When Jim Douglas was running for Senate a long, long time ago, it was congressional pay raises (and the accusation that Senator Leahy was “squealing like a stuck pig.”) Against Racine, it was a baseless attempt to tag him as a “flip flopper.” Scudder Parker was, nonsensically, “Mr. Property Tax.” Clavelle was red-baited as a sandinista. Symington was dinged on her financial releases.

The way Jim Douglas and his election machine played the game was to avoid the issue by finding a way to fan a triviality into a character attack. In other words, politics by smear. It’s dishonorable stuff, and Douglas seemed to relish it. On the other hand, it suggests he understood just how weak he was on the issues.

In any case, the question has been whether heir apparent Brian Dubie would resort to the same playbook, and it seems the answer is “yes.” In his case, though, he seems content to let the machine’s usual suspects do the dirty work for him, softening up the target they’ve apparently decided they are most likely to face in the General Election: Secretary of State Deb Markowitz. They’ve done so in a coordinated attack over the past few days, and will continue in an upcoming report on nursing licensing fees due to hit the papers soon. Details after the flip.

The first salvo was launched by GOP Secretary of State candidate and former Douglas mouthpiece Jason Gibbs. Gibbs launched a scathing, over-the-top attack on Markowitz in a campaign press release – a release that didn’t even mention either his primary opponent, Chris Roy, or potential Democratic nominees Charles Merriman or Jim Condos:

Last week, the Secretary of State struggled through three consecutive challenges:

Few Vermonters had been adequately notified of the new August 24th Primary Election.  (See also:  Rutland Herald, Capital Beat Column, July 11, 2010)

Ballot errors prevented early and absentee voting to begin on time in some communities. (See also: Burlington Free Press, Vt Buzz, “Early voting? Not so fast”, July 12, 2010)

The insecurity of the statewide voter checklist was illustrated when it crashed and left Town Clerks and others unable to access important public information (See also: WCAX, “Vermont Voter Checklist Trouble, July 14th, 2010).

Everyone makes mistakes.  But, with the right leadership, these issues could have been handled with the level of accountability Vermonters expect and deserve from their officials–and they could have been avoided all together.  Nevertheless, in each case, the incumbent’s focus was on deflecting responsibility for the problem instead of solving it.

[…] Town Clerks tell me that sending mixed messages–or providing no clear leadership at all–is all too common.  

(Read the full release here). Now its certainly common practice for a candidate running for an open position being vacated by a member of the opposing party to attack the incumbent for the purposes of then tying an opponent to that negative characterization, but again – this release draws no such connections. As VPR’s John Dillon reported this morning:

(Dillon) But Gibbs insisted he is not criticizing Markowitz personally but is trying to show how he would run the office differently. And he said he has not coordinated his strategy with Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie, the GOP gubernatorial candidate.

[…](Dillon) The blast from Gibbs was not the only criticism from Republicans over the early voting glitches. Gibbs’ former boss – Governor Jim Douglas – had this to say last week.

(Douglas) “It’s disappointing. Folks showed up Monday morning in some communities and the ballots weren’t there. I don’t understand why there wasn’t an announcement of some kind maybe at the end of last week saying they’d be delayed in some places.”

(Dillon) Douglas was asked whose fault was it? Markowitz’s, or the Legislature, which moved up the date of the primary.

(Douglas) “Well, the Democrats.” (laughter)

It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Gibbs is attempting to soften up Markowitz on Dubie’s behalf.

Note that Jim Douglas as well has made comments to the press, following up on his Lieutenant’s themes – all of which is to lead up to a rare Dubie appearance on Vermont Edition. Understandably, Republicans are concerned about Dubie’s performance when left unscripted. With the timing of this attack, Douglas and Gibbs (working with Dubie) are theoretically able to steer the line of questioning toward the perception of impropriety in Secretary Markowitz’s office, leaving Dubie to face friendly, softball questions and an opportunity to wax superior to his potential opponent.

And this is only part 1 of what seems to be a more sophisticated and sustained attack than we’ve generally seen from the Douglas-Dubie machine. Part 2? That comes soon, with the release of a story being worked on by the Vermont Press Bureau, which brings Auditor Tom Salmon into the equation.

Back in the Spring, the Board that supervises the professional regulation of Vermont nurses (a 10-member board made up of 10 Douglas appointees) requested Salmon undertake an audit of the professional licensure system they are tasked with supervising – a system administered by the Secretary of State’s office. Salmon’s office returned a positive audit, concluding that the Board’s funds were secure and properly accounted for. Salmon did, curiously, make some suggestions above and beyond what was asked for, but they didn’t seem to amount to anything noteworthy (the audit can be seen here).

According to sources, what’s now being shopped to the media is that one of those tertiary recommendations was that the Secretary of State ask for an opinion from the Attorney General’s office as to whether or not the office was using too much of that money for its internal administrative purposes. On its face, that would seem to be a strangely absurd recommendation, as that is largely the point of the fees in the first place – although they also are used for some other, legislatively defined pools.

But more significant is the fact that no such recommendation seems to appear in the linked audit above.

The Secretary of State’s office – which reportedly did respond positively to some of the extraneous recommendations from the Auditor’s office – did not seek any such opinion from the AG, which – again – there is no evidence from the audit that it was even encouraged to.

And now, months later, this is being pushed by Republicans behind the scenes, channeled through their contacts in the professional media, and morphed into some sort of scandal. Exactly how remains rather mysterious, and presumably more details of the attack will emerge when the report hits the stands (if it even sees print). Presumably, the GOP machine wants to raise doubts about Markowitz’s capacity for responsibly managing public funds, but again, based on what’s available publicly, it’s hard to imagine how that argument is being made in this instance.

Even though it won’t work (because there’s nothing there), all of this makes one thing abundantly clear: the Douglas smear machine is now the Dubie smear machine, and it is in overdrive this year. Gibbs, Salmon, Douglas and others are all prioritizing the promotion of Brian Dubie into the state’s top spot.

And all of this avoids any real engagement on the issues, of course. Why? Perhaps because, somewhere in there, they know they’re at a disadvantage on those terms.

So scandals will be manufactured and aspersions will be cast until one seems to stick, and in the process, protect Dubie from having to answer questions he can’t handle, or at the very least bump his lack of executive competence from the headlines.

No doubt this is only the tip of the ugliness iceberg. Brace yourselves.

(NOTE: The GMD byline represents collaborative work by multiple – but not necessarily all – site contributors)