Vermont Media Blogging

First up, the Lame Blog Award. And this one’s easy for now: The Vermont Press Bureau’s “Vermont View.” Geez, you’d think that after they’d plaster their newspapers with advertisements for their site declaring that “the blog is mightier than the sword (cheesy sword photo included),” they’d at least bother to post once in awhile. But, then again, the Press Bureau boys have been busy lulling us to sleep with “analysis” like this first sentence in Louis Porter’s article in today’s Times Argus:

“A week after a special session that marked the true end of this year’s legislative session there remain stark differences between Gov. James Douglas and lawmakers not only about that session, but what comes next.”

Wow. And in case you are a complete and total moron, Porter does you a favor by serving you this in his third sentence:

“There also were – and remain – significant differences in opinion about other bills made into law.”

No!?

So, class, are you getting it? Yes, that’s right, the Republican governor and the Democratic legislature have “differences.” But don’t worry, if you’re still not getting it, Porter and his pals will be serving it up for you daily.

Remember, it’s this kind of reporting that landed Porter’s predecessor, Chris Graff, a plum corporate job at National Life. I wonder if they’re getting ready to hire again….

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Speaking of all things political in Vermont, congrats to Rep. David Zuckerman (P-Burlington) for giving a little verbal smack down to the Democratic leadership for its “unfortunate lack of attention to detail” when it came to the budget bill that recently became law. This so-called lack of attention led to 80 state employees losing their jobs last week because of the date in which the leadership decided to let the budget bill take effect.

Because the start-date of the budget bill was set to be July 1st, Gov. Douglas has until then to ignore one of the bill’s provisions that any and all state job cuts must be approved by the legislature. In other words, for the next three weeks Douglas can cut as he’d like to cut. And that’s exactly what Douglas did last week when he announced the immediate layoffs of the 80 employees. Oops.

The Democratic leader of the State Senate, Peter Shumlin, fessed up to the date blunder, telling the Times Argus that there was “no question” that they goofed. But then Shumlin sounded a lot like the pre-Iraq War national Democrats when he offered this lame bit of whining:

“We just didn’t think the governor would go to these lengths to avoid legislative intent.”

Yeah, and I didn’t think the dog would eat my burger if I held it under the table.

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Oh wait, this is just coming in from the Vermont News Wire: It appears all members of the media are now thinking that the next race for governor will be “interesting.” And the reason they’re so sure: Eric Davis told them so. All of them. Over and over.

Stay tuned.

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Speaking of the oh-so-very “interesting” race for governor in 2010, wouldn’t you think some of those good Democrats out there would take this early opportunity to start demanding some issue positions from the three or four folks who are running for their Party’s nomination? Not so. Instead, all the talk is about personalities, connections (she sent me an email!), money, and – worse — to declare that the Democratic primary opponents shouldn’t be running against each other but rather against Douglas. Huh?

Oh great, just what we need, more milquetoast Dems putting themselves in soft-focus while the people of Vermont are demanding some very real answers and bold actions.

Memo to the grassroots Dems: Get off your asses and start making your candidates commit to the issues before they get too committed to the moneyed-elite that they’re so busy courting right now.

Just a suggestion. And free, too!