Professor John Frary makes his case at The Ellsworth American during an Aug. 28 visit.—STAFF PHOTO BY HUGH BOWDEN

The self-described “chalk-smeared academic foot soldier” had settled into a benign retirement in 2004. He said he had intended to go into a “slow decline” in the comfort of his gazebo and study with the occasional glass of wine.

But last year he emerged to win election to the Board of Selectmen in his hometown, Farmington. Then he challenged U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud (D-Maine) for the Second District seat in the House.

In a nearly unbroken series of paid ads in Maine weeklies (including The American), Frary lambastes the incumbent congressman, referring to him more than once as a “hack.”

On Michaud’s campaign contributions from labor: “If Mike Michaud is not bought and paid for by the unions, then he is cheating them.”

On Michaud’s earmarks: “Mike is a PORK politician.”

Comparing himself to the incumbent, Frary writes that while he is “an amateur politician,” Michaud is a “habitual and professional politician.”

Frary also says of himself: “I am the humblest man in the entire Second Congressional District.” And, indeed, he is quick to admit when he doesn’t have an answer. For example, asked how he would straighten out the health care crisis, he demurred: “I’m a retired academic drudge, not a miracle-worker.”

His years teaching history and correcting term papers at Middlesex County College (1972-2004) left him, he said, ever on the alert for “flagrant flapdoodle.”

During a recent stopover at The Ellsworth American before heading over to the Blue Hill Fair to work the crowds, Frary outlined his platform.

The issue du jour was lowering the cost of oil by drilling on American soil. He’s for it, though, ever humble, he notes: “I’m neither a dentist nor an oilman, so I don’t know anything useful about drilling. Who ever heard of a candidate who did?”

Thus did he applaud Sen. John McCain for choosing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

“Governor Palin is a strong advocate of drill now and drill everywhere. We cannot continue to give foreigners little scraps of paper redeemable in the work of Americans for oil. I’m sure she knows how to get the caribou to agree.”

Still on the subject of energy, he’d like to site a refinery at the former Loring Air Force Base.

“What businessmen don’t want is for this to turn into a five-year regulatory opera. That said, won’t the enviro-kooks gas up their SUVs and drive to Augusta to block the project with every shyster shenanigan they can dream up? Sure they will — and I relish the prospect of showing them the errors of their ways. If Canada can do it, why not us?”

He’s for eliminating earmarks, but concedes, “I don’t know if that’s going to happen.” He would, he said, at least screen earmark requests more aggressively than the incumbent.

With his cane, straw boater, boutonnière and show hanky, Frary looks very much the showman. He’s the star of his show and also the chief financial backer. The state and national Republican machines have provided no support whatever, he said.

Nor does he kid himself that he’s likely to prevail.

“We all know the odds,” he said. “I’m going broke but having fun.”