attempts to dis-remember the facts

This may be a small thing but there is no reason to let Bush get a head start ,or any start for that matter on rebuilding or spinning his tattered legacy off into history as anything but the gruesome eight years it was.

The first draft of history had better be correct from the git-go.Thanks to Bernie …………..

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has written to the Smithsonian raising questions about the caption that sits beneath its new portrait of George W. Bush. The current wording of the caption states that Bush’s term was marked by “the attacks on September 11, 2001, that led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.” Sanders, bless his heart, points out that the 9/11 attacks — all together, now — had nothing to do with the Iraq war.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talk…

Jim Douglas used his inaugural address to launch his 2010 campaign and call for a series of uncharacteristically bold measures for the state. Because he understands the need to have a coherent message that carries from his term into his campaigns, he has chosen to highlight a number of issues to raise his profile for whatever office he seeks next cycle. Looks like he has outdone himself, unfortunately, and that we have a lot of work to do.

Like the movie Vantage Point where an event was seen differently by four bystanders, Douglas’s speech will have a different reception in different camps.

People who are familiar with the true consequences of these proposals read them like this:

-Freezing contributions by the state and business to per pupil spending in public schools despite the rising costs of mandates and uncontrollable costs like health care, adding to the burden of local taxpayers

-Cutting the range of health care benefits offered to Medicaid patients

-Paving the way for increased development for cronies by relaxing permitting measures

But that’s not how many Vermonters will read them…

Experience shows that Douglas’s carefully crafted message, with favorable presentation by the media, will likely resonate with many Vermonters.

As mentioned elsewhere, the press will be of no help, and voters, even in Vermont, have been indoctrinated for ages to see the business perspective in a favorable light. Unfortunately for those of us who are not in favor of these proposals, this is how much of the public will perceive these measures:

-Freeze school spending and lower my property taxes, yeay!!! College funding will be increased too and that was surely needed, right?

-At least we won’t drop people from Medicaid

-About time we cut out some of that red tape in the permit process! I know there’s a lot of it because I keep hearing people complain!

So how will the Dems respond? How will they counter these ideas without it being sold to the voters as this:

-We don’t care about your property taxes

-We want to give Medicaid patients an overly plush package of benefits

-We will defend wasteful government bureaucracy to the death!

This has always been the challenge of beating Jim Douglas, and recent meetings and conversations have reminded me that campaign organizers don’t always understand the public perception as well needed to win elections. A successful candidate doesn’t just need a better campaign manager, or better tactics, or to declare earlier, or to raise early money that is like yeast, they need to be able to stand toe-to-toe with Douglas’s rhetoric and smack it down, hard.

-School spending: YES Indeed! We ARE concerned about local property tax burdens, that’s why we are reforming health care / increasing federal funding of mandates / shifting the funding to a more equitable tax system!

-Medicaid funding : Every Vermonter should have access to health care, not just certain segments like Medicaid, and it should be decent coverage with a focus on preventative care and wellness.

-We want to make sure that the permitting process is as efficient as possible, AND that it meets the goals of protecting our environment and lifestyle that the majority of Vermonters share. Fortunately, it is and it does! Here are the facts, and isn’t it interesting that some are telling you otherwise?

Douglas has elevated his game in this inaugural address, in my opinion. He has struck a resonant chord of topical issues, and leveraged the general economic fear and concern masterfully. He’s taken the initiative and tried to put Dems in a reactive mode.

I thought Dick McCormack had the right idea, he was quoted in one of the articles as saying, “It has always been up to the Legislature whether or not the Legislature dominates or Douglas dominates. The legislative leadership has chosen in the past to work with the governor and, unfortunately, working with the governor has kind of boiled down to giving the governor his way.”

The Legislature, which is now effectively the Democrats, will need to regain the initiative on these issues and find a way to dominate, or at least drive, the political agenda. I hope there will be a speaker, candidate or some leader who is up to the task.

December 5, 2008: a post by John Odum: Don’t mess with Lamoille County:

Let’s see, Lamoille County has about 25,000 people or roughly 4% of Vermont’s population (as compared to Chittenden County which has a population of about 150,000, or 24% of Vermont’s population.

But that tiny Lamoille sliver of the population will soon include: The Speaker of the House (Shap Smith), the House Majority Leader (Floyd Nease) and the Senate Appropriations Chair (Susan Bartlett).

I guess that makes li’l Lamoille County the political big dog in the state, eh?

More than five weeks later, in today’s Burlington Free Press, Lamoille lawmakers rise to the top:

“It’s just happenstance,” said new House Speaker Shap Smith, a Democrat from Morristown. Still, in addition to having a Lamoille native running the 150-member House of Representatives, a Johnson resident – Rep. Floyd Nease – won the job of House majority leader. He’s in charge of the 95-member Democratic caucus.

Two other Lamoille residents have holds on the state’s purse strings. Sen. Susan Bartlett, a Democrat from Hyde Park returns as chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, which helps write the state budget. Rep. Richard Westman, a Republican from Cambridge, continues as chairman of the House Transportation Committee, which is charged with writing the plan for spending on roads, bridges, rail and airports.

If you're a regular reader of GMD you might have more than the usual interest in politics and what happens in the Legislature, but you might not know how to get information about what's happening in the Legislature, how to get in touch with your representatives, and how to influence the process. This diary is a brief overview of how to get information about the happenings in the State House.

The Legislative web page. The Legislature maintains a web page. This is the front door to most of the information I'm talking about here. It's organized logically, so even if you don't remember anything else, getting to their home page should enable you to find what you're looking for.

The Legislative directory.  All the legislators, Senators and Representatives, are listed in the legislative directory pages. You can find their home addresses and phone numbers, and there is a separate listing of e-mail addresses. Every legislator has a legislative e-mail address assigned to him/her, and many have their own individual e-mail addresses. Because they get so much mail, I've had at least one legislator tell me that she can't keep up with her legislative e-mail and that it's better to use her private (but still published) address. They get a lot of e-mail, and a lot of regular mail, and most of them read everything they get.They're also generally open to phone calls, especially on the weekend when they're home. There is also a link to the biographical directory of the Legislature, in which you can read a short bio of every member and see their pictures, which can help if you're looking for someone you don't know.

The Committees.  In both the House and Senate, this is where most of the real work gets done, so it's important to know what's happening in the committees. There are hundreds of bills introduced each session, but most of them never receive any real consideration; they just stay “on the wall”, which literally means that an index card with the name of the bill on it is posted on the wall of the committee room and never taken down. The committees post their schedule every week, including the bills they're taking up and the witnesses who are testifying.

You also want to know who is on what committee. House members each serve on one committee, Senators each serve on two, and the committees are smaller. If you're interested in a bill that's in committee you'll want to be in touch with the members of the committee, so you'll need to know the membership. Speaker Shap Smith surprised everyone by naming all the committees on the first day of the session, but by now the Senate committees are also established and the memberships are on line.

 The Bills. Every bill that is introduced is assigned a number, assigned to a committee, and posted on the web. Generally the full text of the bill is posted, but if you see a bill that is listed as being introduced in “short form”, that generally means that the bill has been introduced at the request of a constituent but has not been drafted by the staff at Legislative Council and is not expected to receive consideration. As the session goes on you can find the current status of bills, including what committee they're in, whether they've moved from one body to the other, and stuff like that.

One thing you can't find out is what's happening to a bill in committee. Once a bill is in committee the committee may spend hours, days, or weeks taking testimony, and it may go through several iterations. These changes are not posted on the web until the committee reports the bill out for floor consideration, in which case the proposed amendments will appear in the calendar of the House or Senate. If you want to know what is really happening with a bill in committee you need to talk to a committee member and get a copy of the latest version of the bill. You can also generally get a copy from the Legislative Council staff person assigned to the committee.

The current law.  TheLegislature's web page is one easy place to find what is in Vermont statutes right now. You can browse by title, and there is also a full-text search engine. I use this all the time because it's free, it's on my desktop, and it's easy to use. It's current, except for the delay between the end of a legislative sessionand the time that all the new bills get incorporated into the database.

The Lobbyists.  To many people “lobbyist” is a dirty word, but it shouldn't be. It simply refers to people who spend some or all of their work time trying to influence legislation. In Vermont, lobbyists are required to be registered, and the registration lists their names, employers, and the subject of their lobbying activities; the registration includes a picture, so you can find them in the building. 

There is more to know about doing legislative work than this, but this is a start to let you know how to find some basic information.