Here’s a nice little Christmas-in-July surprise: the dispute over Gov. Shumlin’s purchase of his neighbor’s property is headed to a quiet resolution.
When Jeremy Dodge’s family hired Brady Toensing to represent them, I wouldn’t have predicted a deal would come so quickly, and so completely out of public view. Toensing is the junior partner in a conservative D.C. law firm known for taking on political hot-button causes; his mother, Victoria Toensing, is a frequent conspiracy-slinger on Fox News. Given Toensing’s background, I thought sure he’d try to inflict maximum political damage on Shumlin.
Instead, we have an agreement in principle which would allow Dodge to retain ownership of his family homestead. He’d be given five years to pay back the money Shumlin had put into the deal — an estimated $30,000 — at a low but unspecified interest rate. (“The lowest allowed by the IRS,” according to Shumlin’s attorney M. Jerome Diamond.)
Assuming the deal goes through, it’s a nice moment for all parties.
Toensing will have acted in his client’s best interest instead of his own political interest; Shumlin will have realized that the Dodge deal was not worth the political embarrassment and offered good terms to undo the sale; and Dodge has a chance at a fresh start. According to Seven Days’ Paul Heintz, Dodge’s children are taking an active part in helping him pay off the debt and restore his home.
Some details remain to be worked out, but it sounds like a reasonable resolution for all concerned. And one blissfully — and unexpectedly — free of politics.
but not free of your snark. “Miracle on Foster Road” indeed…
The good news, is the family has stepped up to help Mr. Dodge out as he needs a hand. Perhaps if they had acted before, the situation would have never gotten this far , but who I am to judge the Dodge family’s actions.
Perhaps I’ve grown cynical in my late-middle-age, but given the Toensings’ proclivities and leanings, whatever energy Brady T., esq., put into making this deal, it’s not out of the goodness of his heart. It’s an investment in a storehouse of dirt to be slung later, particularly if the Gov. has “ambitions.” Could even be used in a thick file of oppo research to “discourage” the active pursuit of such ambitions.
NanuqFC
Self-declared leaders must be rejected at once when in private they lack the integrity to act in accordance with the principles they claim in public to support and adhere to. ~ Corollary to Woodrow Wilson’s statement on leadership
What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can exist under the cover of all other vices except this one. ~ Hannah Arendt (1906-1975)