The writing is on the wall. All the usual suspects in Franklin County are lining-up to leave the Democratic ticket, whoever it may comprise, high and dry. Richard Cowperthwait’s editorial in tonight’s Messenger is a valentine to Jim Douglas, listing all of his supporters among the community of political self-servers that I am ashamed to say make us the Bluest Dog county in the state! Of course, Frank Cioffi is abundantly quoted, as is the very slippery Mr. Fitzgerald. Not surprisingly, after his puzzling quote in the Free Press last fall that suggested Sarah Palin was qualified to be president, Mayor Marty Manahan called to thank Douglas for “everything (he’s) done for our state,” and the governor returned the compliment by naming him important to the state as a “moderate and centerist.” You get the picture.
Turning to the question of who is likely to take Douglas’ place at the top of the Republican ticket, Cowperthwait found plenty of local enthusiasm among Cioffi, Manahan and others for Randy Brock. His views may be odious to the majority of Vermont Democrats; but right here in Blue Dog Central, he apparently is a bit of okay! The power base of good ol’ boys here loves to close ranks around candidates who are least likely to lift the dust-ruffles and look for the cobwebs of cronyism that cloak every function from permits to public services. Douglas was just their kind of guy, and they couldn’t find a better successor than Brock.
…but it bears repeating.
I have had two events in my life that involved interaction with Randy Brock, that are actually interconnected for reasons that will become evident.
The first event involved my attempt to get an audit of a state entity (I’m not going into details here about the specific agency or the audit because it involves a battle I lost a long time ago and I don’t really need the headache). The audit was basically dismissed at the time by the office; this was in September 2004, while Brock was still auditor. It took weeks to even get a response from the office which basically blew me off.
I think there was a point, however, when he figured out who I was, because shortly after his office had blown me off, all the publicity about me and Martha Rainville’s plagiarism came out, and when I contacted them one last time, suddenly I was getting direct contact from Brock himself, apologizing for the delay and promising to get on it as quickly as possible. I think what went through his head was “Oh crap. It’s that crazy woman with the blog who took down Martha. I’d better not screw this up.” This, of course, is just theory on my part, but I think it’s a pretty good theory.
The other event involved me appearing on Steve West’s radio show in Brattleboro a few weeks later. That was the time I actually met Brock, who showed up to do an interview on the wrong day (in fact, the same day I was scheduled to be there). He seemed to want them to bump the interview with me for Brock, and was told they’d be glad to reschedule you for another time. I was being interviewed about the whole Martha Rainville plagiarism thing I’d sorted out a few weeks earlier. Once realized who I was and made a point of being really nice to me, coming over, shaking my hand, promising to get me the audit info a.s.a.p.
My conclusion after that brief meeting is simply that I have never met anyone in my life whose entire presentation did a better job of screaming “middle/upper management at a used car dealership” than Randy Brock. And this includes people I know who work as middle management at used car dealerships
I have no idea why I posted this except that it was about Brock and I thought it was funny.
and very consistent with my one attempt to speak to Brock at the State House last spring regarding that bill he was flogging that would make it still more difficult for ordinary people to engage in the Act 250 process. I had read the bill the night before and came prepared with questions and comments but was told that he wasn’t all that familiar with the particulars(my words, not his.) I came away with the impression that he himself may not have read his own bill!
This brock guy should be good for the vermont gop then. Put him up for governor.