Shay busts the investigative move. Again.

Over at the Guardian, they´re running a delicious corrective to the Rainville camp´s “Colin Powell Story”: that Rainville was elaborately courted by envoys from both parties, but chose to become a Republican after going up on the mountain and sitting silently beneath the clouds and determining, finally, that the Democrats were worthless and weak and unprincipled.

The truth seems to have a few shades of gray.

Rather than choosing the Republicans as the party of principle, Rainville actually seems to have followed the main chance: the GOP in Vermont was weak enough that an unknown with cash or good name recognition (Rainville, Tarrant, McMullen) could simply step to the head of the line.

In short, Rainville wanted to run against Jeffords as late as 2005, but Democrats gave her the order to stand down.

Which smarts, when you´re nominally a general.

Check it out. VDB recommends reading it sometime in the late afternoon, when your work is starting to drag you down, and all you want is something light and intriguing.

A good yarn, that is. Better, at least, than the one Martha´s been pushing thus far.