The Democrats' apparent choice to replace Maine Republican Susan Collins in the U.S. Senate has built a rap sheet of dazzling disqualifiers.

It wasn't enough that Graham Platner's impersonation of a blue-collar oysterman has been exposed. Turns out he attended the Hotchkiss School, an elite prep school in Connecticut and is grandson of Warren Platner, the celebrated modernist architect. He's equally unconvincing in explaining away his easily identifiable Nazi tattoo.

But the crowning detail is his bizarre persona was a creepy penchant for texting sexually explicit messages with multiple women. Just listen to his wife Amy Gertner, who was dragged out in public to make a cringy video defending Graham's raunchy activities.

"We've got two dogs, and we love each other deeply," she says. Also, "being married is hard" and "going through infertility is hard." What's that to the voters? They only see a thoroughly depressed, defeated and pathetic woman.

And to think the Platners haven't been married even three years.

Trying to ease the public's concerns that the couple is troubled, Amy notes that everyone's in therapy. "Um, I don't even know if I have the right words to describe what we've been going through," she says. "But, um, our marriage counselor helps. Um, and we work on our mental health every day." All those mean articles about their marriage, she adds, are "just extra s—-ty."

Graham backed Amy on the counseling front. "Amy and I went through something hard — because of me. We did the work ..."

Amy remains angered by the release of information about Graham's sexting activities. "I confided deeply personal details about my marriage to someone I considered a friend," she said. Well, save that for Ann Landers.

Graham has unrelated Reddit posts to explain. He wrote in 2019 that a fellow Marine wounded in Afghanistan, later identified as Ted Daniels, "didn't deserve to live." He survived only thanks to "poor marksmanship" by the Taliban. Daniels had received a Purple Heart.

Graham says he posted "awful things" after he himself served as a Marine Iraq and Afghanistan. He said he suffered from PTSD for which he's also getting treatment.

He posted on Reddit under the name of P-Hustle. In response to another user's "Cops are bastards" comment, Graham wrote, "All of them, in fact."

Graham now owns an oyster company and runs a mooring and dive service, while earning benefits as a 100% disabled veteran.

When his political director Genevieve McDonald resigned, Graham offered her $15,000 in severance pay if she signed a nondisclosure agreement promising to not reveal sensitive information. His campaign manager also jumped ship, as did his campaign finance director.

With almost no information about the guy, Bernie Sanders led the left-fringe munchkins into pouring support for the colorfully radical but clearly unvetted candidate. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren called Platner "the real deal."

His main primary opponent, Janet Mills, dropped out of the race for lack of money. And what were her qualifications to represent Maine in Washington? She's only the governor.

Maine is a swingy state, and antipathy toward Donald Trump had dimmed Collins' prospects for winning another Senate term. Many see flipping that seat as essential to giving Democrats a Senate majority. But now the choice for Maine voters is the moderate Collins or the clearly unstable Platner.

We can wish the Platners success in their marriage and other counseling. We also bid them well in their next fertility treatment. They'd gone to Norway for the first, which led to pregnancy but ended in a miscarriage. But what's that got to do with Maine?

The Platners are in therapy. Democrats who jumped on their float need it, too.

Follow Froma Harrop on X @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at [email protected]. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Michael Denning at Unsplash