Well, actually, not true. But now that I have your attention, can we talk about this little thing that Democratic Governor Peter Shumlin seems to have going with Republican Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott? It was a nice bipartisan touch in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene last year, but isn’t it just a little bit Montague/Capulet this close to an election? Or, as Juliet puts it:

My only love spring from my only hate!

Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

Prodigious birth of love it is to me,

That I must love a loathed enemy.

Just in the last couple of weeks, we’ve had Shumlin saying that “Phil is rarely wrong,” and offhandedly saying “Phil Scott built a road” when discussing the dramatic rise in the value of his East Montpelier hideaway.

Then we had the announcement that Shumlin and Scott would jointly tour areas of Vermont devastated by Hurricane Sandy — a tour which was canceled due to lack of photogenic devastation.

Instead, we had a post-Sandy news conference in which Scott was wedged securely at Shumlin’s left hand, as depicted in this photo from Seven Days. (BTW, why are the ASL interpreters always female? And seemingly always the only female at the podium?)

And lastly, a nice bit of log-rolling from Scott, who was openly critical of fellow Republican Randy Brock’s latest TV ad, a 30-second anti-Shumlin hit piece straight outta the Karl Rove playbook.

It’s pretty obvious that Shumlin is spending a lot more time with Scott (and vice versa) than he is with any of his fellow ticketmates. That’s kind of understandable for Scott; who’d want to hang out with that bunch of losers? But Shummy’s chumminyess has got to be at least a bit galling to Cassandra Gekas, who, as you may recall, is kinda-sorta the Democratic challenger to the Republican Scott.

After the jump: A lesson from New Hampshire.

That would be the same Gekas who, assuming she loses to Scott, will take a job that will position her perfectly to be a thorn in Shumlin’s side: spokesperson for the state employees’ union. Hell hath no fury…

Anyway, this whole Shummy/Phil act is awfully heartwarming and helps burnish Shumlin’s bipartisan cred. But there’s a story that took place next door in New Hampshire that can serve as a warning about where this fraternization can lead.

Back in 2003, New Hampshire’s Republican Governor Craig Benson (a “run government like a business” type so incompetent that he was booted after one term in office) hired an ambitious young lawyer as his legal counsel. The lawyer’s name: Kelly Ayotte. The following year, Benson appointed her as the state’s Attorney General. (In New Hampshire, the AG is an appointed position with a five-year term.)

In the 2004 election, Benson was defeated by Democrat John Lynch, who is stepping down this year after four terms in office. Like Shumlin, Lynch has tried to govern from the center and work with Republicans whenever possible.

In 2009, in one of his bipartisan moves, Lynch renominated Ayotte for another five-year term as AG.

The following year, Ayotte quit and ran for U.S. Senate. She won the Republican primary and took office in the conservative landslide of 2010. This is the same Kelly Ayotte whose campaign appearance in Woodstock, Vermont this summer was slammed by the Vermont Democrats because she’s such an extremist.

Now, I can’t prove that we have John Lynch to blame for six years of Kelly Ayotte in the U.S. Senate. But she clearly would have had a much harder time winning if she hadn’t been reappointed by Lynch, collecting more than a bit of bipartisan credibility in the process.

I fear the “Shummy ‘n Scott” act may have the same result. Shumlin certainly seems to be doing his best to pave the way for Scott to succeed him as Governor.

And if or when that happens, we’ll find out whether Phil Scott is a real moderate or a fake one like Kelly Ayotte.