Freyne Land

He's only been Chittenden County State's Attorney for about 60 days, but Thomas J. Donovan put in his first performance on WCAX-TV's "You can quote me" this weekend as the top law enforcement official in Vermont's largest county. Has a gift for the gab, too, does Mr. Donovan.

I know, you were in church or on the mountain at 11 am this morning and missed it. I'm almost the only one watching.

But I had to watch T.J. the rookie, thirtysomething state's attorney. because when it comes to the next generation of political leaders in Vermont, this Donovan chap, hometown Burlington boy, has the skills, the desire and the breeding!

His momma is a state representative, Johanna Leddy Donovan, his uncle was a state senator and his grandpa was almost governor. Proud Vermont Democrats one and all.

And let's not forget, okay, what United States Senator Patrick J. Leahy's last job was some 32 years ago before getting the one he currently holds?

That's right - he was a thirtysomething Chittenden County State's Attorney!

On "Quote Me," the issue of drug legalization came up early on, an idea that's finally getting some serious attention thanks to the courageous public remarks of a veteran Vermont state's attorney. Donovan showed his political talent by judiciously trying to walk both sides of the drug-policy street.

He called for thinking "outside the box" (T.J.'s favorite buzz-word), and doing a better job of addressing the causes of addiction, but he wasn't ready to go as far into the world of reality as Windsor County State's Attorney Robert Sand has gone.

State's Attorney Donovan: "We spend more money in this state on incarcerating people than we do on higher education - on educating people and sending Vermonters to UVM to Lyndon State.  That’s disturbing. Let’s be pro-active. Let’s think outside the box. We want to hold people accountable - no question. But let’s give then the opportunity to succeed by treating the underlying addiction."

Marselis Parsons: "The suggestion for decriminalizing some drugs came not from the 'Wacko Left.' It came from one of your collegaues, a fellow state's attorney, a state’s attorney in a similarly busy county - Windsor County - Bob Sand is no kook!"

Donovan: "I didn’t say he was."

Parsons; "His idea is this will help solve some of the problem."

Donovan: "I don’t think so. Let me say this about 'Bobby Sands' (sic). He should be commended for bringing this topic into the mainstream. Trememdous amount of political courage to be a law-enforcement official, to be the top law enforcement official in his county, [and] to say that he supports the legalization of drugs. He should be comended. It’s a conversation we should have, frankly.

"I disagree.

"What we’re seeing in this county, it may be different in the southern part of the state, I doubt it. What we’re seeing is crime being committed as a result of legal regulated drugs, opiate-based painkillers; Percocet, OxyContin. Home invasions. People are going in and robbing elderly people who are legally prescribed these drugs. So I don’t see how it’s going to solve the problem to legalize it.

"It’s not going to address one’s addiction and, ah, I don’t want to live in a community, frankly, where heroin, cocaine - because [Sand] is not just talking about thr legalization of marijuana, he’s talking about the legalization of all drugs - and I don’t want to be in a community where you can go to your local pharmacy and get cocaine and get heroin. It’s a very scary thing. There are a lot of collateral consequences to, ah, the one using drugs, and it’s crime, the property crime.

"Are we facing challenges regarding the drug issue?

"Absolutely.

"Do I have all the answers?

"No.

"But I don’t think that legalizing drugs is the answer."

So much for Mr. "Outside the Box," eh?

Hey, let's give Young T.J. some time.

As he pointed out to his inquisitors, he's only been state's attorney in Big Bad Burlap for two months.

Ol' St. Patrick, wife Marcelle and grandson Roan arrived from the nation's capital at Burlington International Airport Saturday morning. Yours truly and Ol' Andy Potter from Ch. 3 were there to meet Vermont's senior senator, as was veteran Leahy staffer John Goodrow (at left with the boss), once a radio-news guy himself in the good old days.

Andy's focus for WCAX-TV "Evening News" purposes was the current Farm Bill and its impact on the shrinking Vermont dairy industry (which has been shrinking for as long as I can remember).

Yours truly's questions were on a different subject.

Press: Should Vermonters think things are really changing, that there is reason for hope?

This week - the Vice President’s chief of staff was convicted on four felony counts.

This week - 38 Vermont towns weighed in on President George ‘WMD’ Bush’s honesty and integrity and voted for impeachment resolutions.

This week - the head of the FBI apologized for FBI misconduct - the misuse of "National Security Letters" under the guise of the federal USA Patriot Act.

Sen. Leahy: “I think there’s reason for hope, only because we now don’t have a rubber-stamp Congress. We now have some checks and balances."

St. Patrick noted that within one week of the November 2006 election, Bush Administration officials contacted him, requesting warrants for previously warrantless surveillance of innocent citizens they had been conducting  in the name of "national security" - among them Quakers who were protesting the Iraq War.

(I suggested the Bush Administration would have cause to investigate if they discovered Quakers who were demonstrating in favor of the Iraq War!)

The Bush-Cheney anti-First Amendment fanatics knew Sen. Leahy from Vermont had complained loud and clear about such conduct which he considered unconstitutional and an abuse of individual rights.

And they also knew that within two months, in January 2007, the tall, bald former state's attorney from Burlington, Vermont would be the  chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee - the guy in charge - in the new Democratic Senate.

Sen. Leahy: “I didn’t let it stop at that. I said I was a great fan of Ronald Reagan. I love his expression, ‘Trust but verify.’ And so now we’ve started the verification hearings.

“Both the attorney general (Alberto R. Gonzales), and the director of the FBI (Robert S. Mueller III), came up to see me privately this week and say, ‘We’ve got a real mess here.’

"And they asked me if I was upset by that?

"And I said, ‘Upset doesn’t even cut it!'

“I think we’re going to have significant hearings on this. I suspect that we have a real possibility to revise some of the worst parts of the Patriot Act.

“There’s a change. There’s actually checks and balances. There’s actually people asking questions."

Press: Any hope on Iraq? People (including top U.S. generals) are talking of our being there militarily ‘till 2013.

Sen. Leahy: "You know, the President, several years after he dressed up in a flight suit and flew out - at the cost of millions of dollars to the taxpayers - flew out to an aircraft carrier to hoist a big sign saying ‘MISSION ACCOMPLISHED (on May 1, 2003), he now says, ‘Well it’s really going to be up to my successor to get us out of there.’

“The tragedy of Iraq is it has not made us any safer. We’ve lost the lives of thousands of very brave men and women from America, tens of thousands, possibly even hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. And the worst part is that in going into Iraq, the Bush-Cheney Administration allowed Osama bin Laden to get away.

“Can you imagine if this had been Bill Clinton who had done that? And how these people would be screaming?

“We’ve got to keep the pressure on. The public’s got to keep the pressure on to get our people out of there. It is going to be absolutely essential. If President Bush won’t do it, it has to be the first order of the day of the next president.”

Yes, indeed.

Here's a shot coming down Ledge Road -  in Beautiful Burlap on the way home. Lake Champlain is still iced in, but that's about to change.

In fact, change is in the air, is it not?

The air from which it has been absent for so terribly long.

In response to questions, Vermont’s top Republican gave his thoughts Thursday on the conviction this week of GOP VP Dick Cheney’s chief-of-staff on four criminal counts of lying, perjury and obstruction of justice. The conviction of Scooter Libby (right) was not a topic Vermont’s Republican governor was eager to discuss.

Let’s face it - the wind has shifted. The dynamic Republican duo that won the last two U.S. elections while skillfully playing the 9/11 card and fabricating a bogus threat from Iraq’s Saddam Hussein that justified war, is now hanging on by its fingernails. Their approval rating which once soared into the 70s and 80s hovers around 30 percent now. In November, U.S. voters put the Democrats back in charge in Congress. “Impeachment” has replaced “Homeland Security” as a hot topic on newscasts and talk shows.

Twice Jim Douglas has headed up the Bush-Cheney election campaign in Vermont - once while Vermont’s state treasurer in 2000, and once as Vermont governor in 2004.

Though the Bush-Cheney ticket lost Vermont both times, it carried Florida and the nation. And Republican Jim Douglas easily won his races in our "leftist" Green Mountain State. Let’s face it, Jimbo’s got a magic touch! A way with words!

He’s been on the November ballot everytime  since 1972 when he first ran for a seat in the godforsaken legislature, AND James has only lost once in 18 tries - the 1992 U.S. Senate race to Democrat Patrick J. Leahy.

He’s been extraordinarily patient, working his way up slowly from a legislative seat representing Middlebury, through  “second tier” offices like secretary of state in the 1980s and treasurer in the 1990s before going for the big time with a bid for governor in 2002.

On Tuesday, in a major blow to the current regime, Scooter Libby was convicted on four counts of lying, perjury and obstruction of Justice in a case in which the White House blew a CIA agent’s cover because her husband was a critic of the Bush administration’s deceitful, un-American war policy towards Iraq.

At his weekly press conference Thursday, Gov Douglas was asked if the criminal conviction of Cheney's top aide surprised him?

Gov. Douglas: “I guess I’m not following all the testimony. I didn’t know what the outcome would be, but, ah, it’s certainly not appropriate for anyone, whether a public official or a private citizen, to lie to government officials, so I assume the process works."

Press: What about its impact in the Bush Administration?

Gov. Douglas: "Well, a lot of recent administrations have had people charged with and convicted of crimes and that’s an unfortunate development on the history of our national government, but I hope and expect that everyone will move on and fulfill their responsibilities and not be distracted by it.”

Press: Do you think it hurts, though?

Gov. Douglas: “Well, I don’t think it ever helps when some official of an administration is convicted of a crime.”

Press: Any advice for the president on pardoning Scooter Libby?

Gov. Douglas: “Well, I don’t believe that anyone should lie to investigating officers. I think public officials above all others need to be held accountable and if this conviction is upheld, then that’ll be the case.”

The man has a way with words, doesn't he?

________________________________________________________________________

THIS JUST IN: A rare phone call from Gov. Douglas' Press Secretary Jason Gibbs.

"I think you crossed the line," says Jason.

He's referring to the "Outrageous" item below in which we publish Gov. Douglas' remarks declaring he would never do what popular VT GOP online scribe James Dwinell did in publishing a smear of a leading Vermont Democrat's marital fidelity. To which yours truly added in the post:

"Of course not. You'd get someone to do it for you. No fingerprints is key!"

"The implication," said Gibbs, "is somehow Gov. Douglas agreed with it or may have been involved in it."

"Nothing could be further from the truth," he said.

I agree. "Nothing could be further from the truth." I suggested Ol' Jason was experiencing a "paranoia" attack. That was absolutely not what I was suggesting.

The implication in the blog sentence was, I explained, that no politican - Republican, Democrat, Progressive or Independent - would want any connection whatsoever to such a below-the-belt smearing of an opponent's reputation.

Jason's phone call, we'd suggest, affirms that.

_______________________________________

Ah, sure the ol' bunker mentality is increasingly common, not only at the White House, but also in Vermont's state capital of Montpelier. At least the federal building and post office on State Street, at right,  is prepared, eh?

The Times-Argus has this warning from Montpeculiar Mayor Mary Hooper in today's edition:

A letter from Montpelier Mayor Mary Hooper on flooding precautions

Despite the considerable expertise of federal officials and strong support of state officials it is impossible to know if there will be flooding or where or when it could occur.

If there is a flood, it will be in low areas in and around the downtown. It could be the same areas that were flooded in 1992, or it could be in adjacent areas; it could be upstream or downstream from these areas. If there is a flood it could happen quickly - water could rise to cover the downtown in less than an hour. As a result we are asking everyone in the Montpelier community to be thoughtful and prepared so they can protect themselves and help their neighbors

more here.

*Updated 3:45 p.m.

James Dwinell of Randolph has been active in Vermont Republican Party circles for more than a decade. He's been an executive director of the state party and the Republican candidate for auditor of accounts in 1998, losing to Democrat Ed Flanagan.

James - not "Jim" -  is an especially creative kind of guy, a successful businessman, and in the Internet Age became a "journalist" with a snappy, lively, online Vermont political report that looks at the Vermont scene through the eyes of a Republican.

The Dwinell Political Report started back in October 2000 as the Dwinell-Sternberg Report, but Libby Sternberg departed after a couple years and Sir James carried on solo.

Back in the early days, Democratic Gov. Howard Dean treated James, the former GOP candidate and party boss, politely at first at his weekly press conferences. After all, Ho-Ho knew he would be running for president in a couple years. He certainly didn't want any trouble with the First Amendment.

But, finally, Dean had enough of GOP James' partisan questions, partisan writings and challenged his credentials as a "reporter."

Guess who stood up for Dwinell's right to be there?

Yep.

Yours truly. It wasn't for Howard Dean to decide who was or was not a journalist was it?

And Dean, shall we say, "backed down," and allowed James to continue his attendance at the Guv's weekly pressers.

Lately, James has published his Dwinell Political Report (paperless like the Vermont Guardian), irregularly. His second edition of 2007 came out two days ago. A long one. Juicy. In fact, an outrageous one that clearly crossed the line.

Dwinell certainly is free to attack the Democratic leadership in Montpeculiar to his heart's content.

But this below-the-belt item attacking Democratic State Senate Leader Peter Shumlin (left) - Republican Gov. Jim Douglas' (right) likeliest challenger in November 2008 -  was like nothing Dwinell has published in his "political report"  since he printed the unsubstantiated claim U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords had Alzheimer's Disease.

A new and ugly low, folks.

From the current edition of Dwinell's "political report":

---------------------------------------------------------------------

BACK TO THE PAST

Shumlin was deemed "a pathologicalliar" by AP reporter Ross Sneyd. This was confirmed by former WCAX reporterAnson Tebetts. Sneyd went on to say that in previous lives, the media passedon Shumlin's lying, but "not this time."

It has also been reportedto DPR that Shumlin's wandering eye keeps wandering. He left politics in2002 in part to do some marriage maintenance. Many folks have been watchingShumlin's return to see if old dogs can learn new tricks. The jury votetoday is a definite no. The young lovelies of Montpelier have been reportingmultiple unwanted hits by none other than the senate pro tem.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WHAT the hell?

Way over the line.

Also, not true!

Anson Tebbetts, the former WGOP, er, WCAX-TV Statehouse reporter, now a new deputy secretary in the Douglas Administration's Agency of Agriculture, could not be reached for comment. We called the agency - Ol' Anson's on vacation this week.

Hey, didn't he just start?

We sent a copy of the DPR to Reporter Sneyd at the Associated Press on Wednesday. He had not seen one. A few hours later, Sneyd sent us this copy of an email he had sent Dwinell:

-------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Sneyd, Ross
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 1:58 PM
To: '[email protected]'
Subject: Correcting the record

Mr. Dwinell:

You inaccurately attribute two partial quotes to me in your newsletter. I did not say either of the things you allege. I look forward to a correction.

Ross Sneyd

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Yours truly contacted Dwinell and asked for his response to Sneyd's email?

On Thursday morning, Dwinell sent me the following:

"i must have gone off my medication, and have now proven myself to be a candidate for civil commitment.

"my 'quotes' of ross was really stupid of me, and i have apologized to him and will of course print a correction and apology.

and i needlessly offended maybe twenty other people. i could have made the same points and offended nobody. the issue was quite regretable."

Yes, indeed.

Quite regrettable, James.

***UPDATED - After Gov. Douglas' 1 p.m. weekly presser:

That's a shot (left) we took of the Guv answering a question from Mr. Sneyd of the Montpelier AP Bureau just a little while ago in the Fifth Floor conference room.

It was yours truly who brought up the fact the "leading Vermont Republican Party online newsletter" had in its latest issue  "reported" on the alleged sex life of the Democrat most likely at the moment to be on the November 2008 ticket as that party's gubernatorial candidate and challenger to Jim Douglas.

Gov. Douglas: "I didn't know that."

Press: "Do you read the Dwinell Political Report?"

Gov. Douglas: "Sometimes, but I haven't seen the latest one."

Press: "Do you think going into someone's sex life is crossing the line?"

Gov. Douglas: "Well, I certainly wouldn't do it."

Of course not. You'd get someone to do it for you. No fingerprints is key!

-----------------------------------------

When we got home, we discovered Mr. Sneyd had forwarded to us the "apology" he'd received from James Dwinell, Vermont's leading online Republican scribe:

To: Sneyd, Ross
Subject: Re: Correcting the record

good morning,

Caught Newfane Selectman Dan DeWalt (at left) on the WDEV airwaves this morning proudly telling Mark Johnson that on Tuesday, Town Meeting Day, 36 {later upped to 37), Vermont towns adopted the resolution “call[ing] upon the U.S. House of Representatives to investigate these charges and if the investigation supports the charges, vote to impeach George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney as provided in the Constitution of the United States of America.”

What charges you ask?

Here we go:

1. deliberately misled the nation about the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war,
2. condoned the torture of prisoners in violation of the Geneva Convention and U.S. law,
3. approved illegal electronic surveillance of American citizens without a warrant, and,

WHEREAS these actions have undermined our Constitutional system of government, damaged the reputation of America, and threatened our national security.”

Bing, Bang, Boom!

This happened in Vermont, reflecting a grassroots demand for justice, as down in Washington a federal jury convicted V.P. Cheney’s right-hand man and Chief of Staff Scooter Libby on four counts of lying and obstruction of justice.

And everybody knows, Libby was only carrying out his boss’ wishes. It's useless to pretend otherwise. Doesn't pass the straight-face test.

Selectman DeWalt of Newfane called Tuesday’s 37 Vermont Town Meeting votes “the first step of a Vermont people’s impeachment insurrection.”

Vermont’s congressional delegation, however, two Democrats and an Independent, all Bush opponents, do not want to go down the impeachment path. The party line suggests it would be a waste of time because President Bush is a lame duck with just 21 months left in the White House anyway, and the opposition party, the Democrats, now holds the majorities in both House and Senate and controls the agenda. Investigations into the Bush-Cheney record by congressional committees have broken out all over.

Fair enough. But the average American, the sane American, has lost patience at the sight of President George the Liar, with his now indisputable record of impeachable deceit and dishonesty, not being held accountable for his actions.

The U.S. death toll in Iraq is over 3100. More than 23,000 Americans have been wounded.

And everyone now knows, the reasons the Bush-Cheney team gave for taking our nation to war in Iraq were all fiction - pure lies! How anyone can continue to support the death and maiming of our troops for such a purpose defies comprehension.

Enough is enough. Quite simply, support for impeachment is growing by leaps and bounds. It’s called justice. It's a yearning within the human soul. And justice is the cornerstone of democracy.

Once again, Vermont’s taking the lead for the country.

Nice work by Dan DeWalt of Newfane. Persistence pays off. Bravo!

Now if Pat, Bernie and Pedro could see the same light, eh?

Speaking of justice and democracy, can you believe George W. Bush is going on a Latin American tour starting tomorrow?

As Jorge G. Castañeda, the former foreign minister of Mexico, wrote in today's Washington Post:

George W. Bush is the least appropriate person on Earth for this mission; he is immensely unpopular in Latin America -- not since Richard Nixon's trip to Caracas in 1959 have so many protests been likely -- and since Sept. 11, 2001, he has neglected the hemisphere. Many snicker that if he defends democracy in Latin America as well as he has in Iraq, only God can help Latin American democrats.

Amen.

Ah, but the trip should get the Bush-Cheney Iraq Disaster off the front page for a few days, si, amigo?

After all, the Middle East isn't the only real estate on Earth where the Bush Administration has demonstrated a remarkably inept grasp of the fundamentals of foreign policy.

Good news on the democracy front, eh?

More bad news for George "WMD" Bush.

Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff Scooter Libby was found guilty today by a federal jury in Washington, DC on four counts of obstruction of justice, perjury and lying to the FBI in its investigation into a leak that blew the cover of a CIA agent, apparently because her husband was a critic of the Bush Administration's deceitful and dishonest war policy towards Iraq.

Hip, hip, hooray!

Here in sunny, but frigid Burlington, Vermont it's Town Meeting Day and the polls are open in the city's seven wards. Ours is at Burlington Electric, Ward Five in the South End.

That's Democratic City Councilor Joan Shannon out front. Perhaps the only candidate with her own snowman?

Inside, a Ch. 5 crew was blowing through but the joint was almost empty. According to Inspector of Electrions Rob Backus (at left with fellow inspector Marcia Mason),  only 453 ballots had been cast by 2 p.m. and 69 of those were absentee ballots including ones from Howard and Judy Dean.

"Howard always votes," said Backus. That's "Howard" the current chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Normally, Ward Five is good for 1100-1200 votes cast. Might not break 1000 this year. Low temps and not much in the way of a hot item on the ballot this year, eh?

Stop the presses! There's Ho-Ho with Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room" on CNN!

Turns out Howard (pictured below campaigning in the early 1990s), could have voted in person at the Ward Five polls. Dr. Dean's on live via satellite with Wolfie from WCAX-TV in South Burlington. The fake bookcase shade is behind him.

The Scooter Libby conviction, says Dean "is just the tip of the iceberg."

Are  you suggesting either the president or the vice president has committed a crime, asks Wolf?

"We have no way of knowing," replies Dean.

"What we do know is that the vice president's chief of staff has just been convicted of obstruction of justice and lying," said Dean. "And we know that that happened in conjunction with trying to suppress people who were criticizing the war, people who were in a position to know something about the war.

"And we do know that the president of the United States gave false information to the American people in the State of the Union addresses and in many other places. And we do know that, in fact, the 9/11 Commission disputed some of the president's statements, such as the idea that Iraq and Saddam Hussein were somehow linked to al Qaeda."

The former Vermont Guv, who ruled the Green Mountains as a "moderate" Democrat, assured Wolf and the CNN audience "There's more to come. Stay tuned."

Will do, Ho-Ho.

"As I’ve said many times, I happen to believe that the president we have right now will go down in history as one of the worst presidents in the history of our country, certainly the worst president in my lifetime. And the problems he has caused in so many areas are just incalculable and are going to takes us years to recover from."

Remarks from Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders Monday morning at his Church Street office. That's Gary DeGasta, head of the VA Medical Center in White River Junction to Ol' Bernardo's left).

Twenty-five years ago when he was Burlington's mayor, he'd also most likely be holding a press conference, only difference - it'd be at the other end of Church Street at City Hall.

And in 25 years, can't say the Sanders message has changed.

But Bernie, then why are you guys not busy impeaching Mr. Bush? Americans went to the voting booth last November and put the Democrats in charge of Congress. Do not the lies of President George W. Bush regarding Iraq, its non-existent threat to us, its non-existent weapons, and non-existent ties to Al Qaeda stack up as "impeachable offenses" when compared to the lie of President Bill Clinton about "not having sexual relations" with Monica?

"Right now there are investigations going on for the first time in six years in the Armed Forces Committee and in the Judiciary Committee, trying to get a handle on what the White House knew, when they knew it. There are subpoenas now issued and there will be more of those," said Sanders.

"So I think before you talk about impeachment, you need a thorough investigation of what in fact has happened.

"And the second thought that I’ve had is the American people do not want to see the Congress tied up in knots. What they want to see is us addressing issues like veterans needs, health care for all of our people, global warming, [and] a fair tax system."

Sure they do, Bernie.

But without justice, especially justice for our No. 1 Citizen, there will be no peace. And without peace, no fair tax system, and no health care for all, either. Justice is the glue.
 

It's the 42nd anniversary of the 1965 battle, excuse me, police riot at the overpass in Selma, Alabama. That was back in the days when in much of the United States, African-Americans did not enjoy the same rights as whites when it came to housing, education, employment, voting rights and much, much more.

1965 was also the year this 15-year-old participated in his first civil-rights march, a march for open-housing in Ossining, New York. Most of the marchers were black. I still remember the dirty looks from whites along the curb.

And on this anniversary of Selma, Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were in Selma holding competing political rallies at nearby churches, each trying to position themselves as the premier heir to the legacy of Selma. As Hillary noted, it was against the law back then for women to serve on juries in Alabama. Now, 42 years later, a woman and a black man are the frontrunners for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

Don't you wish the election was this November?

Yours truly did a Montpeculiar run around midday and Vermont's state capital was particularly dead. Went for a good stroll around town - and, yes, I'm feeling real good the last few days as the Freyne frame adapts to the wonderful world of chemotherapy. Came around the back of Montpelier City Hall and there was a surprise: Reporter Andy Potter and Videographer Scott Waterman from WCAX-TV  doing an interview with Montpelier Mayor Mary Hooper.  It was for a Town Meeting Day preview story Andy was doing for the evening news.

Incidentally, is there any way Mary the Mayor cannot become Vermont's newest legislator?

Surely, Hooper's will be one of three names the Montpelier Democratic Committee will select this week and forward to Republican Gov. Jim Douglas as recommended picks for the Montpelier House seat being vacated by Rep. Francis Brooks. Ol' Francis, a state rep from Montpeculiar since the 1980s,  is the brand new Statehouse Sergeant at Arms, a full-time,year-round gig for Brooksie, an African-American who replaces Kerm Spaulding of Stowe.

In fact, we'd bet the name "Mary Hooper" tops the bloody list!

Of course, Gov. Scissorhands can pick anyone from the district and you might think it likely Jimbo would pick a member of his own Republican Party.

But what's in it for him?

Adding one more member to the 49-member GOP Caucus in the 150-member House is not going to make much of a difference.

Besides, Gov. Douglas can seize the opportunity to look both bipartisan and pro-woman by tapping Hooper.

Don't worry, Mary, Jim Douglas is not that stupid.

Is he?

More than 250 people turned out at St. Paul's Cathedral in downtown Burlington on this sun-splashed Saturday morning to pay their respects to a legend in Burlington, Vermont journalism who is with us no more - Maggie Maurice. She passed away February 15 at the age of 82.

Maggie anchored the Living Section of The Burlington Free Press for many, many years with her "Maggie!" column and fine features. As Archdeacon Catherine Cooke, the Homilist, put it, "Maggie never lost sight of the individual."

Longtime Freeps writer Mike Donoghue was there in the front row, but didn't see Publisher Jim Carey or any editors. I went with Seven Days co-publisher/co-founder Paula Routly. Paula had a desk next to Maggie's in the Free Press newsroom of about 20 years ago. The magical, creative and, dare I say, politicially "revolutionary" 1980s in Burlington, Vermont!

Yes, indeed. Maggie Armstrong Maurice was a special one. She always had a smile and a hello for everyone, even this "Inside Track" columnist back in the 1980s when it was running in Steve Brown's one and onlyVanguard Press and The Burlington Free Press was my favorite pin-cushion. As we learned at the reception following Maggie's memorial service, she sincerely appreciated our efforts. In fact, we had something in common, me and her.  Several attendees at the memorial made a point of personally telling me that she "hated Gannett." (Ah, but she loved life!)

One, Sandy Post, approached with something she said Maggie would want me to know.

And what was that?

Sandy, you see, is a longtime Burlington hairdresser.  For the last 10 years she's owned and operated Venus & Crew downtown at 1 Lawson Lane.

But, more importantly, for the last 18 years, she's been Maggie's regular hairdresser.

Sandy wanted us to know that the first thing The Burlington Free Press Living Section columnist would do when she came in for her Thursday appointment each week was grab a new Seven Days off the stack and flip immediately to "Inside Track." It was the first, and usually, she said, the only thing she read.

God bless her!

And didn't she always have beautiful hair, too?

Hey, Maggie, save me a seat, will ya?

Haven't been many this winter. This is  just the second one in the People's Republic of Burlington. I have a doctor's appointment at 10 a.m. downtown. That's the Freyne Land Alley all shoveled by the columnist fighting the cancer with the chemistry.

Not going to catch Cindy Sheehan in Sen. Vince Illuzzi's tent in Montpeculier at noon. Assuming she makes it in from Chicago. It's bad weather all the way.

Commander Dave put the word out via email shortly after 4 a.m. that the Statehouse is going to try to dodge the storm:

Cindy's son was an American soldier who gave his life in George "WMD" Bush's anti-American War in Iraq. And yet, there are bozos out there who compare Cindy Sheehan to Jane Fonda of Vietnam War-era fame.

Sheehan is a Gold Star Mother ferchrissakes.

George Bush and Dick Cheney were draft-dodgers.

Such is life.