Freyne Land

"They used to say I was real quiet as mayor," said Peter Brownell the other day when we crossed paths on State Street in Montpeculiar. Brownell, a Republican, served one term in the third floor corner office at Burlington City Hall (1993-1995). We'd asked for his assessment of the performance of the current mayor - Bob Kiss the Progressive.

"It's hard to say what he’s doing for sure" said Brownell. "He’s so quiet."

Brownell upset Peter Clavelle, the two-term Progressive, who apparently paid the price for approving benefits for "domestic partners" of city workers - a radical idea in its time.

After his one-term as mayor, Brownell, a rather quiet, soft-spoken kind of guy himself, lost his reelection bid.  Mayor Moonie returned from a sabbatical in Granada. In March 1995, Clavelle was voted back in and stayed there until Kiss' arrival last April.

Brownell currently works for the Vermont Department of Education. Peter heads a three-person team that monitors federal grants. He told us he travels around the state making sure the grant money is accounted for and its spending is documented. The ex-mayor also likes it, he said, because it gets him “out of the office and around the state.”

Nice.

The only problem is, it's December 14 and the thermometer reads 51 degrees. Can you say "global warming?"

Thursday morning, I jumped in the Saturn-awaiting-inspection and drove to Montpelier to catch Gov. Jim Douglas' announcement of his choice for Vermont's next Secretary of Agriculture.

After parking, I bumped into Roy Carlson, a Montpeculiar regular. Roy's a retired surveyor and civil engineer who works part-time for the City of Montpelier as a "Community Services Officer." Roy was engaged in removing the coin from state capital city's parking meters, one of his hallowed tasks.

Asked about the nice spring-like weather in December, Roy said he wasn't worried for himself, but he was worried for his grandchildren. "I'm 81," he told us. "It's not going to have much affect on me until I hit 100."

But the grandkids will be having problems, he said, with a tone of concern in his voice.

"If they don't do something right now," said Roy, "they'll really have to scramble." The Arctic ice, said Carlson, is melting a lot faster than anyone thought it would.  The sea levels are rising.

"They're predicting a Northwest Passage will be open to shipping within 20 years," he said.

Great.

Later, at the end of the Ag Secretary presser, yours truly asked the Guv for a comment on the strange December weather.

"It's a little warm, isn't it?"  Gov. Douglas replied. "I was talking to a ski-area operator this morning and he's not at all concerned because it's very slow until Christmas."

Then looking at what he called "a plus side," the Guv noted "our low-income heating assistance program is not in as great demand when the weather is so warm."

Douglas did say he hopes "we get some cold weather in the next week or so, so the Christmas holiday will be strong for our ski areas and we'll be off to a good winter."

Don't we all? However, this warm weather this December is a rather inconvenient truth, isn't it?

And, oh, yes, Gov. Jim Douglas appointed Roger Allbee (at right) the new Secretaryof Agriculture. One of the most interesting things about him is thefact that 20 years ago, his twin brother Ron Allbee had the job underDemocratic Gov. Madeleine Kunin.  Back then it was Commissioner ofAgriculture. And are they ever identical twins. Yours truly even calledhim "Ron" when we asked a question.

He happilly corrected me. Roger's the second-born. Amazing resemblance.

P.S. I drove down hoping WCAX Statehouse and bird reporter Anson Tebbetts, a Cabot dairy farmer, would get the nod. His name was reported on the final list.  As it turned out, Ol' Ch. 3, "Vermont's Own," did not even send anyone to cover the 11 o'clock presser even though WCAX has an office/studio on State Street in Montpelier.

A crew from the Plattsburgh, New York station, WPTZ, however, did drive down from their station's nearest outpost in Colchester, Vermont,  to cover the Vermont announcement.

Vermont's largest daily, The Burlington Free Press, was also missing-in-action.

Hey, at least they have blogs!

First we bump into United States Senator-elect Bernie Sanders at Uncommon Grounds on Church Street. Vermont's newest U.S. senator is upbeat and excited about the new role he'll be playing in the 'upper' body. In fact, he's in such a good mood, he and I go for a walk around downtown Burlington for 20 minutes and chew the fat.

One thing with Ol' Bernardo is that if you're with him, get ready for the public reaction. Naturally, folks recognize him. Old people, young people, it doesn't matter. Many want to shake his hand, give him a hug or at least say "hello," or "I voted for you!" or just a "Thank you, Bernie."

What's the Senator-elect up to these days?

"We're working on a number of issues," he tells us. "We're working on healthcare. We're working on environmental issues. We're working on energy issues. We're working on veterans issues."

The last couple weeks, the Senator-elect said he's been meeting with national leaders down in D.C. and this week he's meeting with their local Vermont counterparts. Tuesday evening, he said, almost 400 people came to a town meeting he held in South Burlington and he's holding them around the state.

And, said Sanders, it looks like he's the only senator with seats on both the energy and environmental committees. Full names: Energy and Natural Resources and Environment and Public Works.

"That puts us in a very good place in terms of global warming and sustainable energy," said Ol' Bernardo.

Cool.

Then this just in: Congressman-elect Peter Welch has just been appointed to the powerful House Rules Committee. Amazing for a freshman!

Most House committees are packed with 40 or 50 or 60 members. The Rules Committee has only 13: nine Democrats and four Republicans.

Welch's Chief-of-Staff Bob Rogan (at right) told "Freyne Land" the Rules Committee is the "traffic cop" for House legislation.

"Every committee that wants to move legislation to the Floor has to go through the front door of the Rules Committee and get what is called a 'rule' to get to the Floor," said Bob.

But how did a freshman get such an important seat?

His experience as president pro tem of the Vermont Senate sure didn't hurt.

"Peter is viewed as somebody who has an extraordinary amount of experience," said Rogan. "He's got gravitas in the legislative arena. He knows the difficulty of Speaker Pelosi's job and fundamentally he gets it!"

Not bad, eh?

And what's our other congressman got for work?

Oh, right, Sen. Patrick Leahy will be the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee come January.

Cool.

It's only once a year and my appointment's at 8 o'clock this morning - about 35 minutes away.

Annual auto inspection.

Whoopie!

So it's back to the old neighborhood at North & North to hangout for an hour, drink coffee and visit with old familiar faces at McCaffrey's and Waggy's.

Fingers-crossed on the six-year-old Saturn, eh?

*********************************************************

UPDATE*

The Ol' Saturn needs a few things done to it before it passes inspection.

Parts being ordered.

Rebooked for next Wednesday.

Que sera sera.

Not a bad morning if your name is Tom Salmon, eh?

The Associated Press’ Ross Sneyd has a very interesting story on the wire this morning regarding the still up-in-the-air race for Vermont state auditor: 

With a recount still under way, Democrat Thomas M. Salmon has picked up more than enough votes to overturn his razor-thin election loss to incumbent Republican Auditor Randy Brock.

Of the quarter-million votes cast on November 7, “thousands of votes” still remain uncounted in the recount which is now in its second week. A tedious process, indeed, with ballots counted by hand.

But the trend is unmistakably in favor of Salmon, who lost by 137 votes on Election Day, according to county clerks polled Monday by the Associated Press.

Salmon billed himself as the “only certified public accountant” running for auditor of accounts. He’s also the only descendant of a former Vermont governor and former president of the University of Vermont running for auditor. That's his dad at left with Gov. Scissorhands.

And he’s the only Democrat running for auditor in a state where Democrats hold strong majorities in the legislature and are represented in Congress by the bravest and boldest opponents of the corrupt and incompetent right-wing regime that’s controlled the White House for the last six years.

But the times are a changin’, eh?

If the trend in the recount continues, and Tommy CPA wins, he will also become the newest name added to the list of potential Democratic gubernatorial candidates in 2008. Despite their strength in the state, the Democrats have lost three consecutive races for governor and lt. governor. Politician-for-life Jim Douglas has simply been far, far better at the election game than the likes of Doug Racine, Peter Clavelle and Scudder Parker.

State Sen. Matt Dunne did a respectable job in losing this year’s lite-gov contest to Brian Dubie. His name is being mentioned as someone who might be able to give Douglas a race in 2008. State Treasurer Jeb Spaulding and Secretary of State Deb Markowitz get a mention, too. As does Chuck Ross, Sen. Patrick Leahy's longtime chief of Vermont operations.

But a Tom Salmon victory in the recount this week would immediately add his name to the Dems gubernatorial short list.

Copies of Chris Graff's Dateline Vermont were sold out yesterday at Bear Pond Books in Montpeculiar! And it's currently #3 on the hardcover best-seller list at Northshire Books in Manchester Center.

The Vermont best seller by the former Vermont A.P. Bureau Chief - who's seen it all - covers the major stories of the last three decades in the Green Mountains as seen by a newsman on the front line, including his firing.

I bumped into Chris yesterday at Capitol Grounds in Montpelier, enjoying my new coffee shop, newspaper and chit-chat life. Krista Harness of Montpelier and her laptop were there before Chris. Krista's a co-producer of Anthony Pollina's "Equal Time" on WDEV radio.

Small world.

A truly amazing man is he - 80-something Phil Hoff of Burlington. Philsie was Republican Vermont’s first Democratic governor, elected in the smoking and drinking 1960s - now the long gone “good old days.”

How times change. Neither one of us goes near either anymore.

There’s a shot of Gov. Hoff breaking ground way back when for something we all take for granted today - the Interstate Highway. What would we do without it? What will we do without it?

Bumped into Phil on Main Street in Burlington the other day. He’s still going strong and still battling for what he believes in. Lately you may have seen him in a TV ad for Death With Dignity Vermont. Hoff, along with former Gov. Madeleine Kunin and former Lt. Gov. Barbara Snelling are courageously leading a fight for legislation that will:

    •Guarantee that all adult Vermonters have legal end-of-life choices
    •Assure that mentally-competent persons who are terminally ill have the right to choose the manner and timing of death
    •Avoid the pain of unwanted tubes and machines that merely prolong the dying process

Check out the Death With Dignity website where you can watch the TV spot.

While we had him, we also wondered what Gov. Hoff thought about global warming. The current governor, Jim Douglas, and GOP legislative leaders say high property taxes to pay for public education is the big issue these days. Where does global warming rank?

Hoff ranks it right at the top, saying “We ignore it at our own peril.”

Yes, indeed.

Also wondered where Ol’ Phil stands on wind energy and the idea of having windmills on some of Vermont’s rural ridge lines.

Hoff told us wind power is “an essential part of the solution” when it comes to meeting Vermont’s energy needs.

“Will it solve it all? "asked Hoff.

“Hell, no!'

“Is it part of the solution?

“Hell, yes!”

Jim Douglas, are you listening?

Look, I’m in my late 50s, and in recent weeks have been experiencing my first post-mid-life crisis. 

Bumping into Phil certainly raised the old spirits!

Thanks.

The Lady in Red is, in fact, not the artist who created these colorful paintings - part of the rather interesting show currently on the wall at Burlington City Hall. Nonetheless, she is, indeed, a city hall “artist.”

For the last nine years, Karen Wingate has been the assistant chief administrative officer of the largest city in the state of Vermont - The Peoples Republic of Burlington. Friday was her last day on the job.

Wingate told yours truly she’ll leave with memories “of all the good people and all the good work we got done,” and “a tremendous sense of family and accomplishment.”

Karen became the Queen City’s acting chief administrative officer about a year ago after Brendan Keleher, Mayor Moonie's top financial cop, departed to become vice president of operations at the international Institute for Sustainable Communities in Montpeculiar. Wingate was the presiding officer in the city of Burlington last March for the historic first election using Instant Runoff Voting. And it certainly went smoothly, didn’t it?

Fortunately, Karen will not be going far - just up the block to ARD Inc. - an almost 30-year-old international consulting firm that’s long been one of the quiet jewels of  The People’s Republic of Burlington. Coincidentally, she’ll be following in the footsteps of the former mayor - Peter Clavelle.

ARD’s clients cover quite a spectrum, from the World Bank and United Nations agencies to the EPA, the National Park Service and state, city and foreign governments.

Best wishes.

So, as you may know, part of my personal revival movement of recent weeks has involved a return to "old" activities that were staples of daily life in the pre-Internet Age.  Things like going out for coffee and conversation and a hard-copy of The New York Times. Old-fashioned things. Physical things.

That's meant stopping by Everyday Book Shop on College Street in downtown Burlington across from the Freeps. And there's the added "perk" of hearing the British accent of proprietor Elizabeth Orr. Back in 1979 when yours truly landed in Burlap, the book shop was on Church Street where the Yankee Candle shop is now  (and before that, Everyday Books was where Stone Soup is currently located). Of course, back in 1979 (Jimmy Carter was president), Church Street had car and truck traffic and sidewalks - something that was about to change with construction of the Marketplace in 1980.

Now fast-forward 27 years to the present. There certainly have been some changes, eh?  But Elizabeth Orr and Everyday Book Shop remain! We stopped in yesterday on the way to see "The Queen," starring the marvelous Helen Mirren, at the Roxy. Outstanding flick!

Burlington's Book Shop Queen Elizabeth says customers have been strongly recommending she see it.

"People tell me I should," said Mrs. Orr, "but I never go to movies!"

Work, work, work. But retirement, says Elizabeth, who works every single day, is finally appearing on the horizon. Born in Hanley in the English Midlands in 1927, she'll turn 80 next spring.

"You know," she confided to us yesterday, "for the first time ever I've just started to think about it. I still don't want to."

God bless her!

Do consider dropping by the Everyday Book Queen, would you? And check out the cinematic version, too. You won't be disappointed by either.

Let's think of it as a Christmas present. A Pearl Harbor Day reality-check. The perfect holiday gift in these troubled high-tech, wireless times. I'm talking about the eagerly awaited "Iraq Study Group Report."

It's been a long, long time since America, as a nation, has publicly swallowed such a large dose of truth in one sitting. The lede on The Washington Post  analysis piece pretty much nailed it:

"The Iraq Study Group report, released yesterday, might well be titled "The Realist Manifesto."

From the very first page, in which co-chairmen James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton scold that "our leaders must be candid and forthright with the American people," the bipartisan report is nothing less than a repudiation of the Bush administration's diplomatic and military approach to Iraq and to the whole region.

Is not the tide turning, folks?

Yet, by way of dramatic political irony, while the Iraq report was being released down in DC, the governor of Vermont was back to being his old self on Wednesday - holding a "regular weekly press conference" on the Fifth Floor in Montpeculiar. The jovial Republican was in especially good spirits. After all, Gentleman Jim Douglas has just won reelection by a 15-point landslide in America's rather unique little Leftists Land of Democrat Howard Dean, national chairman of his rival party, and Independent Bernie Sanders, currently making history as the first socialist ever elected to the United States Senate.

Not bad, eh? For Jim the Republican, that is.

Standing before the thin line that is the Vermont press and batting away questions about the property tax and rising education costs without offering a concrete solution/plan is an art that none perform better than James Douglas of Middlebury, Vermont. And, sure, he cares about global warming, but what were voters telling him on the fall campaign trail?

"To be perfectly honest, I think we all heard a lot more about property taxes than global warming."

Nonetheless, the Guv calmed us down, saying, "Vermont can continue to provide leadership on environmental policy." Besides,  he quickly noted, more global-warming impacting power plants power plants are being built in China. "The fact is," said Gov. Scissorhands, "[global warming] is beyond the ability of Vermont to contain."

Did he not just wash his hands of it?

Back to the other "Big Ugly" of the first decade of the 21st Century - the Bush-Cheney War in Iraq, the one our Vermont delegation unanimously and wisely voted "No" on, but ended up our war, anyway. And back to the fact Gov. Jim Douglas has supported the Bush-Cheney Team and this war from the get-go. Nonetheless, It has never  harmed him politically at the ballot box. That is no doubt attributable to Gentleman Jim's exceptional talent, as well as the apparent lack thereof exhibited by his Democratic opponents in 2002, 2004 and 2006.

Just last March, Gov. Douglas visited the Iraq War Zone as a guest of the White House and came home singing the praises of what he described as the successful operation that was underway there. Not one word of criticism was uttered.

At yesterday's presser in the state capital, we asked the Guv if he agreed that the recent resignations of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and U.N. Ambassador John Bolton were "good moves?"

“Well, that’s the call the president needs to make. Every executive needs the team on the field that he or she feels comfortable with, so that’s where the buck stops and he needs to get the people he feels will best do the job.”

Smooth, eh? Nobody, we'd argue, does it better in the Green Mountains. But has our Guv changed his view on this war?

“Well, I’ve said for some time that we need an exit strategy. Vermonters and others have answered the call to serve and put their lives on the line, in some cases paid with their lives, to serve our country and they deserve to know that there’s a clear objective and an end in sight to our involvement.  The secretary designate said we can’t set a date, but we do need to have a strategy that will  move us toward a redeployment of our troops."

But is Vermont's governor ready to say what Vermont's congressional delegation of Patrick Leahy, Jim Jeffords and Bernie Sanders have been saying loud-and-clear or years: this war is "a mistake?"

"Well, history will judge ultimately decisions that have been made in this context and it’s ultimate outcome. I think most Vermonters, most Americans, want to find a way out at this point."

I think that was a "No" to the question about the Iraq War being a mistake, don't you?

Nobody does it better.