The Fox News Attack Machine has reached its hairy tentacles into the Green Mountain State, and picked up on a bit of undone housekeeping from President Obama’s visit last Friday.

A Vermont police chief said President Obama’s re-election campaign has failed to reimburse local taxpayers after his officers had to work overtime to provide security at two fundraising events.

Trevor Whipple, the police chief in South Burlington, told Fox News that his department incurred $4,200 in overtime expenses as a result of separate fundraising events featuring President Obama and the First Lady.

“At the end of the day, I’ve submitted an invoice and they haven’t paid,” Whipple told Fox News.

Quick work. And big expectations. The event happened one week ago; you totted up a bill and sent it to the campaign, maybe Monday or Tuesday? Allow a couple days for mail delivery, it’s Wednesday or Thursday. And here it is Friday, and you’re complaining that they haven’t paid.  

On the other hand, Burlington’s police chief is complaining about a much older unpaid bill, so maybe Chief Whipple is just trying to transition from invoice to complaint as quickly as possible.  

Burlington police chief Andi Higbee is exercised over an unpaid $2,100 tab for police overtime during Michelle Obama’s visit to the Queen City in June 2011. (The Fox reporter screws up that detail, but never mind.)

“Here we are in April and we still have this outstanding debt of approximately $2,100,” Burlington police chief Andi Higbee told television station WCAX.

The chiefs’ contention is that the Obama visits were not Presidential, but campaign-related. And therefore, the campaign should pay up.

They may have a point. But this line has gotten extremely blurry over the years, and the Bush/Cheney Administration was one of the worst offenders. Their appearances were almost always before carefully-vetted audiences, and virtually never in a truly public setting.

In any case, a strong argument can be made that a Presidential visit is, in itself, a good thing for a community. Or, in other words:

“The president is the president wherever he goes and whatever he does,” Vermont Democratic Party Chairman Jake Perkinson told Fox News.

In my opinion, the two police chiefs come across as sourpusses. And they’ve willingly provided one more talking point for the Fox News Attack Machine.