Late yesterday we learned that Mike Bertrand had quit as Executive Director of the Vermont Republican Party after a mere five months on the job, and that for three of those five months, he apparently wasn’t paid because the party’s coffers were empty.  

This prompted some reflection in GMD-land, a hearkening back to past predictions of a bleak future for the post-Jim Douglas VT GOP. In January 2011, when the party had (a) just lost the governorship and (b) completely missed a huge national Republican tidal wave, one of us wrote these words:

The Vermont Republican Party is in as bad shape as any major political party I’ve seen. There’re no two ways about it.  

… It was through Dougla’s single-minded interest in his own re-election that the Vermont Republican Party withered under his watch, as it gave little support to legislative Republicans and candidates.

After the jump: Warnings against Democratic complacency, and portents of an ugly new VTGOP.

Last fall, GMD saw Bertrand’s hiring as a recycle, an echo back to Douglas days rather than a step into a new Republican future. And now that he’s left the building, the VT GOP is in the hands of Jack Lindley — a recycle, not to Jim Douglas, but to the days of Bob Stafford. Good grief.  

In October 2010, in a GMD diary naming “up and coming Republican stars,” the first name was Phil Scott. Okay there. But after that? Jason Gibbs, former Douglas flack who was about to lose the race for Secretary of State by almost ten percentage points. Gibbs is now the flack for Ski Vermont, where he is, I’m sure, trying not to think of global warming while casting a weary glance at our sun-baked slopes.  

Also mentioned was Michael Dubie, who’s made no visible move toward politics so far.  All of this makes a 2007 GMD diary sound even more prescient:

Under the guidance of recently departed Chair Jim Barnett, the Republican legislative races were allowed to dry up and blow away while all attention and energy was spent protecting Governor Douglas and pushing some of the other, big ticket statewide races. The result is a dearth of talent in the short term, and few rising stars on the horizon.

Which is at least as true today as it was then. For all his own electoral success, Jim Douglas was a failure at building a party. A year and a half after his exit, its coffers are empty, its leadership is aging, and its statewide ticket is likely to be filled with retreads and no-hopers.  

So, it’s all good for the Democrats, right?   Well, no. I see three things to worry about.  

First: the natural tendency to get complacent. The Dems dominate state government and our Congressional delegation. That kind of success tends to foster laziness at best and corruption at worst. So far, the top Dems have seemingly done a good job of, well, doing their jobs, and making government work.  

The second concern: that Governor Shumlin will echo Jim Douglas’ failure to build his party. GMD, January 2011:  

Shumlin could easily fall into that trap, and the Vermont Democratic Party could atrophy if it becomes exclusively tasked to his re-election. If so, that too could change the playing field. For my money, though, I’m betting Shumlin is too smart to give into that impulse.

Let’s hope. And the third concern: if the VTGOP is an “empty shell” at the start of a campaign season, then others will fill the vacuum. The high-profile advocacy groups Campaign for Vermont and Vermonters for Health Care Freedom are far more active, and much better financed, than the Vermont Republican Party or its (retread) candidate for Governor, Randy Brock.  

The Dick Snelling/Jim Jeffords Republican Party is long gone. It’s obvious that the Jim Douglas “smiley face conservative” GOP is on life support at best. The door is wide open for an influx of corporate cash (into those independent groups if not the party itself), which could create a new VTGOP in the Fox/Rove/Koch model of expensive, dogmatic Mortal Kombat.

It’s unclear how well such a party would fare in traditionally moderate Vermont, but it would certainly have a lot of money in its corner, and it would certainly make our politics a whole lot meaner and nastier.  

The Rent Is Too Damn High by Matthew Yglesias

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Matt Yglesias is a young journalist, formerly with The Center for American Progress, who is now writing on the economy for Slate magazine. Anyone who has followed his recent reporting or Twitter feed is aware that one recent focus of his work has been the supply-limiting effects of needless regulation, and particularly building and zoning codes. Now, taking his lead from Jimmy McMillan, the recent joke candidate for New York Governor on “The Rent Is Too Damn High” ticket, Yglesias lays out his argument for increasing the supply of creating affordable housing in desirable locations by reducing or eliminating zoning and building requirements that distort the market. 

Yglesias's targets include building height limitations, minimum lot size requirements, and parking requirements that subsidized car ownership. Yglesias argues that not only do these regulations force up housing prices, they also prevent cities from creating the dense, walkable neighborhoods that Boomers and Gen Xers want.

Think liberals are always trying to impose restrictive regulations on private enterprise? “The Rent Is Too Damn High” is a rebuttal of those claims. Concerned about the cost of housing and how the market can address the housing needs of your community? Then you should read this and start talking to your city's planning and zoning departments about what they're doing to fix things.

View all my reviews

While awaiting review of Vermont Yankee by the PSB, and beaching of the waste field from Fukushima on U.S. shores, we who are not constrained from discussing issues of safety can consider  this little nugget from Enformable.

It seems that Tokyo is not without its own fallout issues from Fukushima.  Despite early efforts by industry regulators to downplay both the scope and severity of contamination,

“The nuclear accident in Japan has resulted in widespread deposition of radioactive contamination throughout the northern part of Japan, including the metropolitan Tokyo area. Surface contamination levels in this entire region would be required to be posted as radiological area if they were at a U.S. licensed facility or DOE site.

This “widespread deposition” has implications for the U.S. that go beyond the path of the plume and ocean-born waste.  According to Enformable, an April 2011 teleconference involving U.S. and Japanese officials delved into concerns about what might be entering the U.S. through conventional import channels:

Any materials leaving Japan have the potential for low levels of radioactive contamination. Thus, the discussion about materials in DOD possession is indicative of similar materials that are entering commerce from Japan. In the DC and IPC meetings earlier this week, it was agreed that the limit of 4 Bq/cm2 for commerce was going to be acceptable and posed no health risk.”

Apparently there was some discussion as to whether the Department of Defense should become involved in licensing and disposal of the contaminated material that would be inadvertently imported under this scenario, but the DOD was reluctant to become involved. Their preference was that the contaminated material simply be returned to Japan, but that was impractical under the circumstances.  The teleconference appears to have been inconclusive:

The regulatory provisions cited by members discussed the regulatory aspects of normal commerce in radioactive materials. It is not clear that these provisions would apply to widely scattered accident fallout that has placed low level contaminated material in the hands of many unregulated people and on material that will be entering commerce throughout the world.

To round out that cosmic head-scratcher, here is a video recorded on the first anniversary of the accident, which features Arnie Gundersen of Vermont’s Fairewinds Associates speaking with “Democracy Now” about some of the “Lessons from Fukushima” and the fact that the NRC has so far shown little indication of a willingness to learn from them.  

Gundersen: Fukushima Meltdown Could Result in One Million Cases of Cancer from Fairewinds Energy Education on Vimeo.

Few details available, though there is this from The Brattleboro Reformer:

More than 1,000 people gathered near Entergy’s headquarters on Thursday, to protest the continued operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

There were dozens of police officers patiently waiting the people who were going to trespass on Entergy’s property and get arrested in civil disobedience.

Most of the group walked from the Brattleboro Common to the headquarter along Old Ferry Road congesting traffic along Route 5 for two hours.

The protest was the largest in Vermont in the past 25 years.

The Reformer’s Facebook page is doing lots of updates, including sharing videos and photos from the protest.  I know there have been several (peaceful) arrests, but I’m not clear on how many of those were at VY or at the Entergy NE HQ in White Plains, NY (also reported by the Reformer).

Here’s some news you don’t want to see when you’re heading into campaign season.  Vermont Press Bureau:  

Mike Bertrand ended his short stint as executive director of the Vermont Republican Party last week, departing the post to dedicate more time to his private consulting business.

Bertrand had been on the job for not quite five months, having taken over for Pat McDonald last November. His departure leaves the newly-ensconced VTGOP Chair Jack Lindley with a big vacancy to fill.  

Er, make that two vacancies: one in the office, one in the bank.    

Bertrand hadn’t been paid since the beginning of the year, according to GOP Chairman Jack Lindley.

Oooh, awkward.  

An ebb in fundraising, Lindley said, has temporarily sapped the party’s accounts. Lindley said he intends to deliver Bertrand his back pay, though Bertrand said it really isn’t a big deal.

“An ebb in fundraising” in an election year??? Wow. And here I thought the Republicans were the party of the wealthy.    

(Bunched Knicker Syndrome, the hot new political disease of 2012. BKS Fever… catch it!)

Dear oh dear. House Republicans are in a flutter because Governor Shumlin dared to show his face in “their” chamber during a session. Via VTDigger…

Last month, Gov. Peter Shumlin, a former representative and senator, sidestepped the usual form and took a seat in one of the plush red velvet-covered Senate chairs behind the House podium. The circumstance? The governor was making the rounds at the Statehouse with Thomas Sullivan, the new president of the University of Vermont, who was introduced to the General Assembly.

The governor didn’t speak or draw attention to himself, but his very presence was duly noted by Republicans who say Shumlin breached protocol by entering the chamber while the House was in session.

Apparently the presence of The Great Man™ was unnerving to the assembled throng. They were unable to concentrate on the People’s Business™ due to the waves of charisma emanating from Governor Shumlin. Or maybe they feared he was planning to pass orders to Shap via secret hand-signals, which would be a clear violation of protocol. Or something.  

(For those unfamiliar with the State House, the chairs behind the Speaker’s podium are open to the public whenever they’re not occupied by the State Senate. It’s equivalent to sitting in the gallery.)

After the jump: Hurt fee-fees as political tactic.

Rep. Tom Koch, a Republican member from Barre who has served in the House since 1997, called it a “symbolic type of thing.”

“When he’s at work, we don’t go marching into his office,” Koch said. “I don’t want to make a big stink about it, but it’s technically not proper.”

You don’t want to make a big stink about it, eh? Then what are you aiming for here, a mid-sized stink? Fart in an elevator? A passing whiff of perfume?

Oh, another thing: the Governor’s office doesn’t have public seating. So your comparison is, well, completely off base.

But for the sake of fairness, let’s take this to the impartial adjudicator.

Donald Milne, Clerk of the House, says the governor’s presence in the House was unusual, but not inappropriate. The Senate seats in the House, he said, are open to the public – and the governor is a member of the public.

Gov. James Douglas appeared in the gallery several times over the course of his tenure in office, Milne recalled.

Well, then. Never mind!

Looks like we have a developing epidemic of BKS on the Republican side. They made a big fuss over Democratic texting in a recent health-care debate. And, of course, they’re in the habit of putting out press releases castigating the Governor whenever he goes on vacation. Which, as we all know, Republicans never do.

(Well, yeah, George W. Bush set the all-time record for executive vacations… but he was doin’ manly stuff, like bike-ridin’ and brush-clearin’. And yeah, he broke the record set by Ronald Reagan, but Ronnie was on his ranch, ridin’ horses and looking’ all John Wayne-y. That’s an Amurrican vacation, dangit. Not like Shumlin idling away on some foreign beach, prob’ly wearin’ a lavender Speedo.)

(Oops, I think I just started a rumor there.)

National Republicans make a habit of this — slamming Democrats for any perceived slight or shortcoming no matter how irrelevant. Guess we’ll be getting more of the same from Vermont Republicans. Another sign that the formerly moderate VTGOP has adopted the Fox News/Karl Rove playbook.

As some of you know, New Hampshire recently caught up with Vermont, allowing for same sex marriage in their fine, if somewhat behind the rest of us, state.  

There was some question, however, as to whether or not this would stand.  Last election cycle, the Granite state elected a whole bunch of ultra-right wing, ultra-crazy, tea party style republicans, to the point where they had a veto-proof majority if they were willing to work as a sold block.  The one saving grace of this is that some of them are too crazy to compromise.  One of the items on the chopping block was marriage equality.  The thing is, however, they figured out last year that they really did not want to have that fight.  

So they held it off for a year.  And that’s when things got interesting.

Support for marriage equality has, in fact, grown in New Hampshire.  Just like in Vermont and Massachusetts, this is the sort of thing that when people claim the sky will fall if it happens and then, when it happens, there’s no falling sky, people start to think “hey! You people promised me moon rocks raining down form the heavens!  You have no credibility!”  Or something.  I probably can’t tell exactly what people who believe that sort of thing would think, because from my point of view, they’re very crazy, very gullible, or both.

So, anyway… yes, marriage equality in New Hampshire is not only not unpopular, repealing it is *wildly* unpopular:

The WMUR Granite State poll shows that only 27 percent of New Hampshire adults support repealing same-sex marriage, while 50 percent strongly oppose repeal. The percentages are similar to a poll asking the same question in February.

Note that phrase “strongly oppose.”  This is a state that’s thinking “what did we put you people in charge for, because it certainly wasn’t this.”

So what happened yesterday?

The initial panic from the anti-marriage forces could be seen early when NOM (the National Organization for Marriage, which, ironically, is opposed to my marriage) floated support for a “compromise” bill, which would replace same-sex marriage with civil unions.

This happened in Massachusetts some time back.  When they were discussing the possibility of same sex marriage, the debate shifted dramatically to the point where instead of conservatives opposing civil unions, civil unions became the inadequate conservative alternative to full marriage equality.  So NOM, which blatantly opposed even civil unions until recently, tried a hail mary pass in which they would support civil unions in hopes of avoiding marriage equality.

Why did they do this?  Because even though they are a bigoted, vile, hate group they are not, in fact, complete morons.  They, in fact, saw their entire New Hampshire campaign collapsing before their eyes.

And that’s when this happened:

It’s a bigger win than we even thought: actual vote count was 211-116! #NH4M #lgbt

— NH Families (@NHFamilies) March 21, 2012

That win is ours.  Not only did we defeat the attempt to repeal marriage equality.  It went down in flames.

Oh, and to NOM:

“While we are disappointed in this vote today, we remain committed to giving the voters of New Hampshire the opportunity to restore the traditional definition of marriage. The only time gay marriage activists are able to win is when they can bypass the people and get activist judges or legislators to do their bidding, usually after plying them with large campaign contributions.

Yes.  Representative Democracy is such a pain.  

Norwich University, here in Northfield, has long been known as a leading military school. I believe there is some competition between Norwich and West Point over which is the oldest military college in the country. If I recall correctly, West Point is older but Norwich became a degree-granting institution first.

Anyway, if you live in or around Northfield you know about the military tradition of the Corps of Cadets, and if you live in Vermont you may know of some of Norwich’s other, less traditional, programs. For instance, for many years Norwich has offered a program in Peace Studies, now known as Studies in War and Peace, which is not what you picture for the red-meat military crowd. Norwich also hosts the annual Colby Symposium, which attracts military writers from across the country.

This year, however, is a major departure: next week Norwich will be observing its first Pride Week.  

NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Question, and Allies Club (LGBTQA) will be hosting its first ever Pride Week at Norwich University March 26-31.

Highlights of the week include a keynote address by Army Chief Warrant Officer Charlie Morgan and remarks by Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin at Norwich’s first ever Queer Prom on Saturday, March 31.

In conjunction with community partners such as Outright Vermont and RU12 numerous discussions and awareness-raising activities are planned.

There will be six days of events, a day for each color of the LGBT flag with each color representing a LGBT issue or theme, such as red for AIDS awareness and green for allies.

“The purpose of this event is to express and demonstrate equality throughout the Norwich community, along with the public, in order to promote membership in the NULGBTQA and to educate the public on challenges and issues faced by members of the LGBT community,” said Joshua Fontanez, NULGBTQA president and a senior member of the Norwich University Corps of Cadets.

The NULGBTQA made national headlines with its first meeting occurring on Sept. 20, 2011, the day of the repeal of the military’s ban on open homosexuality, commonly known as “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”

“The NULGBTQA is the first ever LGBT Club on a military campus, and we have had local, statewide, and national attention from members of West Point; the Governor of Maryland; the Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Outright Vermont,” Fontanez said. “Departments across campus and myriad members of the Norwich Community are coming together in order to help create Pride Week, free for all.”

The week’s events are sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Students; the Student Government Association; the Student Activities Office; the Office of Substance Abuse Prevention and Education; the Center for Civic Engagement and Campus Climate Committee; the Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs; Human Resources and Title IX; Sodexo; the Office of Student Success and Retention; Norwich Christian Fellowship; Residential Life and the Infirmary.

Throughout the years that opposition to the Vietnam War got ROTC removed from many university campuses there were many who argued that this was a mistake, and that integrating ROTC into mainstream academic life was essential to keeping military values in line with the liberal values of society as a whole. Norwich deserves a lot of credit for doing this.

(As previously defined: Bunched Knicker Syndrome.)

Apparently Jeff Wennberg went shopping at Costco, brought home a giant industrial-sized can of hyperbole, and scooped out a heaping helping over at one of the Ground Zeroes of the B.K.S. epidemic in our state: Vermont Tiger.

(In fact, I think the Tiggers buy their underwear pre-bunched. It’s a lot easier to work up a good fit of outrage when you’re really, really uncomfortable.)

So Jeff, having recently taken the reins of Vermonters for Health Care Freedom from Darcie Johnston, suddenly feels himself besieged on all sides by the forces of anarcho-Islamo-socialism.

The onslaught begins… after the jump.  

Apparently Vermonters for Health Care Freedom (VHCF) is making progress. The fury and frequency of attacks leveled against the organization from advocates of the single-payer takeover of Vermont’s health care system have reached a fever pitch.

Fury! Fever pitch! Yeah, I drove through Montpelier earlier today and saw blood running through the streets. Now I know why: Jeff Wennberg was under furious, feverish attack. Sadly, it’s the price he must pay for “making progress.” Osama Bin Laden didn’t bother attacking Costa Rica or Belgium; he came after the big dog, the U.S. of A. Likewise, the minions of Socialist Medicine have naturally trained their fire on the biggest threat to their subjugation of the American Health Care System: Jeff Wennberg.

Single payer zealots seem most offended by the use of the word “freedom” in the organization’s name.

Zealots! Yep, Al Qaeda is on board with Governor Shumlin’s reform plan.

Speaking personally, Jeff, I don’t mind if you use the word “freedom.” Nobody, thank God, has a copyright on it. Actually, what’s more objectionable is when Darcie held that “health care forum” a few weeks ago in Lyndonville, and it was billed as a dispassionate informational session organized by “Vermonters for Health Care Reform.” Now, that was truly disagreeable. Misleading. Mendacious. A big fat lie. I’d rather you just stick to “Freedom,” thanks.

In fact, at least one of the single payer advocates is so incensed he has publicly called for media outlets to refuse to carry VHCF’s paid messages. Apparently nothing protects freedom like censorship.

“At least one.” Uh, Jeff, that’s a far cry from a furious horde.

Oh, and you might want to look up “censorship” in your favorite dictionary. Censorship has to be done by someone in a position of authority. Your critics and opponents can call for all sorts of things; but by definition, they cannot “censor” you.

Look, Jeff, you’ve signed on as head of the biggest anti-health care reform advocacy group in Vermont. That’s a very visible position. You’re going to attract a lot of attention. And, roughly speaking, half of it is going to be negative. That’s not furious, feverish attack; that’s the nature of the political game that you’re now playing. Get used to it, or get out.  

a civil war

a gender war

Americans against

Americans

a bugler sounds

the charge

home to become

a battlefield

a loose cannon fires

from the other side

they have joined ranks

marching to glory

how silly they look

coming right at us

we have baked

thousands of pies

and have weapons

they’ve yet to imagine

an army of bullies

who will cry when hit

run home to their mothers

tattle on us

say mommy I fell down

make it better

she will warn them

never again to play at war

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

GMD Poll:

Does Rush Limbaugh have a mommy?