Y’know, I wasn’t going to write about the sad final act of the doomed Len Britton for Senate campaign — Britton’s defeat at the hands of ex-campaign manager Jeff Bartley in a civil suit.

(Bartley sued Britton’s campaign for unpaid salary of more than $30,000. This week, a judge issued a ruling in Bartley’s favor. Which, see below, is probably worth nothing more than the paper it’s printed on.)

I mean, the whole thing is just so empty of meaning. A terrible operative fighting with a terrible candidate over the dregs of a doomed campaign. But I changed my mind when I read this, courtesy of VTDigger’s Alicia Freese:

A rising figure within the Vermont Republican Party has emerged victorious in a mud-slinging court battle against Len Britton, the 2010 Republican challenger to Sen. Patrick Leahy.

Cough. Choke.

Ahem.

“A rising figure”?

Jeff Friggin’ Bartley?????

Good God. I know VTGOP standards are low, but if Jeff Bartley is a “rising figure,” the Titanic is a masterpiece of naval engineering.

Let’s go over Bartman’s resume once again, for the benefit of those just joining us.  

His dismal career in Vermont politics began when he was still too young to buy a Gucci beer, or even a Shummy Special (Budweiser at the Legion Hall). The 20-year-old Bartley was hired by the Rich Tarrant-for-Senate campaign, where his duties apparently included a bit of ratf*cking: Bartley set up a phony political blog called VermontSenateRace.com, designed to poop out pro-Tarrant propaganda. This effort backfired on the Tarrant campaign when Peter Freyne revealed Bartley as the site admin.

In 2010, Len Britton hired Bartley as his campaign manager. We all know how that turned out.

In 2012, Bartley was political director for the Vermont House Republican Caucus. You know, the group that somehow managed to lose seats even though it had previously fallen to super-minority status.

After that, he managed to hook on as Chittenden County GOP Chair*. Which, I think, makes him Kurt Wright’s turd-polisher. And this fall, Bartley launched a short-lived bid for the state party chairmanship, but he couldn’t even beat out John “MacGoo” MacGovern as the favored candidate of the hard-right dead-enders.

*An unpaid position. Bartley has a day job as a “marketing analyst” at MyWebGrocer, the Tarrant Family Vanity Project. How nice of the Tarrants to reward a good and faithful servant. Whether he knows beans about marketing or not, is a whole nother thing.

This unbroken record of failure makes Jeff Bartley “a rising figure within the Vermont Republican Party.”

Well, given the dire straits of the VTGOP and their constant jonesing for someone — anyone — under the age of 50, maybe Bartley qualifies as “a rising figure.” But that says a hell of a lot more about the VTGOP than it does about Jeff Bartley.

And now, a fitting coda to this wretched affair:

One possible hitch in Bartley’s quest for reimbursement, however, is that the defendant in the case wasn’t actually Britton – it was the limited liability corporation (LLC) he formed for the campaign, which buffers members, in some cases, from being put on the hook for court fees.

Len Britton for Vermont LLC, has less than $1,000 to its name, according to the October 2013 quarterly filing with the Federal Elections Commission.

Ouch. Len Britton, failed candidate slash deadbeat, gets the last laugh?