Look, no one can ever say that we didn’t take Pollina seriously this time out. We conducted a detailed interview with him long before Gaye Symington was even a twinkle in Ian Carleton’s eye; we openly pondered the chances of Progressives and Democrats uniting behind his latest run for Governor. But now, here in August of 2008, VDB is here to tell you: Anthony Pollina is officially batshit crazy.

It’s not just that he switched party affiliations at the last moment, opting to drop the Progressive label in favor of Independent; it’s not just that he made the switch without thinking through the campaign finance implications of leaving the major parties.

“This is new information,” Pollina said, when informed that becoming an Independent would cost him nearly $30K in early contributions.

No, what makes the guy Cruise-on-couch nuts is that Pollina has apparently made the decision to keep the controversial cash. Forever.

Even though the Secretary of State has told him, in no uncertain terms, that doing so violates the letter of the law.

If misreading the campaign finance regulations in the first place was a crippling mistake, doubling down on that error is a death blow. Especially for a guy who claims campaign finance reform as a major area of personal expertise.

It boils down to this, Anthony: you can survive switching parties without warning, even two or three times, and you can survive a negative ruling on your finances, by going bare bones, or begging more from the Progressive faithful.

But you cannot survive a public knife fight with Deb Markowitz. Not where the particulars of election law are concerned. Not after Labor Day, when suddenly everyone is watching. No way, no how.

So consider that particular couch jumped. And not just jumped, but jumped real good.