What must Sen. Olympia Snowe been thinking as she spoke during the Maine Republican Party convention on Sunday?

Addressing her party’s convention for likely the last time as an elected official after a 33-year career in Congress distinguished by dignity and moderation, Snowe made her case that replacing President Barack Obama with a Republican and shifting control of the U.S. Senate to the GOP would break partisan gridlock in the nation’s capital.

Meanwhile, at her feet, convention goers wrestled for power within the Maine Republican Party hierarchy and engaged in shenanigans that even Stephen Colbert would consider over the top.

As their alternative to gridlock, Maine’s Republicans offered malicious infighting, accusations of “cheating” and chaos. Never mind bipartisanship, these folks couldn’t even do partisanship.

Anger motivates people to show up at conventions and lubricates, highpowered political machines. However, it corrupts — borrowing a term from Gov. Paul LePage — efforts to govern or demonstrate leadership that’s effective beyond the fantasy land of a convention floor.

Republicans have held the Blaine House and majorities in both chambers of the Maine Legislature since January 2011. After four decades of primarily minority status, the GOP deserved time and leeway to work through some adjustment pains. But as a second legislative session nears conclusion, LePage keeps lobbing divisive salvos and the party’s rank and file seems to be splintering rather than coalescing behind strong leaders.

Running the show instead of criticizing it from the safety of a minority bunker requires far more stamina, cohesion, vision and diplomacy — coincidentally, some of Snowe’s trademark characteristics — than what Republicans displayed during the weekend convention and from the governor’s office.

On the heels of February’s botched caucus that drew national scorn and derision, last weekend’s Maine Republican Party convention fiasco adds credence to the concern that a party so seemingly inept at managing its own internal affairs has no business conducting the people of Maine’s business.

After convention delegates opted not to change it, the party’s platform remains an exercise in extremism, marching orders to the fringe. Do adherence to “the principles of Austrian economics,” elimination of the Department of Education and expending energy to “repeal and prohibit any participation in efforts to create a one-world government” really reflect Maine Republicans’ priorities and core principles?

The convention debacle derives directly from party power brokers’ efforts to establish an adversarial tone, which worked fine for an oppositional minority but ill serves those who strive to lead a state where more than half the populace swears allegiance to no political party.

With the party’s reputation rapidly disintegrating into fodder for latenight comedy routines, principled Maine Republicans should take steps now to reclaim their party and reassert a commitment to fiscal restraint and limited government — including on private matters such as reproduction — that marked Snowe’s tenure and would properly honor her legacy.

All of Maine would benefit.

letters@timesrecord.com