The neckties must be constricting at VTGOP Central. There’s an increasing component of flail to Republicans’ campaign tactics. Can’t really blame them; they’re facing a truly epic defeat in November which will deliver the last nail in the coffin of the Douglas Era, and there is no clear path to regaining electoral relevance in the future.

Exhibit A: The Wendy Wilton campaign’s opposition research must have come up completely empty, considering that they”ve resorted to attacking Beth Pearce for — parents, please send your kids out of the room, or cover their eyes at least — RENTING A HOUSE instead of buying. The horror, the horror!

The implications of this dastardly “lifestyle choice” are twofold, sez the Wilton campaign. First, Pearce isn’t truly committed to Vermont. She might up and move! The flatlander blood obviously still courses through her veins. We cannot possibly elect an ALIEN to one of our most crucial offices!

And second, she’s not really committed to our system because she isn’t directly paying property taxes. Yeah yeah, property taxes are part of what every renter pays once a month. But she doesn’t actually write a check to her municipality. Which obviously means she is incapable of truly participating in Vermont’s governance.

What transparent, complete, absolute, classist bullshit. This is very close to Mitt Romney secret videotape territory. Do the Republicans really mean to insinuate that only property owners should take part in our political system? Should we return to the early days of our Republic, when only white male property owners were allowed to vote? Them’s was good times.

After the jump: What’s in that box? And, Mt. Lindley continues to smolder.

Exhibit B: Randy Brock’s unveiling of his laundry-list economic recovery “plan.” As with his health care “plan,” this one isn’t a “plan” at all. A plan requires some overall coherence, a clear path to a clear goal. This is another “throw everything free-market at the wall and hope something sticks” maneuver.

And, as Paul Heintz reported in his devastating takedown of the Brock announcement, the Republican had a lot of trouble when asked to go beyond sound-bite level on the implications of his “plan.” Which is very strange, if not downright disturbing, for a candidate who is presented to us as a solid, sober guy with lots of business and financial savvy.

Heintz’ entire column is well worth your time, but the highlight is Brock’s befuddled effort to explain the most original idea in his “plan”: the Business in a Box. A small sample of Epic Flail:

“What should be in these boxes? They could be like franchises. They could be businesses that need to be done in a particular area because they’re not being done,” he said. “They may be new ideas. They could be anything. It depends on our imagination and our ability to package them.”

It got worse from there. Kudos to Heintz for reporting the grubby details of Brock’s announcement. Unlike, say, the Freeploid and VTDigger, which omitted all the embarrassing “I don’t really know what I’m talking about” stuff. Which was a failure of journalism and a disservice to the public. I mean, if a politician can’t articulate his own ideas, shouldn’t we maybe know that?

Exhibit C: Jack Lindley’s obsessive pursuit of the Bill Sorrell collusion complaint. Angry Jack doesn’t want to go through the established procedure of asking a State’s Attorney to investigate. Oh no, he wants, nay demands. a special prosecutor. His argument is that state’s attorneys don’t have the resources to do the kind of thorough, painstaking, “fruit at the bottom of the bowl” investigation that Lindley’s accusations obviously warrant. I do hope Angry Jack is getting his blood pressure checked regularly, for his own sake.

There’s a whole lotta flop-sweat cascading from Republican brows these days. And it’s only going to get worse; they still have five more weeks of staring into the abyss of imminent defeat, and it’s well known that gazing into darkness causes you to lose all perspective and become completely intolerant to light.