Let’s face it: work is boring. So is a great deal of life, and for this humankind invented the Internet. Just saying, if you have a few idle moments this afternoon or next, you might want to sample a new feature over at the State Senate campaign’s main website, Baruth2010.com. You’ll notice that in addition to the “Video” button on the top navigation bar, there’s now a matching “Audio” button, which offers a selection of five commentaries that speak to the present moment, in one way or another.
Serious topics, but occasionally handled with a dash of humor.
College tuition, Vermont Yankee, the falling Vermont birthrate. Okay, and Richard Dreyfuss, apropos of nothing. But there it is. Enjoy it, if you have the time and the inclination.
And again, many thanks to digital black-belts Neil Jensen and Jim Brayton, for making the site a place worth visiting.
Look, we’ve never put too much stock in the Michael Steele show here at VDB. Don’t think we’ve ever written a post about the guy before now, in fact. Why? Because with Michael Steele the fail is so very much out front, and in that sense there’s no sport. Still, there’s an interesting dynamic developing and it’s worth noodling over for just a bit.
Fair to say that rank and file Republicans could care less about who runs the RNC. But for the power brokers and the heavy-hitting donors, it’s crucial. It’s a shrinking minority of those types who continue to support Michael Steele.
Especially in light of the fact that the GOP and the Tea Party folks and Rush Limbaugh have been flirting with an openly racist approach to the nation’s first African American President. Flirting is putting it mildly, of course.
All that talk about Barack Obama wanting to “ram health care down your throat,” all those comparisons to the way Tiger Woods treated his wife, all those weirdly pre-emptive accusations that Obama is himself a fascist racist out to dominate White America, it’s all an ugly overarching theme in search of a series of acceptable memes.
And Michael Steele stands to lose as much by it as anyone.
Steele is not only being targeted openly by other power brokers who’d like more direct access to the pie he currently divides. He’s also being undermined every day by the sense of White grievance that the far Right is actively fomenting.
And Politico has become the dagger of choice for those who want Steele gone.
Take a look at the current storylines at the site. Having broken the story of the bone-headed RNC power-point, which dissed major donors and openly embraced the politics of fear, and which was leaked to Politico by an unnamed “Democrat who found” the material, the website continues to follow up. Most recently they tracked down a prominent donor who has closed his checkbook in response to the brouhaha. And they’ve covered the digs against the RNC by prominent GOP figures.
And, not incidentally, they have a piece up this morning pointing out just how badly the RNC is lagging in fundraising. Not to put too fine a point on it, they mention that RNC totals have been falling “as tension mounts between the party’s major donors and RNC Chairman Michael Steele over his spending and style of leadership.”
Very convenient, of course, that it’s an unnamed Democrat who happened to be attending the GOP retreat and somehow got access to the inner sanctum just in time to pick up a copy of the now-infamous RNC power-point that had been carelessly left behind.
Let’s go at it with Occam’s razor for just a minute. Isn’t it much easier to believe that anti-Steele forces within the GOP conveyed the powerpoint to Politico? And that the drumbeat, which the Party is allowing to continue, is aimed at ousting Steele while the ousting is good?
Suddenly Republicans think that a new majority is within their grasp. Suddenly they realize that Michael Steele will take credit for that new majority.
Remember the way that James Carville tried to knife Howard Dean in the immediate aftermath of the 2006 midterms? Fortunately the dust settled, and the success of the 50-State Strategy was inarguable, and Carville was forced to go nurse his wounds.
But it’s a good reminder: that sort of potential win attracts pre-emptive challenges. And in a party environment like today’s Tea-infused GOP, the RNC’s first African American Chairman would seem to be highly vulnerable.
So if you were going to launch this pre-emptive attack on Steele, when would you do so for maximum effect and minimal blowback? Work back from Election Day in November. You’d need at least six months or so to clear the air of Steele’s counter-accusations.
That makes June 1 your drop-dead date. And you’ll need several months of increasing party enmity toward Steele, based on something concrete, irrefutable, and, in a best case scenario, with a visual component for the cameras.
Enter Politico’s series of scoops in late February, early March. Shake and stir for another two or three months.
Prediction? Michael packs his bags by May Day, or mid-June at the latest. And on that day, VDB will invoke the ancient wisdom: live by the sword, die by the sword.
Entergy has had a run of bad luck for the last, oh, let’s call it ten years. So how could Town Meeting Day make it any worse, right? Well, of the 17 towns that considered the question of relicensing, 15 voted in favor of denying the plant 20 more years. And in Moretown, they added this sweet amendment: “Entergy shall fund the training of Yankee’s existing workers to build and maintain green energy production systems in Vermont to replace Yankee’s power.” Ouch! And you wondered why they call it Moretown.
Direct democracy is a foundational principle of this particular Chittenden County State Senate campaign. Why start early early, for example? To allow more time to talk to more people in more towns about more issues. Plain and simple. Why make a campaign issue out of universal broadband? Because in addition to growing start-up jobs, digital access broadens the reach of our democracy, bringing in folks who would otherwise be shut-ins, or shut out.
With direct democracy so central to why we’re doing what we’re doing, where to take the campaign on Town Meeting Day? The town of Richmond, where they take this whole community decision-making idea very seriously indeed.
Not that people aren’t as nice as pie, because they are. Really, you’d be hard pressed to find a more civil group anywhere. But when the time came to ask questions about the budget, it was equally clear that serial-question-lobbing was viewed not just as fair game, but as a mark of good form.
So from the get-go, a man or woman would stand up and, using only the tables and charts available in the yearly report, string together a blistering series of budget queries that you had to love for their logic and their focus and their occasional understated wit.
I’ve fielded more than my share of questions about the Burlington school budget, which is never pretty. But this was another order of magnitude: an entire town given a chance to ask anything at all about the entire budget, with the understanding that the town doesn’t necessarily have to be satisfied with the answers.
But once they are satisfied, and the question is called, there’s something deeply pleasing in the deep, broad echo of the aye in a packed middle school gymnasium.
No way to know where the energy will gravitate in any given election cycle, which of a handful of Burlington City Council races will heat up or cool down. This time out? Ward 2 is well worth watching, for several reasons. First, Bram Kranichfeld, a criminal prosecutor with the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s office, is stepping into politics for the first time. Kranichfeld’s specialty is the Drug Court, and how to deal with the web of problems around addiction.
Prosecutors tend to do well with voters, because they don’t have to struggle to convey strength on crime and security issues. But like T.J. Donovan, Bram represents a nice mix of tough-on-crime and drug treatment expertise. Killer combination. [Bram pictured left; Erin right; good dog below.]
Add to that his first-hand experience with zoning, taxes, municipal bonds and finances, and you’ve essentially engineered the ideal city councilor.
Why else is Ward 2 currently too hot to handle? Someone is trying to tank Councilor Dave Berezniak’s excellent shot at re-election.
Berezniak sent out a press release today, saying that an “aggressive and rude” male caller has been calling around the Ward, posing as an obnoxious Berezniak supporter, with the obvious aim of turning off otherwise sympathetic voters. And that ain’t cricket, no matter the candidate. But in this case, it couldn’t happen to someone who deserves it less: Berezniak has been one of the quiet forces behind providing free wireless in Burlington’s downtown area. A wonderful idea, and one which should be a no-brainer, but isn’t, unfortunately.
Painfully ironic, that last line, given that VDB is currently typing over the free wireless network that Brattleboro provides throughout their own downtown.
In any event, watch Ward 2. And if you vote there, we heartily endorse both Bram and Dave Berezniak: both what City Councilors should be.
Where do you go to celebrate the historic vote to shut down Vermont Yankee yesterday? And where do you go to game out a way to counter Entergy’s inevitable comeback narrative (we fixed the pipes, we fired the suits, we come bearing cheap power, we’re sorry and tanned and ready to give you twenty more years of megawatts)? The place where the movement began: the Southern end of the state.
Brattleboro, to be exact.
So just a reminder about tomorrow for the Southerners among you: the State Senate campaign will be headed to Brattleboro tomorrow morning, February 26, for a celebration and fundraiser at the Flat Street Brew Pub (6 Flat Street), from 4-6 pm.
That’s Flat Street Pub, 4-6 pm, 2/26. We’ll also be doing the entire Live and Local show with talk-giant Steve West tomorrow from 9 to noon. Which means we’ll be getting up tomorrow morning . . . just a few minutes before we fall asleep.
Sitting outside the Senate Chamber now, listening to the opening procedural movement on the Yankee licensing question. Quick atmospheric details: the State House is aswarm with anti-VY folk, all sporting bumblebee black and yellow badges with “Retire” in big letters. Demoralized Entergy lobbyists gathered, drooping and disconsolate, beneath the huge oil painting of the Civil War. Everywhere a symbol. More soon.
What to do on the eve of the State Senate’s historic vote on relicensing Vermont Yankee? If you’re Jim Douglas or Jay Thayer, you’ll be hunkered down in a dark living room, phone disconnected, watching old reruns of “Matlock” and binging on chocolate pretzels and Rocky Road ice cream. If you support retiring the plant on schedule, do something more productive: join us in Winooski tonight at 7 pm, for an informative, high-energy panel on the Yankee question.
Where? The O’Brien Center, 32 Mallets Bay Avenue, Winooski. VDB will be in the house, as will Senate President Shumlin and a cast of political heavies. [This event will also be fully Gundersenized, with both Arnie and Maggie on hand for maximum tag-team expert action.]
In advance of this week’s vote on re-licensing Vermont Yankee, Jim Douglas sought to set expectations. Last Thursday, in fact, he set expectations at precisely zero: “It’s important to talk about what this vote means. In a word: nothing.” What the Governor apparently meant is that a State Senate in the not-too-distant future could always reverse this week’s decision, whatever it may be. True.
And too, Douglas went on to forecast litigation, directly implying that if the State wants to avoid a crippling lawsuit, it should simply cede Entergy what Entergy wants, and be done with it.
But that word nothing is haunting.
The implication is that no one can match the power of the Governor and Entergy working in concert. No one, and no thing. Not Senators, not voters, not no one.
And in that light, it’s interesting to consider this: in April Yankee is scheduled to install new fuel rods at a cost of millions, fuel rods that last about 4.5 years and which cannot be transferred once installed. Almost as though the 2012 relicensing issue didn’t exist.
Very much business as usual.
Both Yankee and Douglas seem very confident that this particular can will continue to be kicked down the road for a very long time. Both seem confident of a more pliable Senate and a properly biddable Governor going forward.
And let’s face it, friends, only vast amounts of money breed that sort of confidence, especially in the wake of the safety failures of the last several years.
Still, it’s breathtaking when the Governor himself comes out and says it out loud, in front of God and everyone. When he says that the voter’s most powerful representatives in Montpelier have no power whatsoever, given the current state of corporate play.
There are a lot of beautiful things about campaign house parties. One, because all of the guests have been invited by someone who is both your friend and an avid supporter, everyone acts as though you’re making sense when you do the living room pitch. Two, you get to attend parties but do none of the vacuuming before or after. And three, you find yourself in some of the most gorgeous spots in the County.
My good friends Mary Lou and John used to live in Burlington, and then they decided to teach their daughter how to ride competitively.
And before they knew it, they were living in Charlotte with a stable full of very sweet and very eccentric horses. Their path in life is now my 1o-year-old daughter Gwendolyn’s vision of utopia.
And Mary Lou and John brought together a crowd of wonderfully social and warm friends for the party. They all listened very politely to my spiel. And then, suddenly, without warning, we segued into the Question and Answer Session Without End.
Usually, you talk for ten or fifteen minutes, and then folks ask questions for another twenty or so. And then everyone returns to grazing the food table for cheese and homemade chili. But not at this party. No. These were people who’d thought deeply about the issues, and had developed some thorny questions over the years.
And so we had maybe an hour and twenty minutes of Q/A. It was like setting out for a quick jog to the mailbox, and suddenly finding yourself enmeshed with a pack of elite runners out for a 15k.
We did single-payer, public option, decommissioning, school budgets, childhood obesity, generational poverty, the creative economy, universal broadband, socioeconomic integration, and everything in between.
And it was a ton of fun. The sort of fun that only engaged political conversation, and a great host-hostess team, can provide. Many thanks to Mary Lou and John. May your horses never fail you, and vice versa.
