Last week, Randy Brock tried a desperation heave in his failing candidacy for Governor. On October 25, he requested a boatload of documents from the Shumlin Administration. He claimed that someone had told him there were problems with how the state had settled claims of misconduct by state employees, and he wanted immediate release of relevant documents so he could hunt for evidence.

The timing was so late that it seemed as though the Administration couldn’t possibly deliver — thus allowing Brock to raise questions about a cover-up without any actual evidence. Instead, reports VTDigger:

The state’s Department of Human Resources responded ahead of schedule to a public records request, today [Friday] releasing a raft of settlement documents for gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock that detail state employee settlements last year.

Oh snap. Shumlin defuses the “cover-up” complaint by releasing the documents “ahead of schedule,” and gives Brock the onerous task of wading through all that stuff in a mere couple of days. Even if he were to find something, there’s hardly enough time left to exploit it.

Brock, of course, reacted with all the grace and good will characteristic of Republicans in 2012.

“I’m pleased that they responded, yes. But I can’t speak to the quality of the response until I’ve had a chance to go through it.”

“I certainly hope that it’s complete.”

Nice.

And what’s more…

Brock also wouldn’t commit to spending the weekend reading the documents, saying he’d have to balance heavy campaigning with some reading on the road.

I’m sure he’s got a heavy schedule. But doesn’t he have staff? Aides? Extremely well-paid campaign consultant Darcie Johnston? Volunteers with a legal background who could wade through the documents and summarize them? Brock’s disinclination is more evidence that he never actually wanted the documents; he just wanted to be able to “raise questions” without a shred of proof.

I tell ya, we may have escaped the worst of Superstorm Sandy, but the Republican flop sweat is getting close to flood stage.