Rolling in Republican Love (and other lessons from Montpelier)

Rolling in Republican Love

I guess it was that August photo of Governor Douglas and me. Yeah, you remember that little bit of fun, don’t you? And about that announcement…

Because the Vermont Republican Party is sending Broadsides some link-love this week. In his email newsletter to the mouth-breathing core of the Vermont Republicans, Chairman Rob Roper opined a bit about the Montpelier money snafu and then all but invited himself onto my lap with these words:

The scandal prompted liberal blogger Michael Colby to write, “But the reality here is that Mayor Mary Hooper must go…. Because this mistake, its non-disclosure, and the awkward, unconvincing and – frankly – insulting manner in which Hooper has tried to spin it, is a huge mistake that will have a tremendous economic impact to Montpelierites. It’s sadly ironic that the “good liberals” in Montpelier have been deafly silent on what is already being called Hooper’s Watergate. That’s what happens when party loyalty usurps better judgment: you start to ignore gross neglect when “among friends.”"

It’s a good line — ignoring gross neglect among friends.

And if I were a good Republican, I would have charged him for using MY good line. But, being the good Republican that HE is, he didn’t offer a penny. Or something like that.

But really, what’s this “liberal blogger” shit? Watch it, Robbie, I’ve got a reputation to maintain – and it’s not as a liberal.

Which brings me back to my primary interest in covering this story: The hypocrisy of the starry-eyed party followers.

In this version of the never-ending story that blinders built, it happens to be that the Democrats are the “devils” and the Republicans are the “angels.” Thus, the Democratic faithful are ignoring it and their Republican counterparts are seizing on it as if the Holy Grail of political moments has been found (Read: We are superior because the other is stained.),

But-oh-how-quickly they could all be changing their tunes. Imagine, for example, if the Montpelier government was controlled by Republicans. Trust me, the little Dem yap-dogs over at places like Green Mountain Daily would be beside themselves. Conversely, the Repubs would be making excuses (They tried! They’re hurt!) or ignoring it.

Repeat as necessary. And welcome to political dysfunction, Small Town America Style.

If you want to know how far from reality the Dem faithful will go in their current roles as the great ignorers of scandals (because they are the deeds of our friends), consider this obfuscating line of the moment being spewed by the Dem apologists: The Montpelier government HAD to keep the matter quiet because they didn’t want to jeopardize the secret re-payment plan (yes, the secret plan they made with the man who robbed them).

But wait. For that excuse to really work, the secret re-payment plan would have had to work. And it didn’t. Swing – and miss.

So, to recap, the Montpelier Democrats want you to back off because the plan was to protect the plan that did not work. Because if the plan was not protected, it would fail.

But it did.

And, worse, what was being “protected” was the silence. Let me remind you: Montpelier’s elected officials acted to hide essential information about a serious error from the citizens of the town.

It shouldn’t matter which party you voted for in the last election to know that the actions by Montpelier’s elected officials are unacceptable. Because there should be no secrets when it comes to our governing bodies – local, state or federal. And we must not allow petty party partisanship to cross-pollinate the stark differences between right and wrong.

But, for now, I’ll take the praise where I can get it. So thank you to my new Republican friends. The disgust with liberals can, indeed, make strange bedfellows.