(Noonish, 3/9/12: Just added a note at the end of this diary, with information contrary to my paranoid fantasy about Shumlin and Illuzzi. All after the jump.)

Sometime in the past 24 hours, the Vince Illuzzi-for-Attorney General thing has gone from a rumor to an openly-floated Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade trial balloon. The Republican/Democratic (but mostly Republican) state senator from the NEK is basically telling anyone who will listen that he’s pondering a run for AG. Brattleboro Reformer:

Illuzzi said he would likely run as a Republican even as supporters urge him to run as an Independent to appeal to more voters in Democratic-leaning Vermont.

“You know, after 32 years, I think I have established a record as an Independent and would hope that people would look at my record and my ability to work with Democrats and Progressives, and not just the letter after my name,” he said.

Funny he should mention his 32 years of experience, since it opens the door to consideration of the big fat elephant in the room: his decisively checkered ethical past. Our Illuzzi Whitewash Media Count is now up to four: in four separate media entities, an Illuzzi candidacy has been bruited without mentioning that on at least three occasions, he’s been charged with violations of legal ethics. His law license was suspended for four years, and he came within a whisker of losing it permanently. (Best single source for this is a 2001 Boston Globe article written by one Jon Margolis, now of Vermont Digger.)

And somehow we’re not mentioning this because…?

I have an idea. Parable, and a paranoid fantasy, after the jump.  

Within the city limits of Montpelier, there’s an auto repair shop called IB’s Garage. Been there since the 1970s. Its owner is Paul Ibey. It’s the kind of place where people bring in older cars to keep them running and passing inspection.

And in front of his garage is a large, and very illegal, collection of junked vehicles.

Now, IB’s isn’t off on some side street or rural dead-end; it’s on Barre Street, a major east-west corridor. The junked cars are right alongside the roadway, in clear public view. Behind IB’s is the Winooski River. (Runoff, anyone?) Directly across the street is Sabin’s Pasture, an open undeveloped parcel of land beloved by many in the community.

There have been efforts to develop housing on the land — housing that would add significant property value to the city and create more living space a short distance from downtown, striking a small blow against suburban sprawl. Those efforts have met with stout resistance from people who want to “Save Sabin’s Pasture!” Somehow, these people don’t care that there’s a junkyard directly across the street from this sylvan paradise.

Paul Ibey insists it’s not a junkyard; he plans to get all those cars running again. But some of them have been there a long, long time. A plain reading of applicable law would clearly indicate that IB’s is in violation of multiple city and state laws and ordinances.

And there it sits. Not far from the river. And right across from a treasured community open space.

I’ve lived in Vermont for about six years. It’s a really nice place in a lot of ways, but there are a few things about it that I find rather annoying. One of them is Vermonters’ tendency to accept things that are familiar even if they’re obnoxious, and reject things that are unfamiliar even if they’re potentially beneficial.

And regarding his candidacy for AG, Vince Illuzzi is the IB’s Garage of state politics. A blight on the landscape that’s accepted simply because it’s familiar.

Thus endeth the parable. Now for my paranoid thought.

Last week, when he turned down a chance to endorse Bill Sorrell, Governor Shumlin made it pretty clear that he’d like to see someone else as Attorney General. There’s speculation of a Democratic primary challenge from someone like Speaker Shap Smith or Chittenden County State’s Attorney TJ Donovan. But what if Vince Illuzzi winds up running as an independent? The Republicans would almost certainly stay out of the race; they’ve been very Illuzzi-friendly of late.

Would Shumlin endorse an independent Illuzzi for AG over a Democratic incumbent?* Call me crazy, but I think it’s possible. The Governor is fond of the occasional “kicking the hippies” move — taking a center-right stance to prove his moderate bona fides. Endorsing one Republican — especially if he runs without the “Republican” label — would be a classic Shumlin move.

And ignoring Illuzzi’s troubled ethical past would be a classic Vermont move.

*Addendum: I’ve been told by a solid source that there’s no way Shumlin would endorse Illuzzi. I have no reason to doubt that; I posted the idea as a paranoid fantasy, and if that’s all it was, I’m glad. I don’t mind being wrong. Hope I don’t make a habit of it.

The real aim of Shumlin’s conspicuous non-endorsement of Sorrell, I’m told, is to give potential Democratic challengers some subtle encouragement to challenge Sorrell. And one other name to add to the list of potential challengers: Windsor County State’s Attorney Bobby Sand.

Some confirmation of our recent spate of Republican-ticket rumor-mongering comes from “Blurt,” the staff blog at Seven Days. Reporter Paul Heintz quotes State Sen. Vince Illuzzi as saying the odds are 75% that he’ll run for Attorney General as a Republican, against Democrat Bill Sorrell. (Assuming Sorrell is the nominee; see the same gathering of rumors.

Heintz offers a couple Illuzzi quotes on why Sorrell might be vulnerable and why he’d be a better choice. Nowhere in the (admittedly brief) item does Heintz recount Illuzzi’s decidedly checkered history with legal ethics.

Brief reminder: Three times during his career as a lawyer, Illuzzi has been charged with ethical violations. For four years in the 1990s, his law license was suspended. (Details here.) That would seem to be an important bit of information concerning a prospective holder of Vermont’s highest legal position.

It’s the second time this week that Illuzzi’s possible candidacy has been mentioned in the media. The first was on WDEV’s Mark Johnson Show, in a conversation between Mark and Vermont Pundit Laureate Eric Davis. They tossed around an Illuzzi bid without mentioning his past run-ins with his own profession.

I realize he isn’t the nominee yet, and hasn’t even formally entered the race. But I’d think that his past ought to be the very first thing that’s brought up. And it ought to be brought up and explored thoroughly before Illuzzi gets anywhere near the nomination.  

( – promoted by Jack McCullough)

At Town Meeting this week, Vermonters in nearly 60 towns spoke with a clear voice when they rejected the Supreme Court’s bizarre notion that a corporation is a person. Their vote comes as the spigot of money — opened wide by Citizens United — is flooding the presidential election landscape. Unchecked spending by Super PACs is giving Americans a disturbing preview of coming attractions if this horrible decision is not overturned.

The voices of Vermonters on Town Meeting Day gave a boost to the national movement to overturn Citizens United with an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. As we work towards that goal, I am taking two concrete steps to limit the influence of Super PACs before the November elections.

First, I am calling on President Obama to use his constitutional authority to fill the five openings on the six-member Federal Election Commission (FEC) during the next recess of the United States Senate. Partisan gridlock at the FEC and in the Senate has rendered the FEC feckless at a moment when their guidance and enforcement is needed most. The very agency that is supposed to be the elections cop on the beat is paralyzed as Super PACS run amok in an election landscape muddied by Citizens United.

Second, I am calling on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to investigate whether nonprofit 501(c)(4) organizations affiliated with Super PACs are in violation of federal law. Groups qualifying for nonprofit tax-exempt status are prohibited by law from engaging in substantial political activity. Simply put, the IRS should take appropriate action against any organization masquerading as a nonprofit at the expense of the taxpayer.

Vermont has a proud history of leading the nation on issues of profound national importance. By speaking up this week on Citizens United, our small state is again assuming a leadership role on another issue of historic significance. And our voice is again being heard.

Dr. George Till, State Representative (D-Jericho) is back with another online Physician Survey on legislative issues related to health care. You may recall the foofaraw over his 2011 survey and its breathlessly reported topline: IF WE PASS SINGLE-PAYER, ONE-QUARTER OF VERMONT’S DOCTORS WILL LEAVE THE STATE!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Caps and italics mine. And exclamation marks.)

There were some problems, reported here at GMD if not elsewhere, that meant the survey was highly unreliable. Licensed physicians were notified of the survey by postcard, but anyone could go online and fill it out. Notification was only as reliable as Dr. Till’s mailing list. It was possible to fill out the survey more than once. The survey was unscientific; it wasn’t a true sampling of physician opinion, but a voluntary online poll of those motivated to fill it out.  (36% of licensed physicians completed the survey.) Also, the “licensed physician” category includes a whole lot of people who are retired, have left medical practice, live in neighboring states but are licensed in Vermont, and have moved away but maintained their Vermont license.

(Many doctors maintain licenses in multiple states. Non-practicing doctors often keep their licensing current in case they decide to go back to medicine. Renewing an existing license is far simpler than re-applying.)

After the jump: slightly more secure, but still fundamentally flawed. Also, apes.  

Well, Dr. Till has a new, improved, secure survey for 2012. As he noted in his postcard to physicians:

Because last years (sic) survey was contaminated by certain advocates and non physicians, your license number will be required to complete the survey.

Contaminated! “Take your filthy paws off my survey, you damn dirty ape!” Funny, that word “contaminated” rings a bell… From a comment posted on GMD April 12, 2011, about a week after Till’s first survey was released:

Rep. Till addressed the Democratic caucus today concerning the brouhaha with his survey. Basically, he was angry with the fact that the survey had been tainted by “contaminants”. He referred to the fact that some members of the caucus had accessed it, as well as maybe some others in the building.

At least some of those damn dirty apes were, as he himself noted, fellow members of his party caucus. Must have been an uncomfortable moment.

This time, in order to access the online survey, you have to enter your license number and specialty. I’m sure there are ways to hack it, but it should at least keep out the casual non-physician and cut down on specious responses.

However, all the other problems remain. This will not be a scientific survey because the responders are self-selecting. Till’s mailing list may or may not be comprehensive. Nonresidents, and nonpracticing physician, are still eligible to respond if they have Vermont licenses. We don’t know what will happen if a physician tries to take the survey more than once; will the survey reject a license number if it’s entered multiple times? (For instance, that semiretired orthopod in Rutland who’s a frequent guest on “Common Sense Radio” bashing HCR. He’s motivated, and he’s got time on his hands.)

Remember all of this in a few weeks, when Dr. Till holds a news conference and the Vermont media report this as a meaningful reflection of physician opinion.

‘Tisn’t.

p.s. If any of you damn dirty apes out there do manage to hack the survey, we’d like to hear. I’m especially interested in finding out which questions are asked and how they’re worded.

Oh dear. The chair of the Vermont GOP, Jack Lindley, has a serious case of Bunched Knicker Syndrome. He’s upset that his man, Thurston Howell the Thir — er, Mitt Romney — failed to win 50% of the vote in Tuesday’s primary. That means Mitt will have to share Vermont’s 17 delegates with Ron Paul and Rick Santorum.

(Probably also means a couple of Lindley’s golfing buddies will miss out on a trip to the convention, replaced by scruffy goldbugs from the Paul camp. But perhaps I’m being overly churlish, due to the ridiculosity of what follows.) Vermont Digger:

Lindley… says he wants the Vermont Secretary of State to examine alleged poll reporting irregularities. Lindley says a new state reporting system for municipal officials led to anomalous results that were posted on the Secretary of State’s website Tuesday night. He stopped short, however, of calling for a formal probe.

“I’m not asking for an investigation,” Lindley said. “I’m asking for an examination by the Secretary of State whose principal responsibility is to validate the integrity of the ballot in Vermont.”

After the jump: political hypertension and Much Ado About Nothing.  

That would be the, as Lindley would say, DEMOCRAT Secretary of State Jim Condos. Lindley’s griping about a new secure online reporting system that had its first run on Tuesday. Before the vote, some test results had been posted on the site, and some were still visible on Tuesday.

“The mistake the GOP made yesterday was they were thinking these were official results – they weren’t,” Condos said. “It’s hard not to think it’s sour grapes. They thought Romney would take 50 percent, and they’re looking to blame somebody and they’re blaming our office.”

It’s standard practice for an election reporting system to post test results before a vote count begins. Sometimes it’s a string of zeroes, sometimes it’s really outlandish totals. Because if the test results are implausible, nobody will mistake them for the real results. Well, not unless they had a big political ax to grind. Cue the Fox News-style harrumphing:

“Obviously the Secretary of State’s site was not accurate,” Lindley said. “Their response was this was an unofficial tally. I’m not sure what kind of system we’re running here, either we have it right or we don’t.”

Problem is, all the officially-reported results were accurate. The test results were never counted. The new system worked! That’s plainly obvious to anyone who isn’t ignoring the facts to try to score a cheap political point.

Lindley then turned to Burlington, the ACORN-riddled Rotten Borough of his fevered imagination.

About 800 provisional Burlington ballots, including about 200 that weren’t matched with Social Security cards or drivers’ licenses, Lindley says, should have been challenged by Republican candidate for mayor, Kurt Wright.

…”Any party would have an opportunity to challenge provisional ballots and they’ve walked away with that, which I think is regrettable,” Lindley said. “So what have we got? We don’t even know if they’re Americans.”

AHA! The smoking gun! Kurt Wright’s landslide defeat can be explained by trumped-up uncertainties over a couple hundred provisional ballots. Never mind that he lost by more than two thousand votes. The anti-immigrant bit is an especially nice, completely irrelevant and baseless touch.

I guess this is what we can expect from Jack Lindley’s Vermont Republican Party: a dogged search for any little thing he can turn into a talking point, no matter how outlandish. A blizzard of hysterical press releases and dudgeony news conferences. Trumped-up allegations of Democrat/liberal perfidy, with constant Bernie “Socialist” Sanders name-dropping.

Ignoring the fact that Bernie is the most popular political figure in the state. But Lindley isn’t using the Jim Douglas happy-face playbook; he’s using the Rush Limbaugh/Fox News/Karl Rove playbook. Small problem: that stuff doesn’t resonate in Vermont. He keeps this up, his party’s going to get its ass kicked in November.

Question: Jack Lindley was chair of the VTGOP once before, in the late 70s and early 80s. Back when the party’s officeholders were Dick Snelling, Bob Stafford, and Jim Jeffords. Not exactly doctrinaire conservatives, and men who were certainly willing to work across party lines. So what happened to the VTGOP, and to Jack Lindley, between then and now?  

I think they’ve caught a bad case of Fox poisoning.  

Sadly, the odious Andrew Breitbart continues to defile the national dialogue, even from beyond the grave.

Fortunately, what he’s done seems to be remarkably ineffective.

You may remember the back story. Shortly before his death, in one of his overheated public appearances, Breitbart claimed that he had video of Barack Obama when he was in college that was going to be some kind of major game changer. “I have videos, this election we’re going to vet him,” Breitbart disclosed to raucous applause. “We are going to vet him from his college days to show you why racial division and class warfare are central to what hope and change was sold in 2008.”

Well, even after death Breitbart’s organization continues, and apparently today they got scooped. We know that because when the tape was finally released they called it “selectively edited”. “Spliced and diced.” Well, duh. We knew that would be the case: after the Shirley Sherrod libel, if not before, the whole world knew that everything that came out of the Breitbart organization was sliced and diced. The weird thing is that they admitted it.

Because they got scooped they spent the afternoon talking about how they were going to release the whole tape on Hannitty tonight, and that it would (naturally) blow the whole story up and demolish President Obama’s story, or appeal, or something. They kept the Breitbart web page plastered with hints about what we’re going to find out when the whole thing is released.

I don’t know if the whole video has been released, but it seems as though it has, and there’s nothing there, folks. For one thing, it was all on Frontline back when Obama was running for President, so nothing has been “hidden”. It’s video of a demonstration at Harvard Law School when Obama was there (not from his college days) and it shows Obama speaking in support of Derrick Bell, a prominent law professor there who was a bit of a lightning rod at the time. Obama sounds remarkably the way he sounds today, with the same measured tone, the same tendency to use a falling intonation at the end of sentences, and the same use of language that we hear from him now. What’s more, he doesn’t say anything that remarkable.

To hear the Breitbart people tell it the tape is totally damning, supposedly because they’re now going to release all this video that proves that Bell is a racist or something, but there is literally nothing in this video that makes Obama look much different from what we already know about him.

Another thing that we keep seeing on the Breitbart site is their claims that Charles Ogletree, a professor at Harvard, told them on an “exclusive tape”, that “We hid this throughout the 2008 campaign. I don’t care if they find it now.” And they say that several times, with hot links to pages where they promise you’re going to find the story of this exclusive tape with Charles Ogletree saying what they claim he said. Don’t bother. No matter how many of those links you follow you never get to the tape they promise.

So what’s their final line? There’s far more coming on Derrick Bell. This is just the beginning. And this video is a smoking gun showing that Barack Obama not only associated with radicals, he was their advocate.

Now it’s been a long time since anyone with a brain took anything from Breitbart seriously, but that didn’t stop him or his people from continuing to peddle anything he could. At this point, though, can’t we just agree that he is both gone and forgotten?

Now that our founder, John Odum, is moving on to bigger and better things (more on that later), I think it’s safe to open the locked doors on what really happens at the palatial offices of Green Mountain Daily.

These scenes are pretty accurate, although Mr. Odum isn’t always smoking a cigar as he hands out assignments, chews out recalcitrant reporters, or barks out “Don’t call me Chief!” or some of his other trademarked phrases.

To shift to a more serious note for just a moment,  I really had little idea what to expect when John called me back in 2005 asking me to join what he was conceiving of as a Vermont version of Daily Kos, but I suspect that none of us could have predicted the range and influence that his new idea would attain. Speaking for myself, John Odum’s leadership and news and political judgment will be sorely missed, and I greatly appreciate the opportunity to have worked with him these last six years.

Thanks, John, and congratulations.

 Ohio’s Samuel Wurzelbacher has won a tough Republican US Congressional primary. The conservative political newcomer is perhaps best known by his stage name “Joe the Plumber”. Although never a licensed plumber and not named “Joe”, Wurzelbacher will soon face 15 term Ohio Democratic Rep.Marcy Kaptur after barely winning his primary race.

 Despite outspending his opponent six to one, Wurzelbacher only narrowly won the Republican race with 51 percent of Toledo-area residents picking "Joe the Plumber" compared with the 48 percent who chose Steve Kraus, an auctioneer and real estate agent.  

Wurzelbacher not only had a massive monetary advantage but also scored the backing of big name Republicans, such as Herman Cain, and appeared at rallies with both Romney and Santorum.

 

Wurzelbacher’s main claim to fame came in 2008 when appearing as “Joe the Plumber” he famously asked then candidate Obama a confrontational question regarding taxes. This one performance sparked his rapid rise in Republican Party politics(always on the lookout for quality talent)and he made guest appearances in character as “Joe” with John McCain and Sarah Palin.  

Gonna put up a few thoughts on yesterday’s voting and invite others to do the same. In the Comments, or in diaries of your own.  

Presidential Primary Headline: “Santorum Trails in Vermont Three-Way.” (Sorry, you may need to flush your eyes in Lysol.) But seriously, Mitt Romney managed a 14-point victory, but only got about 40% of the vote. Bad showing for Mitt in a northeastern state not known for rabid conservatism. It must be heartening to El Jefe General John McClaughry and his Ethan Allen Boys that Ron Paul managed to finish second.

Miro Wins Burlington: Speaking purely as an outside observer, I’m surprised. I thought the Dem/Prog infighting — which the Dems started, IMO, with some of their comments about Tim Ashe being too much of a Prog — plus the Wanda Hines candidacy would give Kurt Wright enough room to slip into the Big Chair. I was concerned that, despite his moderate/good guy image, he’d turn out to be a serious conservative and take some steps (selling Burlington Electric?) that’d be impossible for a future Mayor to undo.

Whither Progs? Having lost the Mayoralty, they must be pondering their future direction. I hope a GMDer with Prog inclinations can offer more insight on the subject.

Corporate Personhood: Incomplete returns at this hour, but so far, it’s a big “yes” for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United ruling. Of the more than 50 communities considering the issue, at least half approved it, and only two towns (so far) have reportedly said no.  

That’s it for me. Comments welcome.  

Now that our founder, John Odum, is moving on to bigger and better things (more on that later), I think it’s safe to open the locked doors on what really happens at the palatial offices of Green Mountain Daily.

These scenes are pretty accurate, although Mr. Odum isn’t always smoking a cigar as he hands out assignments, chews out recalcitrant reporters, or barks out “Don’t call me Chief!” or some of his other trademarked phrases.

To shift to a more serious note for just a moment,  I really had little idea what to expect when John called me back in 2005 asking me to join what he was conceiving of as a Vermont version of Daily Kos, but I suspect that none of us could have predicted the range and influence that his new idea would attain. Speaking for myself, John Odum’s leadership and news and political judgment will be sorely missed, and I greatly appreciate the opportunity to have worked with him these last six years.

Thanks, John, and congratulations.