Over the weekend, VTDigger posted a lovely little profile piece about one of our best frenemies, El Jefe General John McClaughry. The author, Dirk Van Susteren (no relation to Greta, I trust?), presented El Jefe General as a good ol’ Vermonter who lives out in the country, plays pickup basketball, is known to pinch a penny, and even has a faithful canine companion* (named Lassie, how original). And who actually has a sense of humor! — conspicuously never on display during his paid commentaries on WDEV, most notable for their bellicosity and poor audio.

*Perhaps El Jefe General doesn’t realize that the dog is the socialist of the animal kingdom, happily accepting a dependent relationship with its master; whereas the noble feline, while accepting the blandishments of home and hearth for convenience’s sake, maintains an air of self-reliance. (And, judging by the millions of wild birds killed annually by house cats, that self-reliance remains in a state of actuality undiminished by the daily acceptance of Fancy Feast.)

McClaughry, as Van Susteren informs us, recounts his story with a blend of “humor, introspection, and yes, pedantry.” The latter, I certainly believe.

Feel free to read more about El Jefe on your own time. What struck me, beyond the skilled feature writer’s ability to reveal the humanity in anyone (next weekend: “Goin’ Fishin’ with Assad”) is that this is the latest in what’s becoming — or threatening to become — a trend in Vermont political journalism: the exceedingly friendly treatment of prominent conservatives.  

It started a few weeks ago when Paul Heintz painted a tender and largely uncritical portrait of Darcie “Hack” Johnston, the “skillful” political operator who hasn’t won a campaign outside of her former relationship with Jim Jeffords.

The reader has to wade through accolades like “intense, hardworking person” (from Randy Brock, whose gubernatorial campaign paid handsome sums to Johnston for little or no benefit) and “She knows the political game” (from ex-Jeffords staffer Bill Kurtz) and an account of her anti-health care reform activities before getting to the heart of the matter: that since Johnston began her all-out attack on Shummycare, public support has actually increased and opposition has declined.

Fast forward to last week, when the Freeploid’s Nancy Remsen valiantly attempted to perform CPR on the moribund political career of Wendy Wilton.

Remsen, for those unfamiliar, rendered uncritical (and unwarranted) acclaim to Wilton’s perspicacity as an evaluator of single-payer health care, in spite of Wilton’s (1) obvious partisanship, (2) previous, highly-touted and disastrously wrong estimates, (3) the measurable differences between her current estimate and that produced by the “independent” consultancy, Avalere, and (4) the obvious problems with Avalere’s work, which produced a highball figure based on a number of “coulds,” “possibles,” and other uncharitable assumptions.

And now, with the McClaughry piece, we have three stories shining the best possible light on prominent Vermont conservatives. Plus, lest we forget, the broad acceptance of VTGOP chair David Sunderland as a moderating figure despite his hard-right record.

This isn’t enough to declare a trend, but it’s almost certainly the beginning of one. After all, the prospect for 2014 looks like this: either the Democrats will win, or the Democrats will win big. That’s it. The best the VTGOP can hope for, realistically, is to take back a few marginal seats in the legislature. Whoever they nominate for statewide office, aside from Phil Scott, is pretty much doomed from the gitgo.

So too in the 2014 legislative session. The policy debates that matter will involve Democrats and maybe Progressives. The Republican super-minority will be irrelevant.

But political reporters can’t very well say so, because they’d lose their precious aura of objectivity. So they have to cover Don Turner’s press conferences and overstate the Republicans’ role in the political arena, point out the areas where they might, possibly, potentially, have an opportunity to gain some slim partisan edge. And they have to shine a little light on leading conservatives, rather than pointing out that they’ve pretty much driven the VTGOP into a ditch.

Coming soon to a media outlet near you: Rob Roper, youthful free-market tactician and humble Vermonter; Randy Brock, the potential Comeback Kid of 2014 (ha); Can Lenore Broughton Finally Buy an Election?; and Mark Snelling, favorite son of an honored political family.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Gack.