WCAX-TV, for managing to maintain ideological purity in the face of logic, common sense, and the need to fill a half-hour of airtime. I’m referring to this week’s edition of “You Can Quote Me,” Channel 3’s Sunday morning interview program, which featured three WCAX meteorologists being interviewed by reporter Gina Bullard about Superstorm Sandy. And you’ll never guess which subject never came up.

Yep. Climate change. Or global warming, whichever. Those dastardly phrases never once passed the lips of anyone on the panel. Another example of why the late lamented Peter Freyne dubbed Channel 3 “WGOP” for its fealty to conservatism.

There was time to shamelessly plug WCAX’s new mobile weather app, and there was time for the weather guys to talk about how social media has changed their jobs (“people don’t have to wait for the 6:00 news anymore”), but not a peep about how Sandy and other weather events might be related to climate change.

Bullard came close a couple of times; she brought up the number of severe weather events in our recent past, but diverted the question into a safe channel. And near the end of the show, she asked the panel if Sandy was a taste of what’s to come. The answer was confined solely to the outlook for this coming winter.

I realize that there isn’t a direct provable link between climate change and any single storm, but to spend a half hour on Sandy and not even broach the subject? You may have outdone yourselves, WGOP.  

Wendy Wilton, for abandoning a sinking ship. Seems the Republican candidate for Treasurer — the VTGOP’s best hope to elect a real conservative to statewide office — won’t be attending the party’s election-night gathering in Montpelier. Instead, she’ll watch the returns in her home city of Rutland.

You’d think WIlton would have shown a bit more loyalty to the party that elevated her to its statewide ticket. But maybe she simply knows where her support really comes from: Lenore Broughton and her tame Super PAC, Vermonter(s) First. I mean, the VTGOP may have given her the nomination, but because they have such limited resources, they haven’t been able to give her much in the way of tangible backing. As the Vermont Press Bureau’s Peter Hirschfeld reported, the VTGOP’s field operations and GOTV effort are much weaker and less well organized than the Democrats’. That may well cost her the election. And if she does win, the credit will belong to Lenore Broughton and Vermonter First, not the Republican Party. So why drive up to Montpelier just to spend the evening with a bunch of ill-tempered and increasingly inebriated middle-aged men watching their party slide into the abyss?

After the jump: yogurt FTW, a Young Republican A$$hole outdoes himself, and a rare double for Wendy Wilton.

Commonwealth Dairy of  Brattleboro, for being Vermont’s latest entrepreneurial success story. Last week, the company announced a $12 million expansion of the plant where it makes Greek-style yogurt. It’s still early days, and the big boys are rushing to market with their own Greek-style offerings, but Commonwealth is growing fast, providing good jobs and a big new market for Vermont dairy farms. (Commonwealth sells under its own label, Green Mountain Creamery, and also produces yogurt for other clients.)

And all this in a state that, if you believe the Republicans, is so punitive of success that the entrepreneurial spirit is in danger of extinction. Company executives credited Vermont’s Congressional delegation for helping them obtain federal tax credits for developing businesses, and also praised the “terrific workforce” in Brattleboro. I guess there’s more to encouraging entrepreneurialism than low taxes and lax regulation, and I guess the Bratt is more than just a haven for hippie burnouts.

Corry Bliss, young Republican operative/Karl Rove wannabe, for taking his current campaign to new lows of deception. That would be the Senatorial bid of Republican Linda McMahon in Connecticut. Bliss was last seen in these parts piloting the Brian Dubie campaign to defeat; he was last heard from in these parts issuing a court-ordered apology to settle a libel lawsuit arising from the Dubie campaign. And regarding the quality of that effort, here’s a remarkable piece of testimony:

“Corry Bliss took a candidate that was up 20 points and turned him into a loser by election day,” said Bradford Broyles, a Republican activist from Mendon, a town in the central part of the state, near Killington. “We’re still repairing the damage to the Republican party.”

That would be the same Bradford Broyles who is flacking for Vermont’s most mendacious candidate (2012 edition), Wendy Wilton. Talk about the pot and the kettle.

Anyway, Bliss has confirmed his reputation as a grade-Z Republican operative in the Rovian tradition with this shamelessly misleading door-hanger:

Which tells you all you need to know about Corry Bliss’ ethics. Not to mention Mitt Romney’s popularity in the Nutmeg State.

The guy who repairs my wood stove, for getting off the ad-lib of the week. While he was at my house last week, I happened upon the wire story about someone reporting a naked man on I-91 in southeast Vermont. When the Vermont State Police responded, they found a mannequin alongside the highway.

To which my stove guy, without the slightest pause, said “Did they taser it first?”

Also, a thumbs-up to the VSP for thoroughness:

State police say if anyone is missing a mannequin to contact the Brattleboro barracks.

Freeploid political reporter Terri Hallenbeck, for resorting to filler material in the heat of Campaign 2012. On Friday, Hallenbeck posted a lengthy entry on the Freeploid’s political blog vt.Buzz that was a listing of issues at stake on Election Day — in other states.

Cribbed from the New York Times.

Hallenbeck made a weak-tea case for the post’s relevance in its headline: “Marijuana, marriage and other hot Vt. issues other state (sic) are voting on.” She then reported that the Times had a “condensed rundown” of what’s at stake elsewhere, and then noted that the Times had nothing much to say about Vermont because it’s a “steadily blue state” with “no ballot measures” this year. The rest of Hallenbeck’s post was a bullet-point rundown of what other states will be voting on.

Hard to believe a political reporter couldn’t find anything else to occupy her time just a few days before the election.

was destined to go to Governor Peter Shumlin for his buddy act with Republican Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott. But a late recount swung the final tally in favor of Republican candidate for Treasurer Wendy Wilton, for running a fundamentally dishonest campaign.

Lots of politicians lie. (cough)Mitt Romney(cough) But it’s rare for a big lie to provide the entire basis for a campaign, as in the case of Wendy Wilton. Go back 18 months or so; she was a one-term State Senator who lost her bid for re-election, and then served as Rutland city treasurer. Nice, but not usually a launching pad for a statewide political career.

Then she ginned up a slanted “study” of Governor Shumlin’s health care reform plan that labeled it a fiscal disaster. And that turned her into the closest thing to a “rising star” in the dim constellation of the VTGOP. She traveled the state giving talks and media interviews, and her “study” became the basis for Republican attacks on the issue.

And she became a viable candidate for statewide office. Not because of her performance as Rutland’s treasurer (which is something else she has freely and consistently lied about), but because she presented a plausibly “expert” analysis that could be used as a cudgel against Shumlin’s plan.

Then she became the nominee for state Treasurer. And ever since, she has denied the plain truth of her entire political record and depicted herself as an objective technocrat.

There are politicians who lie. But Wendy Wilton is a politician who IS a lie. Big difference, and worthy of a Poke in the Eye.