When it comes to VTGOP chair Angry Jack Lindley, I’ve never applied my customary diagnosis when it comes to exaggerated political outrage — Bunched Knicker Syndrome, or BKS for short — because with Angry Jack, it’s not an occasional unexpected eruption; it’s a chronic condition. Like, say, male pattern baldness.

But although he isn’t a classic case of BKS, his frequent outbursts are still worth recording for posterity. And we had a doozy last week.

Now, usually I don’t bother much with True North Reports, the eyeball-hurting conservative “news and opinion” website that’s almost entirely opinion and very little news. But as I was researching yesterday’s piece on Lenore “Miss Daisy” Broughton, I clicked on over to True North.  And there, I found a piece by one Kevin Joseph Ryan about Secretary of State Jim Condos’ efforts to meet the federal deadline for getting absentee ballots to overseas military personnel. Vermont did pretty well; 94.5% of the ballots arrived on time. (Which Mr. Ryan rounded down to 94% in his headline.) By now, 100% have been delivered.

Which wasn’t good enough for Angry Jack, no sirree.

“Condos does not want people to vote or candidates to run. He’s made that very clear,” Lindley told TNR. “And, he doesn’t want to follow the law.”

Or, in other words, grump grump harrumph growl gnash ROAR.  

Okay, there’s a bit of cognitive dissonance at work here. Do you remember why there was a rush to get the ballots out on time? It was triggered by the uncertainty over the Progressive Party’s gubernatorial primary, which resulted in a recount request by write-in candidate Annette Smith.

By Vermont law, officials have to wait five days between the filing of a recount request and the onset of the recount. This waiting period can be waived if all parties agree.

The Dems and the Progs were agreeable. Smith was agreeable. But Angry Jack, in a fit of pique, refused to waive — showing no concern whatsoever for the voting rights of our military personnel.

Let’s look at the timeline. The Canvassers Committee approved the (revised) result on Thursday 9/6.  If the waiting period had been waived, the recount would have begun on Friday 9/7 and been completed no later than Monday 9/10. It would have been certified on Tuesday or Wednesday 9/11 or 9/12.

Thanks to Angry Jack’s shitfit, the recount didn’t commence until Thursday 9/13. It was completed the following day, but the presiding judge was out of town. He didn’t certify the result until Tuesday 9/18.

The federal deadline was 9/21, so Condos had only three days to get the final ballots to all of Vermont’s town clerks. His staff almost pulled it off, but not quite.

Other factors were involved, to be sure. But it’s indisputably true that if Angry Jack had agreed to waive the waiting period, the ballots would have gone out on schedule, and 100% of our military personnel would have received them on time. Instead of “only” 94.5%.

A word of advice to Angry Jack: think before you speak. Alternatively, STFU. You’re embarrassing yourself.