It’s been a year and a half since Smilin’ Jim Douglas last graced the corner office. But there are still plenty of, ahem, traces… leavings, if you prefer… effluvia, perhaps… of his time as alpha male of the Vermont political dog park. We’ve got a couple of good ones right here: a defeat in the Vermont Yankee case that can be blamed, in part, on Our Dear Ex-Leader; and a former Douglas henchman now tainting the landscape to our south.

First, Yankee. The state of Vermont suffered another courtroom defeat today, as a federal appeals court threw out a challenge to VY’s license renewal by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The state had challenged the validity of VY’s water permit; the NRC had argued that the state had failed to raise the water-permit issue in a timely manner.

But here’s the good part, the Douglas dookie:

The court found that after the NRC’s judicial arm, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB), ruled on Entergy’s application to renew the license in 2008, the state “sat silent for two and one-half years, raising their objection only after the Commission issued the license renewal in March 2011,” the NRC said.

Well, of course the state didn’t object earlier. For almost all of that time, it was being run by staunchly pro-VY Jim Douglas. Consider this his parting gift to Entergy — he ran out the clock on one of Vermont’s possible avenues for blocking VY’s license renewal.

After the jump: another stinkin’ lump of Douglas legacy.

Second, the recent foofaraw over the Edward M. Kennedy Institute’s offer to host a debate in the senatorial race between incumbent Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Elizabeth Warren. As you may recall, the Brown camp demanded that Vicki Kennedy, Ted’s widow and Board chair of the Institute, agree not to endorse any candidate in the race. Anytime. This entire year. Yep, give up her First Amendment rights. She refused; the debate, at least for now, is off.

The Brownies claimed that the debate’s fairness would be questionable if Kennedy later endorsed Warren. Funny thing: two years ago, when Brown was facing Martha Coakley, the Kennedy Institutre hosted a debate. Brown had no objection.

So what changed between 2010 and now? Well, for one thing, Brown is in a tight race with a skilled debater, and his campaign seems intent on limiting the number and visibility of debates as much as possible.

For another, Brown’s campaign manager this year is one Jim Barnett, the young Republican Karl Rove wannabe and former Jim Douglas hatchet man. A thorough review of Barnett’s wrecking-ball career can be found at Huffington Post; we’ll just mention that he is credited for bringing a no-holds-barred, unrelentingly partisan (and often bitterly personal) style to the once genteel world of Vermont politics.  

When you look back at Barnett’s history working for Jim Douglas, it’s obvious that the Kennedy Institute melodrama — and the patently unreasonable demand on Vicki Kennedy — bear the distinctive fingerprints of Jim Barnett. The guy who did Jim Douglas’ dirty work, while the Governor floated serenely above the fray, ensconced in a cocoon of plausible deniability.  

Thanks, Governor.