Freyne Land

A little on the chilly side for August, eh?

Dare we say the world's a little upside down?

Nobody makes that point better than the Rythym Riderz Crew for whom standing on their heads comes natural. The Crew puts on quite the amazing show. We caught them on Burlington's Church Street Marketplace the other evening.

And, of course, they have a website, AND you can watch them perform online over on fellow Seven Days video-blogger Eva Sollberger's "Stuck in Vermont" blog.

How does he do that?

I mean, a truly amazing show to catch. I don't recall ever seeing a similar "break-dance" style. Local boys, too.

On the politics front, things are a little quiet.  Anti-wind power Republican Gov. Jim Douglas continues to get good press while Democratic House Speaker Gaye Symington and Democrat State Chairman Ian Carleton merely put out press releases that get ignored.

God forbid they'd ever make a phone call to a reporter, eh? Or hone down their message to a single, simple point?

Simply put, communications is not their strength, it's their glaring weakness.

Lucky Jim Douglas, eh?

What a day!

My apologies for the delay in blog-posting. Love the weather, but technical difficulties have been my theme song this Friday. Can’t get my camera to download pictures to my computer. Then I had my "Freyne Land" blog-posting completely disappear just when it was all set!  Had to rewrite the whole bloody thing.

C’est la vie, mes amis. We are living in interesting times and the tide is turning...finally.

You see, I went down to the Health Department in Burlington this morning to catch U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy. He was getting an award from Human Services Secretary Cynthia LaWare for his stellar work on behalf of the WIC Program.

I wanted to ambush him on the rather historic goings-on in Washington where as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, St. Patrick is at the center of the storm as this corrupt, dangerous and dishonest administration crumbles like a House of Cards.

Karl Rove, the architect of George “WMD” Bush’s political dynasty, may be leaving the White House, but Sen. Leahy made it clear to us that his committee is not backing off on its investigation of criminal wrongdoing by Karl Rove and the rest of them in the dumping of 8 federal prosecutors and the ensuing cover-up.

On Thursday, Chairman Leahy, wrote the Inspector General at Justice, asking that he investigate “potential misleading, evasive, or dishonest testimony by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 24, 2007,”  and in previous hearings before this and other congressional Committees.

The request comes just days after Rove, President Bush’s top political spin-doctor, announced in The Wall Street Journal that he will be leaving the West Wing at the end of August. Rove is so far refusing to honor a bipartisan subpoena from St. Patrick’s committee. Said Sen. Leahy to "Freyne Land":

I’m going back to Washington Monday, on the return date on the subpoenas. I expect that they will not produce the documents even though they easily could, but I’ll be there on the off-chance that they might produce something.

The former Chittenden Country State’s Attorney will meet on Capitol Hill with Judiciary Committee staff over what their next move will be, then return to the Green Mountains on Tuesday.

I’ve also sent a transcript of Attorney General Gonzales’ testimony to the Inspector General at the Department of Justice and pointed out a number of glaring inconsistencies in it. I asked him to look into that and to give us his report back.

And this morning in The Washington Post, FBI Director Muller adds to the inconsistencies of the Attorney General’s testimony. So it is becoming something where both Republicans and Democrats are very, very, very concerned.

Leahy’s reference is to FBI Director Robert Mueller who described then-Attorney General John Ashcroft as “feeble” and “barely articulate” when Gonzales tried unsuccessfully to get the hospitalized Ashcroft to approve a Bush Administration warrant-less wiretap program.

Gonzales, however,  gave a much different account of that Ashcroft hospital visit when he testified under oath before Leahy’s committee, describing Ashcroft as ”lucid” and claiming the drugged hospital patient had done most of the talking.

Anybody, anybody at all out there still believe Alberto?

“Maybe President Bush doesn't like Birkenstocks, or antiquing, or socialists,” writes Joe Curl, the chief White House correspondent for the conservative Washington Times. “It could simply be that the health-conscious president just doesn't dig Ben & Jerry's high-fat ice cream.”

Sure, Joe. With the Bush Administration crumbling in disgrace, denial and dementia, it's time to get the focus outside of Washington, eh?

“Whatever the reason, Mr. Bush has not visited the state of Vermont. He has been to 49 other states and stopped off in more than 60 countries, including Albania, Uganda, Qatar — even Mongolia — but still no trip to Vermont.”

I know, you thought this was old news, right? But the Bush-friendly daily founded and funded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, father of the Unification Church, put it on its story list Tuesday, the day after Karl Rove's resignation went public in the conservative Wall Street Journal.

Yours truly had a voice-message on our machine when we got home from Seven Days Tuesday evening. I confess, I'm not a regular Washington Times reader, but I returned the call.

Unlike the president's first-ever visit to Rhode Island in June — when he made an appearance at the Naval War College in Newport that both of the state's U.S. senators skipped — Democratic Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, a vocal administration critic, yesterday made a solemn pledge to be a hospitable host.

"The whole delegation would be there — all three of us. How many other states can you get every single member of the delegation out there?" the senator said with a laugh yesterday.

Mr. Leahy said there are no hard feelings about the profanity Vice President Dick Cheney spewed at him on the Senate floor in 2004, and offered a simple reason why Mr. Bush has not dropped by: "I think he's saving the best for last."

Curl also discussed the matter with Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders:

"If the president came, we'd get the largest facility we possibly could,I would be delighted to moderate it, and he would be treated with therespect as is becoming the president of the United States," he said.

And Curl did get former Bush mouthpiece Ari Fleischer in the piece. Always liked Ari, didn't you?

"Vermont is the opposite of George W. Bush: It's granola, it's crunchy,it's liberal, and it's socialist," said former White House presssecretary Ari Fleischer, who attended Middlebury College in Vermont andstill vacations there.

And Mr. Fleischer knows firsthand what the president faces: When hewent back to his alma mater — a school of about 2,000 students — toreceive an award, "about 1,000 protesters showed up." No place is safein the state, Mr. Fleischer said: "Even the tallest mountain peak,they'll backpack their way up there to protest the president." 

But Ol' Joe didn't return our call-back. Bummer!

Read the whole article here.

What do you think?  Will our president visit our state before he leaves office?

As Ari put it, "He sure saved a doozy for last."

Let's get this straight, OK?

The Vermont Public Service Board has approved what GOP Gov. Jim Douglas scorns as an  "industrial" wind power project in Sheffield.

Karl Rove, the man behind George "WMD" Bush's presidential throne has announced his "resignation," and will be gone from the West Wing by month's end.

And GQ Magazine has picked Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy as one of The "50 MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE IN D.C."

That's St. Patrick at his Tuesday presser in Montpelier with a couple of the handful of members of the Vermont media who showed [Lisa Rathke from AP, Louis Porter from the TA/Rutland Herald, St. Pat, TA photographer Stefan Hard and Rob Roper, the state chair of the Vermont Republican Party whose curiosity showed.]

You'd think Mr. Rove's resignation and Sen. Leahy's position as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, a committee currently seeking Rove's testimony, would make for a worthy news hook, eh?  Unfortunately, Vermont's "top" daily newspaper and "top" TV News operation did not think so.

The Gannett chain's Burlington Free Press did not even send a reporter - they no longer maintain a Montpelier office when the Legislature's not in session - and WGOP, er, sorry, WCAX-TV News just showed up to grab a soundbite afterward.

No big deal, eh?

Just the fall of the corrupt, deceitful and dishonest regime that's done more harm to America than any that's preceded it!

One of a kind, eh?  In fact, the White House correspondent for the Washington Times was on our answering machine Tuesday, inspired by Vermont's unique status as the ONLY state in America this president has not set foot in while president.

I don't know about you, but it feels like an honor, a sign of genuine r-e-s-p-e-c-t. Vermont is, after all, the ONLY state whose entire congressional delegation voted against the legislation that turned the Bush-Cheney-Rove Team loose in Iraq.

Now look where it got us, eh?

Our team, Team Vermont, got it right, as in "correct," from the very beginning on Iraq, its alleged "threat,"  its non-existent WMDs and the truthfulness of the current White House. And Republicans like Mr. Roper, the GOP's Vermont chair, still don't get it.

"Karl Rove has served this country for the past seven years," Roper told Reporter Louis Porter. "This is a moment we should take a moment to thank him for what he has done whether we agree with him or not."

Thank him? Thank Karl Rove for what he's done for our country?

Tell that to the families of the 3700 American soldiers who've already died because the rest of Congress fell for the lies that he successfully sold them.

Still letting the reality of Karl Rove’s resignation sink in. Has a “rats leaving a sinking ship” feel to it, doesn't it?

And if you liked Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, you’ll positively love What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire!

“A disturbing, compassionate, sometimes humorous personal essay about coming to grips with climate change, environmental meltdown and the demise of the American lifestyle.”

It’s a very well done two-hour documentary by a bunch of talented midwesterners I had not heard of that goes deeper than Al Gore did. Caught a preview the other day. Reality - what a concept!

And it’s showing Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Champlain College’s Alumni Auditorium. They’re asking for a $10 contribution.

One path leads to despair and hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
- Woody Allen

Correction: Our source for there having been four Democratic governors of Vermont was that Howard Dean guy.

Not!

An election of special importance in the history of both the Republican and Democratic Parties of Vermont occurred in 1853. Contrary to common belief, the first Democratic Governor of Vermont was not Phil Hoff, but rather John Robinson, elected by the General Assembly in 1853. Robinson had come in a distant second in popular vote (38%). Whig candidate Erastus Fairbanks had 44% and Lawrence Brainerd, the Free Soil Democrat, had 18%. After nine days and 26 ballots the General Assembly finally elected the Democrat Governor and then went on to do likewise in the election of a Lieutenant Governor and Treasurer (in which races the Democrats had also come in second).

First comment on Karl Rove's resignation comes from Vermont's senior senator, Patrick J. Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee:

“Earlier this month, Karl Rove failed to comply with the Judiciary Committee's subpoena to testify about the mass firings of United States Attorneys.  Despite evidence that he played a central role in these firings, just as he did in the Libby case involving the outing of an undercover CIA agent and improper political briefings at over 20 government agencies, Mr. Rove acted as if he was above the law.  That is wrong.

"Now that he is leaving the White House while under subpoena, I continue to ask what Mr. Rove and others at the White House are so desperate to hide.  Mr. Rove’s apparent attempts to manipulate elections and push out prosecutors citing bogus claims of voter fraud shows corruption of federal law enforcement for partisan political purposes, and the Senate Judiciary Committee will continue its investigation into this serious issue.

“The list of senior White House and Justice Department officials who have resigned during the course of these congressional investigations continues to grow, and today, Mr. Rove added his name to that list.

"There is a cloud over this White House, and a gathering storm. A similar cloud envelopes Mr. Rove, even as he leaves the White House.”

***This just in at 4:55 p.m. from Rep. Peter Welch:

"Karl Rove's departure is long overdue.  While the so-called "Architect" is gone, his legacy of seriously misguided politics and policies regrettably remain in place.  His departure does not give him or the President a free pass from the congressional investigations and close scrutiny these policies rightly deserve."

On Saturday, he was cozying up over hot dogs and french fries with French President Nicholas Sarkozy, and Monday morning the news dropped that Karl Rove, the man behind George W. Bush’s throne, is leaving the White House!!!

Rove is universally regarded as the guy who has been String-Puller Numero Uno. Certainly, no one would deny that our country would not be where it is today without Karl Rove?

And for that there ought to be a spot in a federal penitentiary with his name on it, eh?

We’ll see.

Ah, but he departs in his inimitable style, giving the Democrat most likely to replace Mr. Bush a swift kick between the legs in his Wall Street Journal farewell.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rove predicted, would be the Democratic nominee, and he then called her a “tough, tenacious, fatally flawed candidate.”

But let's leave Hillary alone for a second and keep the light shining on you and yours.

The Bush Boys, you and yours, have lost the confidence and basic trust of the American people and deservedly so. There's no doubt about it. Obviously, your departure is designed to get the heat off the Bush White House and the Bush Administration and some how. some way, save a few Republican congressional seats in November 2008. 

The question is, will it?

There have only been four Democratic governors in Vermont history. They're all alive and half of them were on the same dais at the Burlington Hilton on Saturday.

Howard Dean M.D. and Ambassador/Author Madeleine Kunin spoke to the executive committee of the Democratic National Committee. Ho-Ho's the current chairman. Still sounds like a presidential candidate, especially when President George "WMD" Bush is the target:

He makes a big deal about putting together commissions to talk about security and then ignores security.

We are the party of security. They are the party of talk, and I think at the end of the day in November, the American people will elect the party of security and stop electing the party of talk and I’m looking forward to that very, very much.

Ho-Ho was getting kudos for his "50-state strategy" which has given life to Democrat candidates in places [like New Hampshire] where they used to appear non-contenders.

Dean also assured the Vermont reporters who turned out that there will be a Democratic Party candidate on the ballot against incumbent Republican Gov. Jim Douglas in 2008:

I think by Vermont standards this is incredibly early. As you may remember, Tom Salmon, the second Democratic governor in 100-and-some odd years became the nominee of his party shortly after the Democratic convention in Miami in 1972. So by Vermont standards, [it's] very, very early and I have full confidence that the Democrats in Vermont will have a very strong gubernatorial candidate.

A Democratic candidate on the November 2008 ballot?

Yes.

Well, what did you expect him to say?

Queen Madeleine is finishing up her next book on women in politics. Kunin said the current working-title is Go For It.

"We’ll see," she said. "It may not last."

The publisher is Chelsea Green, a Vermont publisher.

Kunin stumped the DNC Executive Committee with the question:

Which country in the world do you think has the highest percentage of women in its parliament?

P.S. One thing Gov. Dean the Democrat has in common with Gov. Douglas, party of Bush,  is that neither one has gone to see Michael Moore's powerful healthcare flick Sicko.

Why not?

"'Cause I don't have a chance to watch movies," said Dr. Dean when we asked.

Unlike the other Guvs, Gov. Kunin said she has gone to see Sicko.

Hey, remember this guy?

Howard Dean M.D. has called Burlington home for almost 30 years. And for more than 11 of those years he was beating the path back-and-forth to Montpelier where he was Vermont's governor.

Hey, it's his name that's attached to the first-in-the-nation law extending marriage rights to same-sex couples.

No photo of the signing exists, however.

Today Ho-Ho's the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, the guy most people credit with the Democrats' successful 50-state strategy that took back Congress in November 2006. I caught him this afternoon in the lobby of Burlington, Vermont's newest hotel - the Hilton!

Well, it may have been built in the 1970s, but it was called the Radisson back then. Then it became the Wyndham [in the 90s?] and just this week, I'm told by the cashier in the gift shop, they celebrated the name-change to Hilton.

The Hilton! The name always takes me back to the Conrad Hilton on Michigan Avenue in Chicago - August 1968 and the Democratic National Convention.  A Chicago "police riot," said the Kerner Commission, with more blood, bandages and tear gas than you could swing a billy-club at.

According to the official press release put out by the DNC HQ in DC this week, the official event is only happening on Saturday:

The Democratic National Committee today announced that it will host a joint meeting of the DNC's Executive Committee and the Executive Committee of the Association of State Democratic Party Chairs (ASDC) at the Hilton in Burlington on Saturday, August 11 at 11:00 a.m.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean will deliver remarks highlighting the success of the DNC's 50 State Strategy in the Democratic victories last November and provide an update on the DNC's State Party Partnership. Dean will discuss the DNC's new national voter protection effort, an unprecedented initiative that would not be possible without the SPP staffers employed by state Democratic parties, and outline the Democratic Party's plan for keeping its majority and taking back the White House in 2008.

In addition to Dean's update, the meeting will also include an update on 2007 governors races by Nathan Daschle, Executive Director of the Democratic Governors Association, and an update on the 2008 Democratic National Convention by Leah Daughtry, DNC Chief of Staff and Chief Executive Officer of the Democratic National Convention Committee.

We will also be joined by the Honorable Madeleine Kunin.

Actually, folks started arriving this afternoon. Ho-Ho announced to a few other Ds in the lobby that I was the Vermont political columnist to watch out for. I took it as a compliment.

Then he had to dash out to the airport to pick up his lovely wife.

That's how Gov. Jim Douglas said he felt in response to the Public Service Board decision giving the green light to the 16-Tower wind project in Sheffield.

Unfortunately, we had to wait 45 minutes to ask him since the presser was a pre-staged commercial for the "New Workforce Recruitment Effort" the Douglas Administration is rolling out online next month. That's Commerce Secretary Kevin Dorn at the microphone [Alan Walker, a Scotsman who manages Qimonda in Williston over his right shoulder and you-know-who over his left].

There'll be a new "web portal" unveiled next month [another presser to promote it?] that's designed to attract the software engineer crowd, many of whom may have picked up a college degree here, or grew up in Vermont and departed to experience the world of big cities.

And then, when we finally got to the real "news" story of the day, Press Secretary Jason Gibbs jumped in quickly to say time was about up since the Boss had to stay on schedule and depart for the 3:15 ribbon-cutting at the Winooski Farmer's Market.

Yours truly, however, spoke up about how it might be nice to address the top Vermont news story of the day, and Gov. Scissorhands graciously did so. Let's face it, this Middlebury College graduate, who stayed in Vermont, can talk the paint off a wall when he has to!

Vermont's Guv is "disappointed" that the wind project got the green light - he always calls it "industrial wind." And he said he's hopeful the PSB will look at the coming wind power projects "on a case-by-case basis."

You'd think a Vermont CEO like that, one who is dead-set against wind energy, while going to the mat for nuclear, could attract a few challengers, eh?