Freyne Land

Political grudges never die in the People's Republic of Burlington, Vermont.

Twenty-six years ago it was a screaming leftist/progressive/Independent named Bernie Sanders narrowly defeating an incumbent Old Guard Democrat - Mayor Gordie Paquette - in the three-way 1981 mayor's race.

And to this day, 26 years later, Democrats, at least inside Burlington's City Hall, appear unable to forget.

They'd rather have a Republican who thinks highly of George "WMD" Bush and the job he's done as their next council president, instead of someone who voted for Bernie Sanders over Richie Rich Tarrant and thinks Mr. Bush deserves impeachment.

According to leaders of both the five-seat City Council Democrat Caucus and the four-seat Progressive Party caucus, Republican City Councilor and State Rep. Kurt Wright (right), will be elected president of the 14-seat Burlington City Council Monday night over Progressive City Councilor Tim Ashe. According to Democratic and Progressive sources, the vote for Kwik Stop Kurt will be 8-6.

Wright will replace Democrat Ian Carleton, the state party chairman, who resigned for personal reasons. Sources say the New North End Republican will get the votes of four Democrats, three Republicans and one Independent.

Democratic City Councilor and State Rep Bill Keogh told "Freyne Land" the council Demos met on Sunday and none were interested in seeking the president’s post. Keogh said Wright, despite being a Republican, "knows the process and will be fair in running the meetings." Keogh said he’d like to think Wright "will not invoke his personal agenda."

Ashe, the Prog presidential candidate, responded to our email inquiry acknowledging that unless the Democrats'  "soul-searching finds a soul," Wright will win 8-6.

Progressive Mayor Bob KIss (at left at "No Idling" presser earlier today outside City Hall), told yours truly he will work with whoever is elected council president, but would prefer someone other than Wright, with whom he served six years in the Vermont House before becoming mayor:

"Kurt and I often don’t agree, but I think we do kind of bring, ah, ideas and information to the battle and we come up with solutions. So, I’ll work with whatever the council decides tonight.

"Obviously, I would prefer different leadership, but I think we can work effectively together."

Kwik Stop Kurt - who we first met in 1979 when he started working the counter at Kerry's Kwik Stop on St. Paul Street (Utica Club beer cost 69 cents-a-quart), did not respond to our voice mail request for an interview this morning.

Back then, he'd always have The Jack Barry Show on the store radio. That was the hot morning radio talk show of it's day in Burlington. Kurt became a regular caller. Only person I've ever seen ring up and bag a grocery order, make change and talk on a radio show simultaneously!

Wish the late, great "Be sure and tell 'em Barry brought you!" Jack Barry were here to see this, eh?

[Probably rolling over in his grave.]

Congratulations, President-elect Wright!

That's what Al Salzman calls his recent "Different Drummer" cartoon and commentary. Al, a Franklin County artist, actor and educator who I've known for more than 20 years, sent me a copy - said he was inspired by some of yours truly's recent writing on the Vermont Statehouse goings-on.

"I've tried so hard not to step on his toes," thinks Democratic House Speaker Gaye Symington to herself .

"I've had her dancing to my tune all the time," thinks Republican Gov. Jim Douglas.

Cute, eh?

In his sidebar comment, Mr. Salzman writes: "Speaker Symington doesn't ever want to step on Douglas' toes and Jimmy is loving it!

...Speaker Symington's less than aggressive opposition to the Governor's agenda makes one wonder if her Republican roots are beginning to sprout."

Speaking of Speaker Gaye's GOP roots, (Tuxedo Park, not unlike those of that Howard Dean fella on Park Avenue, eh?), the pro-impeachment folks are meeting with her on Wednesday at the Statehouse. Sources tell "Freyne Land" the Speaker is expecting Senate Boss Peter Shumlin to sit in.

Shummy publicly says he supports the resolution calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush and would pass it in the Senate in a second, if only Gaye agreed to have her heavily Democratic House adopt it, too.

Gaye insists the House is too busy.

Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, Madame Speaker.

And potential big doings in the Queen City of Burlington today.

Over the weekend Ch. 3 and the Freeps finally reported the story that was in "Inside Track" two weeks ago - that Republican City Councilor and GOP activist - State Rep. Kurt Wright - is, with Democrat support, in line to be elected the new president of the Burlington City Council tonight.

Progressive Councilor Tim Ashe, a 30ish up-and-comer, looks like he'll have to wait for another time, eh?   

Our initial report - that a Republican was the favorite in the hometown of not only U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, but Govs. Phil Hoff, Madeleine Kunin and Howard Dean, too, got a lot of feathers ruffled in Democrat Land. Many folks simply could not believe four out of five Democratic Party city councilors would support a guy for council prez who's been such a staunch supporter/defender of George "WMD" Bush and Dick Cheney. (Ruth Dwyer for Governor twice, too. Remember Ruth Dwyer?)

Should be an interesting show tonight. City Hall's Contois Auditorium at 7 o'clock. And, as always, admission is free-of-charge!

P.S. Prog Mayor Bob Kiss, the tall, silent type, is holding an 11 a.m. presser in front of City Hall to promote a campaign against car/truck engine idling. We'll see where he stands on the big council presidency race. Do check back.

A little suprise this Easter morning when I woke before sunrise with Easter thoughts, not of bunnies or chocolate or resurrection, but of "revolution."

Must be the Freyne genes, eh?

Thank you, Uncle Peter. I won't forget you. Even though I never met you, you've always been there when I needed the courage to do what had to be done. Know what I mean?

And thank you, William Butler Yeats, for the following:

Easter 1916

I HAVE met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.

I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,

And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:

All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?

That is Heaven's part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.

What is it but nightfall?

No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?

For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.

We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;

And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?

I write it out in a verse -
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:

A terrible beauty is born.

Went downtown after 11 this morning. To read a New York Times held in my own two hands - the old-fashioned way. Brought along the paycheck just in case the bank was open. A slim chance, indeed, thought I. Big religious holiday weekend. The banks probably closed by 3 p.m. Friday afternoon?

I was delightfully wrong. The Merchants' on College Street was open. In fact, business had been a little slow, Teller Mark said. A lot of folks may have thought they were closed for Easter.

In my younger days, growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, I swear the banks would have been shut tight. A lot was different back then: we did not eat meat on Fridays, fasted during Lent and the Roman Catholic priesthood was not the synonym for pedophilia it is today. Heck, I'd have been in church all week doing my altar-boy thing from Holy Thursday evening's "Last Supper," through Friday afternoon's Good Friday "Crucifixion" and on to Sunday morning's "Resurrection."

Pretty powerful stuff for a kid. Kids today, needless to say, follow a different script, eh?

For the hometown folk, the big chatter this Holy Saturday morning was about what was across the top of the Freeps' front page. City Attorney Joe McNeil, a 62-year-old hometown, married Irish Catholic lad, had admitted a couple months back to John Briggs, the Freeps city hall scribe (and no spring chicken himself),  that he had had an "excessively close"  relationship with a very attractive female attorney half-his-age.

Here's how Briggsie wrote it in today's edition:

Mayor Bob Kiss accepted the resignation "with regret," but said it was "in the best interests of the city."

In a letter to Kiss, McNeil faulted himself for developing a relationship with zoning consultant Owiso Makuku as they worked together since late 2004 to rewrite the city's comprehensive zoning ordinance. During most of that period, McNeil, who hired Makuku, approved her hourly pay vouchers.

The relationship, he said in his resignation letter, "created concerns over the appearance of a conflict and caused the necessity for an independent audit."

"I very much regret that my lapse in judgment caused problems for the city," his letter said. "I recognize that I am solely responsible for this and I do apologize."

So, as luck would have it, who do I bump into on the busy Church Street Marketplace, but Mr. Briggs, 61, himself (on the left with WCAX-TV crime reporter Brian Joyce, 60,  who appeared 10 minutes later). Haven't seen John in ages actually. He was curious to know why Seven Days hadn't jumped on the story.

I hadn't "jumped" on it because it seemed to the old Irish-Catholic boy in me like a case of another old Irish-Catholic boy, determined to publicly transmit a very up close and personal message to the wife of all these years:

"Hey, Honey, I'm getting some!!!"

Certainly McNeil, a St, Mike's and Notre Dame Law graduate, had a financial interest in keeping the City of Burlap's city-attorney contract all these years (37) .

BUT, history cannot overlook the very special contribution Big Joe made to his beloved hometown of Burlington, Vermont by being the diplomatic bridge between Mayor Bernie Sanders and the smug, Old Guard Burlington establishment, whose ass Ol' Bernardo had just kicked in the March 1981 mayoral election. Those were tense times and McNeil's shuttle diplomacy was invaluable.

Thanks, Joe.

Joyceman wanted to know why I haven't written about the latest Arbitron TV news ratings which are out and naturally, he said, have Ch. 3 in the No. 1 spot.

True enough, I used to mention the ratings in "Inside Track" all the time. But when the local TV news scene shriveled down from three local TV news operations to two, with one headquartered in Vermont (WCAX) and one headquartered in Plattsburgh, New York (WPTZ), I lost interest.

It'd be like covering Major League Baseball if there were just two teams: the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

WCAX-TV News, by the way, still hasn't filled Montpelier bureau-chief Anson Tebbetts's spot.

Surprising, eh?

No brown bags  at Democratic House Speaker Gaye Symington’s regular Friday noon-time “Brown Bag Lunch” with the Statehouse fourth estate. No lunch either, as usual.

And the fewest number of reporters we’ve seen this session - just four, including yours truly, AP, the Freeps and the Rutland Herald/Times Argus bureau which each provided a warm body in Speaker Gaye’s office.

Usual suspects who were missing were reps from Vermont Public Radio, WCAX-TV and WPTZ-TV.

Hey, it’s not like she’s the governor, ferchrissakes, right?

It’s clear that Professor Symington views her mythical “Brown-Baggers” as an opportunity to update her class of note-taking reporters on where various items of legislative action are in the legislative process House-wise. Awfully nice of her. Such a Good Government Queen, eh?

Yours truly shut up for the housekeeping-type Q and A, instead taking a “big picture” “from-the-outside-looking-in” perspective. I noted that on the day before, we reporters had received Republican Gov. Jim Douglas’ "message," as we do every Thursday - a message  that “all you people over here in the Legislature want to do is raise taxes!!!"

That’s the message Ol’ Scissorhands sends out every week, week after week, I noted. (And nobody does it better, eh?]

“He’s correct, isn’t he?” this reporter asked the Speaker who is allergic to "politics."

SYMINGTON: "What we are focusing on is addressing, in a real way, where Vermont is going, where Vermonters are headed, and what it’s going to take to have this be a prospersous state in the future. And I think that the kind of...that...my counter would be - I think that the proposals the Governor puts forward either ignore huge issues or takes a very short-sighted approach and do not serve the interest of the state in the long run.

"On proposal after proposal, what we are talking about is, in the long run, what’s the right thing to do to save money whether it’s through weatherization and energy conservation or promoting long-term stable contracts for renewable energy, or whether it’s by encouraging Vermonters to change their driving habits and making it available to the public, transit resources that allow them to do that. And I think we’re looking at what kinds of measures do we have to take now, and they’re not earth-shattering here, to build a more prosperous future.”

Got that? All over the map with the ultimate promise of a "prosperous future."

Pretty exciting, eh?

Look. In politics, it helps to be concise and focused. Trust me. Fewer words the better. Easier for the voters to remember. Duh!

Do you ever get the impression, that while they may both have second-floor offices under the golden dome, Gaye Symington, seen afterwards [right] connecting with Senate Boss Peter Shumlin in the cafeteria, and Gov. Jim Douglas are on different planets when it comes to politics?

The back-and-forth on more specfic matters continued for another 20 minutes or so. We learned among other things that Madame Speaker is, at 5’ 10 1/2”, the shortest member of her family, that she finds Professor Frank Bryan’s argument for a four-year gubernatorial term “compelling,” AND that she knew before the Democrats’ unsuccessful veto-override vote Thursday, that newly appointed Democratic Rep. Jon Anderson of Montpelier was voting “No” on the override and with the side of the damn Republican Governor who appointed him. Anderson had minimal support among Montpeculiar Ds and was not one of the top-three they recommended to Douglas to fill Francis Brooks' seat. (Francis was elected Sergeant at Arms.)

Maybe it was the Easter spirit, the Peter Rabbit inside of me that made me do it, but before things wrapped up, I felt like giving the House Speaker one last bite at the chocolate. Pitched Gaye a big, fat softball. However, she didn't see it as a big, fat softball. In fact, she got a wee bit defensive.

FREYNE: What’s the one thing, if there is one thing, that you would like the taxpayers of Vermont to know right now - out of this? Is there a message? What’s your message today? You’re all over the map, as usual, but is there a message?

SYMINGTON: You ask me that every week and I give you the same answer every week. You don’t like the answer, but I give you the same answer.

"The answer is that our focus is [on] what decisions do we need to make today that build a more prosperous state in the future. That we’re thinking long term and we’re willing to take some risks, and we’re willing to stand up even though, that what we do may be subject to , you know, the governor’s , ah, spin.  We’re going to stand up and say this is the right thing to do, to create a more prosperous state in the future. To make sure as folks decide, as their kids are raising kids that they have good jobs, that they have affordable health care, that they have stable reliable energy, and that’s the work we’re up to and you see it in the bills we pass. You see it in every bill we pass. See it in education that there aren’t easy answers, but we’re willing to take some controversial first steps.

"You see it in energy and health care building on last years' first steps. We’re taking second steps.

"You see it in the budget and the kinds of choices that we make that within this box , smaller than we all wish it would be, and that doesn’t satisfy all the needs of the state, we’re going to say where do we need to be devoting our resources so that we’re not growing our corrections budget at the rate of 10 percent-a-year, so that we’re not, you know, building unsustainable future, or taking resources away from the promises we made when we established programs like Catamount [Health].

"That’s what we’re about."

Jim "Agenda of Affordability" Douglas has to be chuckling if he read the above. Some message, eh?

Ten words or less, Madame Speaker, a message that’ll ring in the ears of the commoners is what’s required in this business...and, yes,  it is a business.

In fact, the talk in the building today was pretty clear - Vermont Democrats simply do not have a candidate on the radar screen to beat Gentleman Jim Douglas in 2008.

Potential challengers like Sens. Peter Shumlin, Jim Condos and Doug Racine aren't quite that stupid.

The talk is the Ds are searching for a sacrificial lamb for the 2008 gubernatorial.

Hey, anybody see 2006 Lite-Gov Candidate Matt Dunne lately?

That, mes amis, is yet to be determined. It's not 9 a.m. yet, and I'm still in Big Bad Burlington. Some hot and heavy floor debates on budgetary matters may lie ahead in the Vermont House. And Democrat Speaker Gaye Symington, who lost a biggie yesterday when her team failed to override Gov. Scissorhands' veto of the budget-adjustment bill, is expected to conduct one of her "Brown-Bag Lunches" with the Statehouse press corps around noon. Should be interesting. I already hear my stomach growling.

Here's a shot we took yesterday of two powerful Democrat "backbenchers" at work. Democratic Majority Leader Carolyn Partridge (seated left) and Rep. Floyd Nease (seated right), the Democratic Whip.

"Whip?"

Didn't Howard Dean have that job twentysome years ago?

Rep. Partridge is engaged in a quick one-on-one with Rep. Alice Emmons, chair of the Institutions Committee. Rep. Nease is having a little pow-wow with Judiciary Committee Chair Bill Lippert. Face time like this is important. For "leadership," it's all about keeping tabs on what the hell is really going on among the lower ranks. Catch the brushfires early.

The same principles apply in the "upper" body - the Vermont Senate where the Democrats also rule the roost (for all the good it does them). The most obvious difference there is that a male, rather than a female, is the Top Dog. Has a different style too.

Here's how Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin,  Speaker Gaye's opposite number, frequently looks at the world. Took this shot  from behind the distinguished senate leader, as I poked my own head into Putney Pete's rather small office. (The guy who had it before him, Peter Welch, has an office on Capitol Hill now.)

Left-to-right, that's Sen. Claire Ayer (Addison), vice-chair of  the Finance Committee; Sen. Ginny Lyons (Chittenden), chair of Environment; Sen. Susan Bartlett (Lamoille), chair of Appropriations; Sen. Jeanette White (Windham), chair of Government Operations; and Sen. Ann Cummings (Washington), chair of Finance.

Shummy and his Rockettes!

No, no, no! I am not going to go there.

Rather the actual thought was how fortunate I've been in my 57-year lifetime, to personally witness the birth, growth and success of what we used to call "Women's Lib."  Six powerful senators and five of them are female. The only question is, will I also live to see a woman president?

Also, some might notice who's missing from this pow-wow in the office of the senate's most powerful Democrat?

That would be the former Democratic Lite-Gov and unsuccessful, gubernatorial candidate (2002) - Sen. Doug Racine, chair of Health and Welfare.

No shortage of off-the-record Statehouse chatter of late about how much Racine loathes Shumlin. That the gap between them is deep and wide. Not exactly good buds or on the same page, are they, eh?

State Rep. Bill Aswad (at left, with the late, great Act 250 co-author and State Sen. Art Gibb's portrait behind him), has been a fixture on the Burlington, Vermont political scene since B.B.G.E. - "Before Bernie Got Elected." That means before March 1981. 

If my memory is correct, way back then, Bill Aswad was the head of the Burlington Planning Commission. He subsequently was a city councilor before election to a state representative post from the New North End in 1994.

In the Burlington political trench warfare of the Sanderista vs. Old Guard Era that was the 1980s, Aswad was considered Old Guard Democrat.

BUT, he always had the ability to never take it personally. To keep lines of communication open. To be flexible when the common good demanded it. Now in his 80s, Ol' Bill has been quite a remarkable Vermont public servant with an emphasis on service.

So when he plopped down in the chair next to me outside the Statehouse cafeteria today, I was all ears.

Rep. Aswad, a retired engineer, simply could not believe it. Could not believe that everyone else on the Ways & Means Committee had voted "yes," he said, on a measure that will make beer drinkers happy. 

Currently, said Ol' Bill, one must go to a state liquor store in Vermont to purchase beer that has an alcohol content of 16 percent - more than triple what's sold everywhere else. The Ways & Means Committee, he said, approved its sale at the 1200 "mom & pop" convenience stores in Vermont, too.

What's Aswad's problem?

Two-word answer: "drunk driving."

He's got a point, eh?

So did our Republican Gov. Jim Douglas when we put the question to him at his weekly presser Thursday afternoon. Here's how it went

Press: Ways & Means approved, with one "No" vote, allowing mom & pop stores to sell beer with 16 percent alcohol content, which to a lot people probably sounds like a great idea. You probably support that?

Gov. Douglas: "Well, I don't know if I do or not, but, ah, I think the Department of Liquor Control has expressed a few concerns, but, I'll have to see what happens when it gets through all the process. It's not a topic on which I'm an expert, Peter."

[Cute, but the Middlebury Marvel has spoken out  publicly, even of late, in favor of lowering the drinking age to 18 - were it not for the damn feds threatening to punish states that do so with funding cuts. It's the civil-libertarian in him, eh?]

Press: [Rep. Aswad] says it would be sold in 1200 mom & pop stores - 16 percent beer. If I remember my beer-drinking days, that's a lot of alcohol, at least triple...

Gov. Douglas: "Your memory isn't really that faulty."

Press: Before, the strongest was 6 percent [Brador, remember?] and you had to drive to Canada to get it. But given your feelings on drunk-driving, don't you connect those dots, Governor?

Gov. Douglas: "Well, people are going to purchase the product. It's not a question of whether it's available or not, it's just a matter of where it's available."

"Obviously I also want to do what we can to help our mom & pop retailers. They've had a tough time over the last few years, as you know, with some extra costs and expenses of doing business and we don't want to make it any more disadvantageous. So I'm still trying to sift through the pros and cons of that bill."

Good answer, eh?

So people will buy the product anyway, eh, Jimbo?

Of course, under the exact same logic, Gov. Scissorhands would no doubt also support legislation allowing those same mom & pop stores to sell pot, er,  excuse me, "medical marijuana?"   

After all, it appears to be readily available to Vermonters at present - even at the grade-school level.

No problem disposing of "empties," either.

Interesting.

This was the Vermont Statehouse around 2:30 this afternoon. Yes, it's April - baseball season. Time for Passover, Good Friday and Easter.

It may look a bit nippy on the outside, but, let me tell you, it was pretty darn "hot" inside today. Big floor battles underway in the Gaye Symington House. One Democratic leader we collared in the hallway during a break in floor action politely described the present as one in which "two meltdowns were going on."

What good is Speaker Symington's 2-1 majority advantage if she's unable to make it work when it has to work?

Had a great little off-the-record chat with a lobbyist. The dude surprised me. Turns out  he'd be happy to talk - just not with other people around. So a quite, private moment offered itself. and he and I took advantage.

Wanted me to know my "Noblesse Oblige" blog item on Democratic House Speaker Gaye Symington was "right on the money" and "pretty much what I tell my clients about her." That she believes "good politics makes good policy," and believes "achieving consensus" is the ultimate goal.

Yes, indeed, that may explain what so little has been achieved so far in the Symington Era.

Look folks, whether Gaye likes it or not, when the Vermont Legislature is in session, the Speaker of the House is the second most powerful person in the state, next to the governor. In fact, some would argue the House Speaker is actually the most powerful person for those months. It all depends on whether or not one can handle power.

Oh, by the way, speaking of women handling power, as we were heading into the building around 10:30 a.m., the door opens and out walks the head gals from the Mary Fanny, excuse me, from Fletcher Allen Health Care: C.E.O Melinda Estes M.D. (right) and Theresa Alberghini DiPalma, her right-hand woman when it comes to matters of politics, aka "senior vice president for government and external affairs."  Theresa formerly served on the staffs of U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy and Gov. Howard Dean.

A pleasant surprise, indeed! In fact, such a surprise, I completely forgot my little digital camera, the one that feeds this blog, was in my pocket ready to fire.

Grabbed the photo at right from Melinda's Mary Fanny web page. The hospital does not post a photo of Vice President Alberghini DiPalma. The FAHC C.E.O. had testified in favor of "workforce development" before the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs. No press in the room, as far as they knew.

What else?

The purpose of today's Statehouse visit was to shoot the first show of what Jess Wilson of CCTV reminded me was the kick-off of my 14th season of producing/hosting "Point-Counterpoint." The January cancer arrival delayed me a couple months this year, but hey, if the mouth's still working fine?

And I had the "blabbermouths" on today.

Just kidding.

First half guests were journalistic redheads and Statehouse reporters Terri Hallenbeck from the Freeps and Ross Sneyd from the Associated Press. Terri's been doing the Vermont-legislature beat for three years. Ross is on No. 15. Theirs is the daily grind under the dome, or "in the building," as they say.

Of course it affects their brains! Tune in and see for yourself.

Second half guests ended up being two Democrats when Essex/Orleans Republican State Sen. Vince Illuzzi blew us off - a half-hour after agreeing to be on with State Sen. Dick McCormack from Windsor County.  Can't wait to hear what happened.

Sen. Jim Condos from Chittenden County was Vince the Prince's last-second replacement. Quick on his toes, that Condos fella.

Had a wonderful time rattling the cages of McCormack, a comeback-kid in the Senate, and Condos, the guy who knows everyone in Chittenden County. If the Democrats are so smart that they could take over the House & Senate, how come GOP Jim Douglas appears to be  running the show?

Hey, is Jim Condos seriously considering a gubernatorial run against Gentleman Jim Douglas in 2008?

Sen. Condos confirmed during our "Point-Counterpoint" taping that he will not be seeking reelection to the South Burlington City Council where he has served for 18 years and is the current president.

Hmmm.

Plus, Condos is not a left-wing, liberal Democrat like the last three who've gone down in flames to Douglas, the Middlebury Marvel. Condos is a middle-of-the-roader and he can talk the paint off a wall with anyone from blue-collar to millionaire. That's Condos in the middle in a recent Statehouse photo - perfect spot, eh?

On the left is megabucks Burlington real estate mogul/developer-type Ernie Pomerleau, and on the right is Tom Torti, longtime state official who now runs the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Hmmm.

I mentioned this to a couple folks today and they suggested Condos isn't known outside of Chittenden County and lacks statewide name-recognition.

I suggested there are "condos" everywhere you go in Vermont these days. Sen. Jim's last name is literally a household word.

Stay tuned.

If there was any doubt, U.S. President George “WMD” Bush reminded the citizens of America and the world of that sad fact yesterday at his White House presser.

I was reading the transcript this morning, since I missed it yesterday with “Inside Track” duties and a swing by the antiwar protest at the Burlington, Vermont HQ of Democratic U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy - a Bush opponent and an Iraq War opponent.

Down in D.C. there have been no shortage of political explosions lately and one of the biggest in the last week has been Matthew Dowd’s departure from the Bush political-spinmeister team. Dowd was a key Bush strategist who helped get the worst president in U.S. history reelected in 2004. Thank you, Matthew.

We certainly have paid the price and continue to do so.

Asked about Dowd’s defection at his White House presser, Ol’ Georgy-Porgy‘s spin was to blame it all on the fact Mr. Dowd has a son in the military who will likely be heading to the Iraq war zone soon.