Funny how we always overwrite political stories. For the longest time, we here at VDB have been watching the Douglas Administration fail in its long-stated mission to create jobs in Vermont, and we’ve tended to look for reasons based in ideology, or personal incompetence, or an inadequate response to globalization. So the Governor’s governing style — remaining almost completely inert for the bulk of each legislative session, and then stirring briefly to veto three or four Democratic initiatives — always seemed at least partially to explain lackluster job growth. Right.

But according to a confidential source, it turns out the whole thing is so very much simpler: about six years ago, Lucifer appeared to Douglas outside the McDonald’s in Rutland and offered to buy his soul, offering in exchange either robust job growth or a cool horse toy with its own plastic saddle.

And that, apparently, was all she wrote.