Even though this has nothing to do with Vermont, I thought you “might” wanna see this piece I co-wrote with Carol Ann Burger of Huffington Post. The story was brought to my attention from my aunt in Lee County, Florida. I got hooked up Carol Ann in southwest Florida and we put something together. Enjoy! – Christian

Crossposted at Huffington Post’s Off the Bus.

Lee County and Collier County are the largest counties in Southwest Florida and are well-known as Republican havens. So when Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin visited the area on October 6th, it was no surprise she drew a record crowd to the Germain Arena in nearby Estero. The Arena seats 9,800 people and several thousand had to be turned away.

Some of those who made it in were 56 female Christian school students years away from voting age. The teacher who organized the trip said described it as an empowering lesson in U.S. politics.

“I got this crazy scheme to hear Gov. Palin speak. I thought it might have been hare-brained but it seemed a good idea to expose them to a woman running for one of the highest offices in the land,” says Susan Morris, a teacher at Evangelical Christian School in Fort Myers.

Morris says she’s a dyed-in-the-wool Republican but that she “isn’t all that crazy for Sarah Palin.” Still, she adds, “we teach for all possibilities here at ECS. We are an interdenominational school. ECS has 1, 200 students. We have Muslims and Buddhists. One of our students has become a Rhodes scholar and another is now playing in the NFL. All our girls are intelligent and thoughtful so I thought it would be a valuable experience for them to go.” The girls went with the school’s blessing.

The main inspiration for the “field trip,” Morris says, was the fact that Palin is a woman. “I wouldn’t take them to see John McCain or Barack Obama or Joe Biden. But I would take them to see Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama.”

Morris said the girls, who mostly are the children of well-do-do parents, were not pleased to have to stand for hours without food or drink. “That was the most suffering they’ve ever done, but as soon as they saw the Secret Service they knew this was serious stuff. We were very lucky and were only five feet away from Palin. I told them this was a campaign rally and to expect a political stump speech, but that it might very well also be a historic time for America. My point was for the girls to see that being a woman isn’t always as the media portrays it to be. Later, I had the girls write a paper on their impressions,” Morris said.

More below the fold.

So what did the girls think? “Well, it wasn’t her clothes or shoes that impressed them,” says Morris. “They thought she was a fiery chick, but also a lady. They knew not to expect a serious discussion of foreign policy but rather a boost for the McCain/Palin ticket, and that’s what they saw. They did notice the teleprompter, but Palin seemed to be controlling it. When she slacked off, it slowed down. Many of these girls hear their parents talk about politics, so they are not uninformed, and this is a predominantly Republican area so it wasn’t a surprise to hear Palin say that the Obama/Biden campaign is waving the white flag of surrender on Iraq and that Obama is too inexperienced to be president.”

Danielle Galietti, a junior at ECS reported all the female juniors and seniors were told it would be a once-in-a-lifetime educational experience if they could attend the Palin rally, since Palin is an important woman who may become the Vice President of the United States. Galietti said they were given VIP status and were told they would sit in the VIP section right behind Palin.

Galietti was one of three students who turned down the offer to attend because she was studying for a chemistry test.

She reported that students told her they were bused to the arena at 8:30 in the morning, arrived at about 9:30 and stood in line in some cases until l:30 p.m.. Palin did not appear until after 3:30. Many student VIPs had no seats but stood throughout the event.

Morris said there was an Obama heckler in the crowd who was shouting profanities. “That was unfortunate because there were children nearby who had to hear that sort of thing.” But it showed the girls that Americans have very strongly held opinions — on both sides — in this presidential campaign, she noted.

“I’m not a cookie-cutter conservative,” Morris says, “but I do vote Republican because I go with God. I’m anti-abortion so I’m a one-issue voter, it’s true. I’m thrilled with the Republican Party’s stand on abortion, so, so far so good. But if they change their stand I may not vote at all, but that’s just me personally. And I also believe in the Republican view of the economy. Sarah Palin is not an idiot and she brings more accessibility to politics, whether you agree with her or not.”

Morris is no fan of Obama. “Obama hasn’t been middle class since his childhood,” she says, “and we’re not even sure where he was born. That hasn’t really been brought up by the mainstream media.”

Told that news outlets have all but unanimously accepted the validity of Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate, Morris remained skeptical.

Other local Christian schools, including SW Florida Christian Academy and the Cape Coral Christian School did not officially excuse students to attend the rally. A spokesperson for SW Florida Christian said that some thirty students did attend, “but they didn’t represent the school. Their parents signed them out and took them.” A spokesman for Cape Coral simply said, “We didn’t go.”

The Barron Collier High School Band played at the rally. “It’s really cool,” band Co-Captain Stehpanie Karaczun told local WINK News, “’cause it’s like a once in a lifetime kind of experience to go and play for a presidential rally.”

Workers were wearing special work clothes provided by their employer  

I didn’t think they could re-fuel without an “event” and it’s still not completed(several more weeks) .850 contract workers are re-fueling the aging Vermont Yankee while it is off line .Could this nuclear plant even survive at this rate until 2032?

There must be a point between incident and tragedy that some official will say enough to this .Our Gov.Jim doesn’t have the stomach to bait his own fish hook let alone take on a corporate giant like Entergy of New Orleans and it’s Yankee franchise .These articles are almost routine in their bland statements,promises of never ,never again and fill in the blank style reassurances .The frequency and routine of these event says more than any spokesperson is capable of glossing over .

Given this record and the new difficult financial situation Entergy  faces with it’s efforts to spinoff  5 aging plants into an Enexus shell entity a tougher road lies ahead.On top of all this re-negotiating the power contract rates has been kicked down the road until after the election.In a manner of speaking this could continue to be a hot button issue for some time .

Alarms went off on the refueling floor alerting workers to the rising levels of radiation, and workers were evacuated from the refueling floor for four hours, checked for levels of contamination and later returned to work, according to Entergy Nuclear spokesman Robert Williams.

“There was never any issue of public health,” according to William Irwin of the Department of Health.

Irwin said that while the incident “was something we wished hadn’t occurred,” Entergy Nuclear had handled the incident well.

“It was a minor contamination event. You don’t really want them to happen, but Entergy handled it well,” said Irwin.

http://www.timesargus.com/apps…

(Ed has the latest on Vermont Yankee, Dave O’Brien and the DPS. Check it out.   – promoted by Christian Avard)

Continuing saga of David O’Brien, Gov. Douglas’ main man in the Dept of Public Service. That department is supposed to be the protector of Vermont ratepayers, but for years has instead been the protector of Entergy Nuclear.

The latest: after foot-dragging on everything Entergy (e.g., the many studies mandated by Act 160 on energy needs and resources, jobs, evacuation plans, environment, etc; the Comprehensive Vertical Assessment; fence line radiation dose) O’Brien continues to call out nuclear expert, whistleblower, and appointee of Peter Shumlin to the independent inspection oversight team, Arnie Gundersen.

From the Brattleboro Reformer,

DPS and the governor’s office have never really liked Arnie simply because he is an expert in his field and has the courage to step forward and tell people what he knows and what he thinks might happen as a result of things he is seeing,” said Bob Stannard, spokesman for Citizen Awareness Network, which is lobbying for the closure of Yankee in 2012. “The department has never been terribly supportive of Arnie and his comments. That’s too bad, because it appears he’s the only guy who’s been consistently right.”

Gundersen predicted cooling tower failures, increased dose rates at the plant’s fence line, gaps in the plant’s preventative maintenance and inspection program that led to a transformer fire and cracks in the steam dryer, said Stannard.

http://www.reformer.com/localn…

O’Brien claims they “have committed significant staff resources” to the inspection. That’s wrong. First, any costs are supposed to be billed to Entergy Nuclear, but Gov. Douglas has been consistent in running all state nuclear oversight on the cheap. Second, staffing has been so minimal that the inspection ordered by the legislature has been shortchanged.

The heart of O’Brien’s accusations against Arnie Gundersen this time are that Bob Audette from the Reformer received emails from Gundersen recounting the roadblocks thrown up by the DPS. Wrong. Small potatoes, maybe, but still, Wrong. Turns out the emails were released by DPS’s own lawyer, Sarah Hoffman, to the Free Press and Seven Days, in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Shumlin fired back at O’Brien today.

What I find most disturbing is that these attacks undermine the long tradition of civility and respect that Vermonters have rightly come to expect from their state officials.

McCain-Palin style campaigning comes to Vermont. With last month’s WCAX poll showing 52% of Vermonters supporting shutdown for the Entergy reactor, we can expect the losing side to start up with “anti-American” slanders soon.

As dramatic as Colin Powell’s endorsement was, the more interesting endorsement that’s come down the pipe in the last couple days is that of neoconservative bigdog Ken Adelman (I know Jack refers to him as a paleocon, but I don’t think he’s a paleocon, especially given his buddy list… will check it out). Adelman goes way back with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, etc., and he has been consternated over what he calls the mismanagement of the Iraq War. When pushed by George Packer of the New Yorker, Edelman indicated that he has concerned by McCain’s questionable temperament, and by his lack of good judgment – in particular as demonstrated by the choice of Palin to join him on the ticket. Adelman:

“That decision showed appalling lack of judgment. Not only is Sarah Palin not close to being acceptable in high office-I would not have hired her for even a mid-level post in the arms-control agency. But that selection contradicted McCain’s main two, and best two, themes for his campaign-Country First, and experience counts. Neither can he credibly claim, post-Palin pick.”

Interestingly, this was also a major complaint of Powell’s during his endorsement. Powell, of course – for whatever his faults – is not a neoconservative. In fact, he has been famously loathed by the neocons, and its easy to infer from press smatterings that this affection has been returned in kind.

But this common ground is no coincidence, as the neocon wing of the GOP and the pragmatic centrist wing have the same enemy; the theocons, popularly known as the religious right. While the Palin pick was a bone to what the media repeatedly calls “the Republican base”, really it was a bone specifically to the fundamentalist base, leaving the other lobes of the GOP base left out. To many of these jilted basers, Palin was the last straw, in what has become a huge heaping stack of such straws ever since the breakdown of the Reagan-era marriage of convenience among the conservative lobes. To them, Palin is a smack in the face. She is nakedly unqualified for the position, and that appeal to the theocrats would then seem to be the only thing that mattered in her selection. That sent a message to many other hard-right types that they were out – that fundamentalist appeal is truly the only thing that matters in the modern Republican Party – and that they were now simply a captive constituency.

Now to some, it doesn’t matter. The most parochial of neocons only care about whether a candidate is going to take us to war with Iran – and regardless of other concerns, McCain most assuredly will – with Palin eagerly alongside. But to Adelman and others, enough is enough. He, the pragmatist Powell, and an increasing number of Republicans have decided to draw the line for influence, if not control, in the conservative movement, and they’ve decided that the centrist Obama is not so appalling to them that they can’t stomach putting their feet down in the context of the Presidential election when the fundies’ control and credibility is seeming increasingly tenuous with Palin turning out to be such a drag on the ticket.

The peculiar result is that Obama has been drafted in a sense as the warrior proxy of some members of a different, disenchanted Republican base threatened by the theocons. He stands in as the last defense against a complete takeover of their party by religious fundamentalists. Obama is their line in the sand, and as such, the Democratic nominee finds himself at the nexus of a perfect storm that will help blow him into office.

That’s not to say the poll numbers won’t still tighten. They will as McCain falls back on ads and robocalls that will increasingly emphasize Jeremiah Wright. But the storm wont blow over. Those numbers will narrow, but they will harden, and all things being equal, the future is only looking better for Obama.

It was late. I couldn’t sleep. I had my laptop.

You already know about Powell's endorsement of Obama. You could well say that you don't care, since he forfeited all claim to be taken seriously when he lied to the UN. I think it's kind of a big deal because, whether he deserves to be taken seriously or not, there are still plenty of people who do.

Now there are two new big endorsements.

Zbigniew Brezezinski's endorsement isn't really new; he's been supporting Obama for a long time. I was never a big fan of his. When he worked for Carter he was a real hawk, possibly based on his own experience, but still, consistent with Carter's conservative administration. He has been highly critical of Bush's war, though, and what he has to say about Obama is great, not only because it's one more voice for our guy, but because of how he makes it clear that it is Obama, not McCain, who has the character, judgment, and gravitas for the position. Plus, he utterly silenced Joe Scarborough this morning, always a good thing.

The other new endorsement for Obama is a real blast from the past. You may remember Kenneth Adelman from the days when he was Reagan's guy on arms control. These were in the days when people were talking about the nuclear freeze, and in his confirmation hearings he couldn't go so far as to say it might be good if there were no nuclear weapons. A real paleo-conservative.

Today in the New Yorker, George Packer reports that Adelman is backing Obama. Here's why Adelman says he's doing it:

Primarily for two reasons, those of temperament and of judgment.

When the economic crisis broke, I found John McCain bouncing all over the place. In those first few crisis days, he was impetuous, inconsistent, and imprudent; ending up just plain weird. Having worked with Ronald Reagan for seven years, and been with him in his critical three summits with Gorbachev, I’ve concluded that that’s no way a president can act under pressure.

Second is judgment. The most important decision John McCain made in his long campaign was deciding on a running mate.

That decision showed appalling lack of judgment. Not only is Sarah Palin not close to being acceptable in high office—I would not have hired her for even a mid-level post in the arms-control agency. But that selection contradicted McCain’s main two, and best two, themes for his campaign—Country First, and experience counts. Neither can he credibly claim, post-Palin pick.

Of course, McCain still isn't alone. He has the support of mass murderer and war criminal Henry Kissinger, for instance.  Still, if there was anyone who could claim to be a serious thinker supporting McCain, that person has long since left the room.

Or, to put it another way, when McCain was selling experience he could claim that experience got you maturity, stability, character, and judgment. He has since thrown all those away, so what does he have left?

In my previous diary about the Vermont Stare (q.v.), I omitted the biggest practitioner/victim of them all: Jim Douglas himself.

Politically, he’s forward thinking enough to create a network of flacks and pretty much turn his Gubernorship into a permanent campaign. But policy-wise, he is the Vermont Stare incarnate. No matter what the situation, issue or crisis, he seems incapable of original thought. Even Bush (!) manages to back into a new idea once in a while — adopting Obama’s policy on Afghanistan (without admitting it, of course), and turning big-state Socialist on the Wall Street/banking crisis. (The banks bailout is a straight borrow from, gasp, Old Europe!)

Douglas… same old, same old. No tax increases, no matter how dire the budget mess becomes. Tax incentives to fix everything what ails us. Vermont Yankee falling apart? Write a letter. No attempt whatsoever to reinvent government or actually make it leaner and meaner. No apparent awareness that we might need an injection of new thinking or new ideas. Look… see his eyes drift off away from you? Vermont Stare.  

( – promoted by odum)

Human Rights Hearing: “Healthcare is a Human Right” to be held at Burlington City Hall, Contois Auditorium (149 Church St., Burlington) Thursday Oct 23 at 7:00 p.m.

Burlington – For months volunteers for the Vermont Workers’ Center have been surveying Vermonters from all across the state, including many in the Burlington area. The results have been clear: Vermonters believe that healthcare should be a human right.

The state, however, has come up short on this issue. More than 11 percent of all Vermonters are without health insurance, including more than 11,000 children. Thousands more are woefully under-insured, and cannot afford their costly premiums and co-pays, which are only rising as the cost of healthcare soars.

The Vermont Workers’ Center is currently undertaking its “Healthcare is a Human Right” campaign to help end this injustice. The goal of the campaign is to spread awareness and build a movement that can help reform the state’s system so it will guarantee care to all Vermonters, regardless of income. On Thursday Oct. 23, this discussion is coming to Burlington at Burlington City Hall, Contois Auditorim. The event begins at 7:00 p.m. (refreshments will be available).

Community faith leaders and healthcare professionals and other community leaders will serve on a Community Listening Panel to hear testimony from residents. Speakers will address the failure of the state’s healthcare system, the plight of those who try to navigate through it, and effective ways to bring about change. The event will give members of the Burlington community a chance to share stories highlighting how our flawed system has caused them suffering and hardship.

“In speaking to Vermonters, we have found that many have suffered greatly, both personally and physically, when they try to navigate through a a healthcare system that leaves so many behind,” said James Haslam, the director of the Vermont Workers’ Center. “This event will give members of the Burlington community a chance to make some of these stories heard.”

The event will include the following listening panel:

Rabbi Joshua Chasan, Ohavi Zedek Synagogue

Jennifer Henry, RN Nurses Union President, Fletcher Allen Health Care

Rebecca Smith Haslam, President, Burlington Education Association

Rev. Sarah Flynn, ALL Souls Ministry in Vermont

Roddy Cleary, former minister Unitarian Universalist Church in Burlington

Al Robinson, Imani Health Institute

Ann Goering, MD, Winooski Family Health

Mohamed Abdi, Somali Bantu Association

Hal Colston, Neighbor Keepers

Mayor Bob Kiss, City of Burlington

Similar “Human Rights Forums” will be held all across the state, in the coming months as the Workers’ Center continues its effort to fight for a just healthcare system that values human lives over profit – an attainable goal, given Vermont’s passionate and engaged citizenry.

All are welcome. For more information visit workerscenter.org/healthcare, or call Erika Simard at 802-316-7827.  

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I knew it … but I’m still resistin’ … ’cause I’mmmmmmmmmmmm nooooooooooooooot gooooiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing toooooooooooooo sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee … ***snizzle*** ***snort*** ***snit*** ***snore***

Obama’s really isn’t a good guy, he’s just been hypnotizing you! How do I know? The freepers over at freerepublic.com told me so.

The evidence is right through this link:

Obama is not just using subliminal messages, but textbook covert hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming techniques on audiences that are intentionally designed to sideline rational judgment and implant subconscious commands to think he is wonderful and elect him President.  Obama is eloquent. However, Obama’s subconscious techniques are shown to elicit powerful emotion from his audience and then transfer those emotions onto him, to sideline rational judgment, and implant hypnotic commands that we are unaware of and can’t even consciously question.  The polls are misleading because some of Obama’s commands are designed to be triggered only in the voting booth on November 4th.  Obama is immune to logical arguments like Wright, Ayers, shifting every position, character, and inexperience, because hypnosis affects us on an unconscious and emotional level.  To many people who see this unaccomplished man’s unnatural and irrational rise to the highest office in the world as suspicious and frightening and to those who welcome it, this document uncovers, explains, and proves the deceptive tactics behind true “Obama Phenomenon” including why younger people are more easily affected.

Ouch, my head hurts.

( – promoted by odum)

UPDATE:   Rutland Herald today reports on Auditor Tom Salmon's continuing military service in “Vt. auditor's Iraq service hampers re-election bid.”

I've deferred posting this piece until it was publised in the Times Argus.  In case you don't read the Sunday Rutland Herald/Times Argus, here's the piece in whole orignally written in early September. – Nate Freeman 

Let's face it:  No Vermonter serves America more often than Brian Dubie does.

As you may recall, Vermont's Lieutenant Governor has been called to duty three times in the last four years and each time he has served in important capacities.  In September 2005 he responded as a relief coordinator in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  In September 2006, he was called to Iraq and stood beside commanding generals on the rooftops of Baghdad.  And now in September of 2008, Brian Dubie has been called to coordinate airlifts of personnel and supplies from Panama City, Florida to support relief efforts in Galveston, Texas. 

There is no question that each of these three tours of service were critical for both American relief and military efforts.  As a reservist in Vermont's Air National Guard, Brian Dubie has the same commitments as any other Vermont reservist.  No Vermonter questions Brian Dubie's patriotism as he serves our country selflessly.  No Vermonter questions his love for America, mom and apple pie. 

But Brian Dubie isn't just a soldier.  He's also a statewide politician serving three terms as Vermont's Lieutenant Governor following his sudden rise in public service from a prior position on a local school board.  Politicians can be a breed of their own, especially those who succumb to the temptations of public glory through the esteem of their office and the ability to create headlines with little more than symbolic gestures and front page photo opportunities.  Despite the fact that Brian Dubie is a reservist, his public life is not immune to these kinds of political temptations.  In fact, in being called to active duty for the third time in the last three years, there seems to be a trend which suggests that the Lieutenant Governor isn't serving America as much as he is staging a political show.

The rest below the fold. 

The political veil between public service and show-making can be lifted toward the truth if we ask one simple question:  “Why are Brian Dubie's tours of duty so much shorter than any other Vermonter reservist?”

The need to activate Vermont reservists for hurricanes Katrina and Ike are easily understood as critical support for humanitarian relief.  The need to activate Vermont reservists to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan is also understood as necessary military support for our full-time service men and women.  We all understand that a soldier's duty is to serve whenever he or she is called to active service.

But it's becoming politically curious why so many Vermont reservists serve considerably longer tours than the Brian Dubie. 

In September 2005, Brian Dubie served for only two weeks while 115 members of the Vermont Guard remained in New Orleans until the work was complete.  Many of these soldiers had just returned from several months in Iraq.  Brian Dubie's initial duty was to coordinate air lifting equipment and supplies from Florida to Louisiana and Mississippi but his second week consisted of making face-time with such folk as the Governor of Mississippi and the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana.  Meanwhile, 115 members of the Vermont Guard were mucking out a school in Jefferson Parrish.  Interestingly, while Vermont's soldiers remained in New Orleans, Brian Dubie came home and immediately created an exploratory committee for a possible 2006 U.S. Senate campaign.  His explanation at the time was that he returned home “with a heightened motivation to serve the people of Vermont at a higher level.” 

As we recall, Brian Dubie's exploratory committee didn't green light his ambition to serve in Washington. However, for the trouble of his two-week tour, the Lieutenant Governor earned a second Meritorious Service Medal.  This is no small honor, since such a medal is one of the highest awarded for non-combat service.  In most cases, soldiers similarly recognized earn this medal after three years in a full-time military career.  One soldier earned the Meritorious Service Medal after three years of service including relief aid in response to Hurricane Ivan.  

In September 2006, Brian Dubie served a two week tour in Baghdad.  Hundreds of Vermonter reservists were called to active service almost two years earlier on lengthy tours, taxing their family's financial and emotional resources, such is the nature of military service.  Brian Dubie, keeping his job as a commercial airline pilot while serving minimally as Vermont's Lieutenant Governor, was called to active service on a largely unspecified mission.  He flew off once again, only this time Dubie dismissed his responsibility to Vermont's chain of command by failing to inform House Speaker Gaye Symington, the next in command, of his absence.  Once again, it seems as if the objective of his mission was to make face-time with military leaders.  And once again, upon his return, Brian Dubie came forward with another bold proposal in form of a vow:  to move Vermont and the United States away from foreign oil.  In his own words:

It was a mid-September evening. I stood on a rooftop with one of the three Commanding Generals, overlooking the city of Baghdad. The city was beautiful at night, but it was not peaceful.

“Brian,” he said, “America has to declare its freedom from oil that comes from dangerous parts of the world.”

Late that same night, in a Blackhawk helicopter flying at very low altitude, the team I was part of left Baghdad for northern Iraq. I looked down as we passed over sleeping Iraqi villages, and I thought about the general's words. I vowed, “When I get home to Vermont, I will make it a priority to find a way to move our state and our nation away from foreign oil.”

Now here we are in September 2008, and once again Brian Dubie is called to service in the midst of an electoral season.  As with his first week of service in response to Hurricane Katrina, he is coordinating air lifts of personnel and supplies from Tyndell Air Force Base in Florida in response to Hurricane Ike.  Unlike the prior tours of duty, this time he's projected to spend only seven days, scheduled to return on September 19th.  We can't predict what new ambition or vow he will come home with this time, but we can be confident that the political storyline will be considerably less compelling than Dubie's return home in 2005 and 2006.  The situation is different this time.  As a nation, our fears invoked by the war on terrorism and the intensity of storms have been tempered with political fatigue and a shift of concern toward the recession, our national debt and the continuing mortgage crisis meltdown.  Closer to home Brian Dubie's seven day trip to Florida will be received in a different way than it has been before.  This time, any reception of the Lieutenant Governor in the headlines or front page photos will stand in stark contrast to another call to active duty.

Vermont reservist and current State Auditor, Thomas Salmon, was deployed to the Middle East a full two months ago with no estimated time of arrival back home any time soon.  The difference between Salmon's open-ended commitment and Dubie's one or two-week stints begs a comparison between national service and political showmanship.  The difference is almost embarrassing.  Vermont's Auditor of Accounts and Lieutenant Governor are statesman and servicemen both.  Yet Salmon has been deployed for an undetermined length of time while making the assumed sacrifices in family life and job security widely known among soldiers during a time of war.  Meanwhile, Dubie jets out and back in a matter of days in what appears to be little more than a symbolic reminder of his strong military connections.

In full disclosure, I challenged Brian Dubie on this issue in June, at the outset of my recent primary campaign for Lieutenant Governor.  In the full text of my announcement letter I referred to Dubie's two-week trip to Baghdad as a “tour of glory” and I continue to stand behind my words since, now that the Lieutenant Governor has been called to serve on three occasions, each time serving no more than 14 days, the pattern of glory soldiering seems to be confirmed.

Brian Dubie is unquestionably a good and decent man.  He is a family man and there seems to be no doubt of his commitment to the safety of children.  He is a patriot and his interest in green energy and technology and green valleys are admirable.  He has a high standard of personal integrity and deep roots in his community.

But as I mentioned to him in a quick sit-down conversation at an endorsement event taking place at the Quechee Inn in July, as parents of children, as school board members and fellow Vermonters, we must respect each other's personal qualities and private life at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day.  However, in public life and in politics it is our job to challenge each other to the best of our ability as we bring voice to the question Vemonters are asking in more private spaces. One of the responsibilities of leadership in a democracy is to ask the obvious questions and offer a vigorous, informed challenge against our opponents as we strive for success. 

Why are Brian Dubie's tours of duty so much shorter than any other Vermonter reservist?  What kind of reception will he expect from Vermonters this third time should he announce interest in another public position or make a glorious vow against the ills of our time?  And what should Vermonters begin to expect from any Lieutenant Governor in the question of commitment to service?