he initially supported changing the dragging law and backed off once the lobstermen started raising hell, which they’re good at. But hey, he’s the boss. Olsen serves “at the pleasure of.” It’s pretty clear from the tone of his self-righteous resignation letter that Olsen is bullheaded and unwilling to yield his position, even if the governor tells him to. And it’s apparently not the first time that “know-it-all Olsen” has flamed his boss on the way out the door.

Well, he’s gone. And for my money, the lobster resource is better off for it.