There was an interesting series of edits and counter-edits on Governor Shumlin’s Wikipedia page in late June. The vast majority of the page is straightforward; the editorial battle concerned the infamous Jeremy Dodge land deal. Here’s what the WikiPage says about it — as of right now, early afternoon, July 2:

In 2013 the Governor was widely castigated for a real estate transaction in which he took unfair advantage of a poor, retarded neighbor. The neighbor was the owner of a house on 16 acres of land adjacent to the Governor’s property. The neighbor’s property was assessed at $233,000. The neighbor owed $18,000 in back taxes and was told that he would lose the property in a tax sale. The Governor reportedly bought the property from the neighbor for $58,000. The neighbor is trying to void the transaction.

I pause briefly to note the inartful, offensive use of “retarded.” Not to mention inaccurate; Jeremy Dodge is a troubled soul, but “retarded”? Don’t think so.

This passage (or some version thereof) triggered a flurry of activity on Shumlin’s WikiPage. Its author, identified as “Genedolan,” originally posted the passage on June 20. It was the first time “Genedolan” had ever edited a Wikipedia page. (If anyone knows who that is, feel free to say so in the Comments.) That post also included a second paragraph that ended with:

The transaction was legal but was clearly unethical bullying by the most powerful individual in the state.

Three days later, that part of Genedolan’s post was removed by a user at IP address 76.200.213.197, located in Wallingford, Connecticut. Ol’ number 76 had never before edited a Wikipedia entry, as far as I can tell.  

25 minutes after that, Genedolan struck back, adding a less pejorative close:

Shumlin offered him $58,000 and the neighbor took the offer. Later he regretted the decision, especially because he made the transaction without benefit of a lawyer.

The following day (June 24), a user named “Moe Epsilon” deleted those last two sentences. “Moe” is a frequent Wikipedia editor whose real name is David Stevenson. He apparently removed the passage using a Wikipedia software tool for detecting “vandalism.”

Since then, Genedolan’s little gem has gone unchanged. Which surprises me a little; I’d think someone on the Shumlin team would be periodically monitoring his WikiPage and removing politically harmful material.

More surprising to me: all these back-and-forth edits, and somehow “retarded” survived them all. Strange.

Vermont’s homegrown Wall Street grillionaire, Bruce Lisman, continues to spend a modest portion of his wealth on his vanity proj– er, public advocacy group, Campaign for Vermont. Last week, he held three more of his Famous Forums. Sadly, I was out of town and couldn’t attend, but I’ve heard that at least one of them was completely unimpressive. Tiny turnout, not much real discussion.

Oh well. Bruce, undeterred, marches on. CFV is now proclaiming itself, without offering any evidence, to be “the fastest growing grassroots organization in the state.” And now he’s got himself a cadre of young adults to help spread the CFV gospel:

The independent, non-partisan coalition Campaign for Vermont today announced the formation of a new Grassroots Advocacy Team.

Throughout the summer, the seven-member team, with Partners of Campaign for Vermont, will be participating in community events such as parades, festivals, fairs and field days…

In other words, paid cheerleaders.

First chance to meet the CFV Clones: Fourth of July parades this week in Montpelier, Warren, and Brandon, where they’ll have “t-shirts, signs, banners, and balloons,” according to the CFV Facebook page. Because yeah, nothing says “festive” like a bland, “conservative in centrist’s clothing” advocacy group.

Well, the kiddies sound pretty amped about Lismania. To judge by CFV’s latest radio ad, I’d say they’ve been slammin’ the Red Bull something fierce. (Seriously, take 30 seconds and give it a listen. Awful production values and a frightening onslaught of good cheer.)

So, who are these excitable youth?  

Dunno. As far as I can tell, their names are not revealed anywhere. At least not yet; CFV does promise a series of “video vignettes” introducing the team. If the radio ad is anything to judge by, the videos will probably make Up With People look like a goth-emo outfit. Here’s how the Clones are described in the CFV press release:

The Grassroots Advocacy Team is made up of young Vermonters with a range of experience and expertise. Some have worked for Democrat politicians; others have worked for Republicans and independents, including Senator Bernie Sanders. Others have experience in other disciplines, such as design and marketing.

Please note the Republican-style pejorative use of “Democrat” as an adjective. Not the best way to demonstrate your nonpartisanship, Bruce.

I do look forward to learning the identity of the Clone or Clones who used to work for Bernie Sanders. Otherwise, folks, please keep your damn balloons and T-shirts to yourself.  

Sounds like I missed a fun little evening last Friday, when Vermont Republicans gathered at the Rutland Holiday Inn for their spring fundraiser. A “party of nearly 50,” according to VTDigger’s Andrew Stein.

Wow. “Nearly 50”?

Maybe they can hold next year’s event in a phone booth.

Anyway, the assembled non-multitude was treated to a speech by Senator McDreamy himself, ex-Cosmo centerfold Scott Brown, formerly of Massachusetts and currently flirting with a run in the more GOP-friendly provinces of New Hampshire.

Brown’s message? The VTGOP must be unified in order to win. Yep, yep, sure thing. But the big news was the talk of possible 2014 gubernatorial candidates. Brown, sharing the spotlight with Vermont’s own plausibly moderate McDreamy — Lt. Gov Phil Scott — openly talked of a Scott candidacy. Which led Stein to raise the question with Speed Racer himself:

Is Scott interested in running for governor?

“No, not at this point in time,” he said.

Good thing, since there’s no election “at this point in time”.

But if not Scott, then who? Exactly how desperate are Vermont Republicans for a soupcon of electoral credibility?

Sen. Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, lobbied his peers to persuade [Jim] Douglas to run for election in 2014.

“He oozes honesty and integrity,” Mullin said of Douglas, as he leisurely sipped on a gin and tonic.

Well, he oozes something, that’s for sure. But in my dictionary, honesty and integrity are not things customarily oozed. Slime, yes; honesty, no.  

No surprise that it’s come to this: a faint glimmer of hope that Oozin’ Jim will descend from his mountaintop retreat and restore the VTGOP to its former glory. Mullin’s coin-in-the-fountain was echoed by State Reps. Tom Terenzini and Lawrence Cupoli. After all, the list of plausible contenders is… well…

Other prominent Republican names, like the Snelling Center’s Mark Snelling, swirled around the room as possible candidates come 2014, but nothing was definite.

Mark Snelling? Whoopee.

One more thing from Stein’s writeup: some fascinating lacunae from the very concise list of attendees:

Noticeably absent from the fundraiser were the three Republican candidates who ran for statewide office in 2012 and lost: Wendy Wilton, who ran for treasurer; Vince Illuzzi, who ran for auditor; and Randy Brock, who ran for governor.

(Forget about Jack McMullen, did we, Andrew?)

I’m a little surprised about Wilton. I guess she couldn’t make it to the Rutland Holiday Inn from her home in… er… Rutland.

Not as surprised at Brock’s absence, considering this little gem from Rep. Cupoli:

I don’t see Randy these days. I have not seen Randy at all.

Siberia?

Usually, I get an unbridled kick out of saying “I told you so” when one of my fearless forecasts actually comes to pass. But this time, I have decidedly mixed feelings. Because it means a lot of suffering for our most troubled citizens, not to mention a significant policy error by the Governor and a whole lot of hard work for some talented and dedicated professionals.

Yesterday, the legislature’s Mental Health Oversight Committee received an avalanche of bad news about the creaky, overstretched, jury-rigged system. It shows a real crisis in the short term, and the flaws in Shumlin’s grand plan for the long term.

And yes, it’s exactly what I predicted a year and a half ago, when Shumlin was ramming his plan through the legislature.

To get the full picture, you have to read both VTDigger and the Freeploid; each highlighted different aspects of the dismal tidings.

Digger’s Andrew Stein focuses on the fact that patients in need of urgent psychiatric care are being parked in hospital emergency rooms for days at a time. Last month, the average ER wait time — the average — was more than two days. The longest was almost two weeks. The reason: a shortage of beds for people with severe psychiatric illness.

We lost roughly 50 beds when the Vermont State Hospital closed. The chronic shortage is proof that we either need a central hospital of equivalent size or, at the very least, an equivalent number of beds throughout a decentralized system. Neither will happen under Shumlin’s plan.

After the jump: a flawed partner in Brattleboro, and musical chairs at the DMH.

The Freeploid’s Nancy Remsen (behind the Gannett paywall) opens her story with the potential consequences of Shumlin’s reliance on the Brattleboro Retreat. The feds have threatened to withdraw their funding if the Retreat doesn’t shape up, and the primary trouble spot is its handling of the most seriously ill patients — the ones who would have gone to VSH in the past. Remsen:

Termination of the Retreat’s Medicare and Medicaid contracts would not only challenge the financial viability of the psychiatric hospital, but potentially throw the state’s entire mental health system into crisis if the Retreat had to close.

The Retreat has had a checkered history in financial management and quality of care; the Shumlin administration chose to place even more faith — and a whole lot of Irene recovery money — in the Retreat’s hands. That may prove to be a mistake.

As to whether there are contingency plans, Interim Mental Health Commissioner Frank Reed said, “We are pulling a work group together.”

Let’s pause here and take note of the “Interim” tag on the Commissioner’s title. Frenk Reed is the fourth person to occupy that office during the four-plus years of the Shumlin Administration. And when Paul Dupre takes the job on July 1, he will be the fifth.

Five commissioners. During a time when the system has been in crisis, and needs a firm hand on the tiller. Makes me wonder if Shumlin’s stubbornly-held idea of a decentralized system is unworkable. Or so damnably difficult that Mental Health Commissioners are falling like dominoes.

Shumlin’s much-vaunted reorganization is aimed at providing more outpatient crisis care and more “step-down” recovery services. But this doesn’t really do squat for the very small but persistent number of Vermonters who need one thing, and one thing only: inpatient treatment. Proof: even as the administration begins to open new facilities, ER wait times continue to grow.

The worst part of all this? Key lawmakers are still hoping to build the new system on the cheap. From VTDigger, a quote from Interim Commissioner Reed and the legislative response:

“We still have bed shortages. And until we have the new hospital built with 25 beds, we’re going to continue to have a bed shortage for acute inpatient care.”

… But legislators are considering outfitting the 25-bed Berlin hospital with 16 beds at first.

[Sen. Sally] Fox and [Rep. Anne] Donahue said that they don’t have enough information yet to determine that the state needs the facility to operate at full capacity, and the committee plans to wait until November before making a recommendation to the Legislature as to whether to equip the facility with 16 or 25 beds.

Oh. My. God.

If the current, wretched state of things isn’t enough to convince the Legislature of the need for a full build-out in Berlin, then I don’t know what is. They can’t possibly be looking at what’s best for our most troubled Vermonters; instead, they’re trying to save a few bucks.  

After spending a few minutes of my morning listening to Jim Douglas guest-hosting the Mark Johnson Show on WDEV*, my attention turned to the Mitchell Family Organ which I happily subscribe to. And there on the front page was news of the Vermont Health CO-OP’s extremely belated come-to-Jesus moment.

*I could only take a few minutes before the bile hit flood stage in my throat. Good ol’ Jim was hosting a discussion about Our Most Misunderstood President, Calvin Coolidge. He and his guest were explaining how Silent Cal’s presidency was a smashing success that left our economy in terrific shape, and deserved absolutely no blame whatsoever for THE WORST CRASH IN OUR HISTORY happening only seven months after he left office. Based on that discussion, I’m sure Jim Douglas wouldn’t mind if we called him the Calvin Coolidge of Vermont Politics. “When restraint was called for, he was restrained; when action was called for, he was restrained.”

Lika an alcoholic taking The Pledge after waking up in a gutter, the CO-OP has belatedly responded to its failure to win a Certificate of Public Good by thoroughly overhauling its management structure:

— Founder and board chair Mitch Fleischer, forced to choose between a lucrative contract for his brokerage and leadership of his brainchild, has opted for the big money. He’s gone from the VHC Board.

— A bunch of new people have been added to the board, including Governor Shumlin’s real estate lawyer Jerry Diamond, Steve Post of VSECU, and three guys with experience in health care management, insurance, and regulation. The original board didn’t have much of that, which is one reason that Financial Regulation Commissioner Susan Donegan called VHC’s structure a “recipe for a corporate governance disaster.”

— A statement that the lucrative, no-bid contract with Fleischer’s brokerage is “under review.”

— A promise to release new insurance rates in the near future, that will be more competitive than those originally considered by Donegan.

— And, most importantly of all, a complete change of tone by CEO Christine Oliver. After Donegan rejected VHC’s application, Oliver reacted angrily, saying VHC had been “blindsided,” hinting that Blue Cross Blue Shield had undue influence in the process, and all but accusing Donegan of unprofessional conduct.  

Oliver’s new tone is conciliatory to the point of subservience (Mitchell Family Paywall warning; a less comprehensive but adequate account is available free at VTDigger):

“We knew we had to go back and regroup and address her issues, and that’s what we’re in the process of doing right now,” Oliver said Tuesday. “We are completely and thoroughly taking stock of everything that’s mentioned in that ruling, not putting Band-Aids on things but really fundamentally re-looking at what we’re doing.”

This is clearly a desperation bid by VHC to win approval in time for the launch of the health care exchange in January. (It’d actually need approval long before then, since consumers will be able to choose coverage through the exchange starting October 1.) 2014 is, by a country mile, VHC’s best opportunity to get into the insurance marketplace. As a brand-new company facing entrenched competitors, it needs the chance to compete at a moment when all parties will be starting from square one. If it has to wait until 2015, it’ll be at a huge disadvantage.

So VHC needs quick action, and is fully aware of that. Hence the complete change of heart.

If I were Donegan, I wouldn’t give in. The application process was lengthy and thorough; now VHC is asking her to accelerate the process for a reinvented organization with no track record. It’s simply too little, too late.

Oh, and one more note from the Mitchell Family account, penned (of course) by Peter Hirschfeld:

The CO-OP’s troubles have begun winning headlines in Washington, D.C., where congressional Republicans are turning troubles for the CO-OP into ammunition in their war against “Obamacare.”

… The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a subpoena to the Vermont Health CO-OP recently seeking documents related to its finances.

Great. Not that VHC’s missteps are going to single-handedly destroy health care reform, but the last thing we need is to be giving House Republicans more ammunition for one of their anti-Obama jihads. Thanks, VHC.  

Yesterday I offered some pointed commentary (“idiots” rolled out of my Blogger’s Thesaurus) about the off-again, on-again firing of VSEA chief Mark Mitchell. Well, today brings another life lesson in Why Public Sector Employees Have Such a Bad Reputation.

To wit, the hothouse flowers who work for the Agency of Education, who are all upset over the Agency’s pending move to downtown Barre. Per Terri Hallenbeck of the Freeploid, some Agency staffers are worried about CRIME!!!!! and possible environmental contamination.

Okay, yes, there’s crime in Barre. But we’re not exactly talking Hell’s Kitchen here. And as for environmental contamination, well, it’s a NEW BUILDING which will presumably meet current safety standards.

C’mon, people. This is the kind of thing that gives public-sector employees a bad name. If you’re complaining about a steady, union-protected, nine-to-five job in Barre, then, well, a lot of people are going to think you’re pampered little lapdogs. And they’re going to resent the taxes that pay your salaries.  

Shock! Horror! OMGOMGOMG!!!!!!! From the usually cautious folks at VPR News…

GMP Wants Permit To Kill Endangered Bats

Images swirl into view. Scary, unpleasant images. I see Dotty Schnure strangling bats with her bare hands. I see the GMP Board skeet-shooting freeze-dried bats. I see David Blittersdorf* eating Little Brown Bat Pie for dinner with lava beans and a nice Chianti. I see GMP staffers tossing bushels of Tasered bats into the whirling blades of a windmill. I see, in short, a wanton slaughter of the furry little creatures.

*Yeah, I know he’s not with GMP, but he’s part of the Turbine-Industrial Complex. Close enough.

But then, there’s the actual story:

The utility has asked for a state permit to kill four of the endangered creatures a year at its 21-turbine Lowell wind project.

Four.

FOUR.

Cough.

Okay, if you read further, it’s four Little Brown Bats and three more of other species, for a total of up to seven per year. But still, that seems like awfully small potatoes. Given the oft-stated concern for bird and bat kills by turbines, I’d think that a mere seven per year would be a cause for relief, not concern. It’s certainly not cause for VPR’s sensational headline.  

The biggest threat to our bat populations is, of course, White Nose Syndrome, which is the reason our species are endangered. The second biggest threat is disturbance of maternal colonies, usually by development.

I don’t know where Kingdom Community Wind ranks in the list, but it’s definitely somewhere below domestic cats, who are responsible for killing millions of wild animals every year, including 230,000 bats in Britain alone, according to one study. (Somehow I don’t hear anyone demanding leash laws for cats.)

This won’t stop Vermont’s anti-wind activists from seizing on the bat issue, just as they seize on any pretext for opposing wind energy development.

And it won’t apparently stop VPR from putting its thumb on the wind-energy scale with an eye-popping headline and this howler from the body of John Dillon’s report:

Some environmentalists argue that since bat populations are already precarious, they should not face more threat from wind projects.

“Some environmentalists.” Which means “environmentalists whose primary issue is stopping wind energy.” Because otherwise, the environmental community in Vermont is unified behind wind development as part of a renewable energy strategy.  But those environmentalists — the vast majority — don’t get a voice in Dillon’s piece.

This isn’t the first time John Dillon — VPR’s primary environmental reporter — has seemingly tilted the scales against wind energy. And given the fact that VPR’s editorial process is extremely thorough, perhaps excessively so, I have to wonder if the entire news operation doesn’t lean that way.  

Looks like somebody at our state’s second-largest labor union had a sudden revelation. Because after several days of bringing public disrepute on themselves, the board of the Vermont State Employees Association took a step back from the brink, and figured out a way forward that won’t involve everybody looking like selfish idiots.

It all began, as I’m sure you know, last Wednesday, when a majority of the Board voted to fire VSEA Executive Director Mark Mitchell. The vote came after a seven-hour marathon meeting kicked off by two union lawyers accusing Mitchell of violating labor laws.

Adding fuel to the fire were trustees who support Mitchell. They went public with their side of the dispute. Which led anti-Mitchell trustees to fire back. Oh, and Mitchell himself sought counsel with an employment attorney, which carries the implicit threat of a wrongful-firing lawsuit. In other words, a big ol’ circular firing squad.

All this, of course, without regard to the harm that might be done to the union, its members, the liberal cause in Vermont, and the broader labor movement.  I mean, it’s hard enough, in this Koch-addled, clusterFoxed country of ours, to support organizing rights, without VSEA making a public spectacle of itself.

Today’s developments, for those just joining us: the VSEA board held an emergency meeting and voted to (1) reinstate Mitchell, (2) put him on paid leave, and (3) arrange for an investigation of the allegations against Mitchell.

I do hope the apparent perestroika holds.  

 VSEA doesn’t need any internal divisions when it’s about to launch new contract talks with the state. And public sector unions in general don’t need this kind of negative publicity when they’re already under siege.  

I don’t know who was right and who was wrong about Mitchell. All I know is that just about everyone acted poorly, rashly, with no apparent concern for the damage being done. The union lawyers and last Wednesday’s majority covered themselves in the opposite of glory by hearing the charges against Mitchell and firing him, all in the same day. It reeks, not of considered judgment, but of a putsch.

As for Board President John Reese and other Mitchell supporters, they went public with the whole mess, which is precisely what they shouldn’t have done.

Today’s news is welcome, but there’s a long way to go to repair the damage and get the union as unified as possible heading into contract talks. With or without Mitchell, they’d better be ready.  

As you may recall, one of the features of Randy Brock’s Titanicampaign for Governor was the fact that he outsourced many of its functions to out-of-state firms with a history of working for ultraconservative candidates. Indeed, he spent a boatload of money on “experts” from Ohio, Indiana, and California, as well as the shameful amount of cash hoovered up by his supposed friend, Darcie “Hack” Johnston.

One of those “experts” was Nick Everhart, president of the Ohio-based Strategy Group for Media. who served as Brock’s “media consultant.” In other words, Everhart was in charge of deciding which ratholes Brock would pour his money into. Nice work if you can get it.

Well, Buzzfeed has a long and very juicy story about dissension within the ranks at Strategy Group, including the extremely sudden firing of Mr. Everhart on April 6.

It’s well worth your time. It documents a cultlike atmosphere within the firm, and thoroughly displays its extremely conservative (and right-wing Christian) orientation. Buzzfeed reporter McKay Coppins describes the firm as…

…the largest, most combative, and perhaps most controversial band of messaging warriors in Republican politics. Their blandly named company, Strategy Group for Media, has spent more than a decade developing a slashing formula for turning the party’s right-wing rejects into members of Congress. Now there are at least 40 Republicans in Congress who have worked with the Strategy Group, which serves as a campaign and strategy clearing house for the uncompromisingly conservative wing of the congressional caucus that has been at the center of American politics since 2010.

… The company had the rare distinction of working, serially, for two presidential candidates last year – Michele Bachmann then Newt Gingrich. Other clients include the great Right hopes of 2016: Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.

I guess Randy Brock didn’t make the list of “distinctive” 2012 clients. Sorry, Randy.  

Everhart’s abrupt exit came after a falling-out with company founder Rex Elsass, who is a real piece of work if the article is to be believed. You can read all the gory details at Buzzfeed; for our purposes, the story is a useful reminder of the kind of people Randy Brock chose to get in bed with.

Which makes you wonder what kind of Governor he would have made. There are several Republican Governors around the country who ran on relatively inoffensive platforms who have now swerved hard to the right (Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Michigan’s Rick Snyder, for example).

Was Randy Brock another stealth candidate for the Koch Brothers/Tea Party agenda? Thankfully, we’ll never know. But the same question could be asked more broadly of the Vermont Republican Party: are they really all that different from their national brethren, aside from ceding ground on lost-cause social issues that are tangential to the agenda of the national party’s paymasters?  

I see that Mr. Jeremy Dodge has got himself a lawyer. Or, should I say, the lawyer has gotten himself a Jeremy Dodge?

Yes, Dodge has hired Brady Toensing, second-generation ideological ambulance chaser, to represent him in his Real Estate Deal 2.0 with Governor Shumlin. And Toensing, a purely political attorney by trade, has subcontracted the actual real estate portion of the work to one Joy Karnes Limoge of Williston.

Her specialty is property law, but her passion is Republican politics. As Peter Hirschfeld reports (behind the Mitchell Family Paywall), Limoge was near the top of Randy Brock’s disastrous gubernatorial campaign:

Limoge was a key supporter of Brock, who in his concession speech last year included her name first on the short list of people to whom he offered special thanks for their roles in his campaign.

Limoge’s political proclivities are providential, considering that Master Toensing was last seen in these parts repping for Brian Dubie’s failed 2010 gubernatorial bid. Nice package: top figures from both of Shumlin’s rivals coming together on a case that could cause no end of headaches for the governor.

And WCAX, ever insightful, suspects the worst. Its story is headlined “Is Governor’s Controversial Land Deal Turning Political?”

Coming up after the break: “Does Bear Shit In Woods?” Plus, Dan Dowling with your forecast.

As well-trained advocates, Limoge and Toensing manage to keep a straight face while insisting that their motives are pure as the driven snow. Toensing calls it an “opportunity to assist a fellow Vermonter.” (Maybe Legal Aid can put him on speed dial, since he’s so darn charitable.) And Limoge, speaking with Hirschfeld, went straight for the tear ducts:

“Poor Jerry Dodge,” Limoge said. “He’s a hardworking, poor Vermonter, and he’s coming up against one of the most powerful men in the state with the means to hire one of the best lawyers in the state. He needs legal representation to get himself through this.”

Pardon me, my Weaselometer just hit Defcon One.

After the jump: a stroll through our Toensing Family Memory Book.

Brady Toensing is the junior partner in the DC law firm diGenova and Toensing, water-carriers for conservative causes since the Reagan years. The senior Toensing is Brady’s mother Victoria, a constant presence on shouty cable-news shows. The other partner is Joe diGenova, Victoria’s second husband, who is also willing to yell Republican talking points whenever a camera is pointed in his direction.  

You’ll find a nice summary of family activities on a GMD diary posted way back in 2006, when Master Brady was distinguishing himself as an attack dog for Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie’s re-election campaign against Democrat Matt Dunne. Some guy named “odum” did some digging in the diGenova/Toensing walk-in skeleton closet; follow the link for details, but suffice it to say that Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova spent the 1990s as part of the anti-Clinton Republican attack machine, and the 2000s as leading Bush Administration apologists on cable news. Most recently, Ma ‘n Pa have been trying to mountainize the Benghazi molehill on Fox News.

The allegedly nice-guy Brian Dubie apparently looooves Brady Toensing, having hired him for at least two campaign stints plus a post-election turn repping Dubie in Bill Sorrell’s campaign-finance lawsuit.

I do hope that Toensing and Limoge spare a scruple or two for Jeremy Dodge, whose best interests are probably served by a quick settlement with Shumlin. Wouldn’t it be a shame if his lawyers did their best to drag the case on and on, spending more time on press releases than on legal briefs, simply to serve their own political interests?

Yeah, that’d be a shame.

(I am, however, looking forward to the gubernatorial deposition. Always a good optic for a politician.)

And, you know, this is exactly what Governor Shumlin left himself open for — the political exploitation of an easily avoidable situation. He knew the original Dodge deal was iffy*, and if he has any political instincts whatsoever he had to know it could blow up on him.

*Evidence? The absence of a lawyer on Dodge’s side; Dodge’s obvious lack of education and legal smarts; and the fact that, although Shumlin and Dodge agreed to the sale in late September, it wasn’t formally registered until November 7 — the day after Election Day. Sorry, I can’t believe that was a coincidence.

Not that it’s likely to make much difference in his near-term electoral prospects. But the entry of Toensing the Younger is one more sign that the Governor (and by extension the Democrats) will pay a price for his acquisitional own goal.