The controversial Blier Watch crowd have a thought-provoking post about the recent Douglas veto of the Gender Identity Bill. They remind us what a big deal it is to veto any legislation that protects civil rights, and suggest that by doing so, he has drawn a straight line between the Douglas of today and his segregation-denial statements while a student at Middlebury College. Vermonters First was criticized for excavating that disturbing rhetoric from the Governor’s college days, but in light of the current veto, is it suddenly relevant? Check out their post and decide for yourself.

My favorite thing about Bob Kiss, the newly elected Progressive Mayor of Burlington? Every time he opens his mouth I can just envision Rep. Kurt Wright (R-Burlington) going absolutely apoplectic. First it was the notion of making Burlington a sanctaury for illegal immigrants, and now it’s a call for greater gun control. That rumble you hear in the distance is Wright’s head exploding.

Heeee’s baaaack! Former Windsor State Senator Dick McCormick is coming out of retirement, and will announce his candidacy for his old seat June 1st in Springfield. Watching McCormick and current Senator John Campbell try to work as a team could make for interesting viewing.

Morgan Brown at Norsehorse’s reports that in the wake of an outpouring of emails, there’s a New England Cable News (NECN) sponsored blog helping to coordinate help and assistance to flood victims in the Northeast. Check it out and get involved if you can.

Is Obama getting that Presidential itch? Check out Carpetbagger for the scoop.

When right-wingers are funny (and even right!). Two great posts from Tiradeparade. First this great piece complaining about annoying concert-goers, and this one telling all the people whining about The DaVinci Code to chill out and watch (or read) something else (unfortunately she starts backing down and giving ground to the complainers in the comments. Ah well.)

Hall Monitor Reports that congress.org’s rankings of Congressional Influence puts Bernie practically at the bottom. The GOP is trying to make hay out of it, Bernie’s folks are trying to spin it, but at the end of the day, Bernie’s fans will probably just see it as a GOOD thing — proof that the beltway power structure despises him, looks down on him, and therefore proof that he should be promoted to the Senate, so he can stick it to them even more.

It’s been more than a decade since the Douglas vs. Leahy Senate race back in ’92, but every now and then a hint of the lingering, visceral dislike these two politicians have for each other bubbles up. Case in point this week, when Governor Douglas (as he often does) let his snide streak shine unfettered. Usually the press gives him a pass on his needlessly childish verbal jabs at political opponents because it doesn’t fit in with the “nice guy” narrative they’ve perpetuated on his behalf, but this time when his own staff tried to backpedal, they had to take notice.

From the wires:

The contretemps began Wednesday when Douglas pointedly told reporters at a business and industry show in South Burlington that it was Leahy who was co-author of a bill being setting up the framework that permitted wiretaps of such new technology as cellular telephones.

“Obviously, one of our U.S. senators was the sponsor of the legislation that facilitated some of this information gathering and you may want get his thoughts on it,” Douglas said earlier.

Asked by WDEV-AM if he were referring to Leahy, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee and an expert on civil liberties, Douglas said: “He and U.S. Rep. Edwards were the sponsors in 1994 of legislation that required telecommunications companies to maintain and when appropriate transmit information to the United States government.”

Douglas historically has poor impulse control when he’s in the mood for neener-neener-neener-ing. But again, he never gets called on it by the media. Still, this is one of those times where his impulsiveness wasn’t necessarily in sync with his best interests.

His staff could see this, which is why Jason Gibbs rushed to rewrite history:

Douglas press secretary Jason Gibbs said the governor did understand the law and was not trying to pick a fight.

“The governor has great respect for the work that Sen. Leahy has done to protect Americans’ civil liberties, as well as the work he has done in so many other areas on behalf of the people,” Gibbs said

The Governor’s staff knows that the very last thing Douglas should want to broach is any topic that is even in the neighborhood of the NSA wiretapping scandal. They spend a lot of time attempting to innoculate him from any association with the unpopular Bush, and this is the worst topic imaginable on which to pick a fight with Leahy — one of the President’s highest profile critics on the matter, as well as being an immensely popular figure in Vermont. Leahy’s staff, on the other hand, is more than willing to gleefully pounce on the blunder and stuff it right back in Douglas’ face. After Gibbs’ “clarification,” Leahy’s office continued to push the Douglas-Bush connection:

“The clarification is welcome, and it would also be welcome to know whether the governor agrees the Bush-Cheney administration needs to be accountable by following instead of ignoring safeguards like the Leahy laws,” Pagano said. “That is an issue of vital importance to every American, not just for debate in Congress.”

Douglas will get away with it this time, but this incident may be indicative that the days of the free rides from the press on his impulsive snarkiness may be coming to an end — especially if his jabs come to close to Leahy.

What people forget — again because it’s contrary to the “nice guy” traditional media narrative — is that Douglas virtually invented modern negative campaigning in Vermont during his ’92 battle with Leahy (remember when Douglas accused Leahy of “screaming like a stuck pig” over Douglas’ attempt to make an issue of a congressional pay raise?), and the Leahy team has never forgotten that. They wanted badly for Racine to take him down a few pegs, and got over a lot of their concerns about Progressives in order to back Clavelle in his battle with the Governor.

These two guys really don’t like each other.