Oh, noes!

Randy Brock’s money bomb has come up short!

Unless they do some late fiddling with the totals, his attempt to raise $40,000 in the last few days before the first campaign finance deadline has come up short.

As of 5:01 p.m. (well, now it’s 5:02), his “money bomb” graphic was stuck at about $36,000.

And everybody said, “Awwwwwww.”

Actually, I’d be shocked if they didn’t do some post-deadline fiddling and get that total up over 40K because a failure would be so embarrassing. But since you’ve read this, you’ll know that’s what they did. It’s now 5:05, and the money bomb has failed to go off.

Note: Noon update added below.

Time keeps on slippin’, as a wise man once sang. And time is rapidly running out on Randy Brock’s fundraising “money bomb.”  Earlier this week, he set a deadline of today (Friday July 13) at 5 p.m. to raise $40,000 for his gubernatorial campaign.

The total has been slowly creeping upward. As I write this, it stands at about $25,000. That’s 15K to go with less than 11 hours left. Which sounds like bad news, but I suspect that things will turn out just fine for ol’ Randy.

See, I checked the “money bomb” last night at about 10:15 p.m., and it was in the upper teens. Which means that Brock somehow managed to raise roughly $8,000 in the overnight hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Wow, he’s like Jack Bauer, working around the clock to defeat his sworn enemy.

Well, either that, or the Brock campaign is doctoring the totals to make it seem like the Brockmentum is growing. Like, perhaps they’re gradually adding in the proceeds from this week’s LePageFest which, at the prices they were charging, almost certainly pulled in far more than 40K.

I have absolutely no proof that the Brock campaign is cheating. But it’s very strange that they managed to pull in so much money when the Good People of Vermont were all asleep.

________________________

Update 12:15 p.m.: Yeah, he’s gonna make it. He’s gone from 25K at 6 a.m. to about 32K at noon. They’re stretching it out just about right: getting close enough to make it, but not so close that there’s no suspense — and not so far away that everybody gives up.

So they’ll make the goal and declare victory, having a moment in the news cycle all to themselves. And then Monday afternoon the fundraising reports are released, and we’ll find out exactly how well Randy Brock is really doing.

Okay, so here comes Charlie Webster, chair of the Maine Republican Party (you know, the guy who almost lost his post after screwing up the Maine caucus six ways from Sunday), defending Governor Paul LePage’s controversial statement calling the IRS “the new Gestapo,” and attacking anyone who would dare to criticize LePage for his rampant assholery. Talking Points Memo:

“What I think the governor is saying – he’s not a politician, everybody knows he’s not a politician, he’s a regular person, he’s a successful businessman and he isn’t politically correct,” Charlie Webster, chairman of the Maine GOP, told TPM Thursday.

Yeah, yeah, he’s not a politician, he’s a regular guy. And just like all regular guys, he just can’t help potty-mouthing and insulting his opponents. Look, Charlie: when you’re in a high-profile public position, your statements come in for greater scrutiny than if you’re just a “regular person.” That’s the way it works. Paul LePage voluntarily ran for the highest office in the state of Maine. And if LePage doesn’t like it, then he should pull a Thad McCotter and exit, stage right.

Webster continued:

“His point, I’m sure, is that we’ve got to get government under control. And we can’t have government dominating our lives at every moment.”

…”I’ve got friends of mine who came here [from Canada] because they couldn’t get their knee replaced in eight months,” he said. “That would be the only way you could tie [the IRS and the Gestapo] together.”

I gotta admit, you nailed it there, Charlie. An eight-month wait for elective surgery is just as bad as DYING IN A GAS CHAMBER. That ought to mollify the Anti-Defamation League.

But wait, Charlie has yet to shut his pinhole!

Webster says those who are offended by the governor’s comments are treated LePage with a double-standard.

“The press didn’t interview me when local legislators here in Maine suggested we hang Cheney. Or that President Bush was a Nazi. I mean it’s a one-sided street here,” he said. “We only talk about something that Republicans happen to say, no one’s talking about these extremists that represent the Maine and the Democratic Party in this country.”

Actually, Chucks, there was one Maine legislator (ONE), Chuck Kruger, who sent out a single Tweet that said “Cheney deserves same final end he gave Saddam.” He got absolutely pilloried for his remark. And you were, in fact, interviewed about the Tweet. And you called for his resignation! And Kruger received numerous death threats. And he offered a sincere and complete apology.

In fact, every time any Democrat, Progressive, or liberal politician says anything derogatory about a Republican, they get drawn and quartered by the conservative noise machine. So stop with your bullshit.  

Maine Governor Paul LePage couldn’t pass through Vermont without leaving behind one of his rhetorical calling cards — he’s kinda like the dog that has to pee on every tree. His lasting stain on our political discourse, as reported by Paul Heintz of Seven Days (story here, along with audio of LePage and Brock), was this attempt to simultaneously explain, apologize for AND justify his recent comparison of the IRS to the Gestapo:

Standing by Brock’s side at the Sheraton in South Burlington, the Maine governor said, “What I am trying to say is the Holocaust was a horrific crime against humanity and, frankly, I would never want to see that repeated. Maybe the IRS is not quite as bad – yet.”

LePage then said, “They’re headed in that direction.”

Asked if he had a sense of what the Gestapo did during the second world war, LePage said, “Yeah, they killed a lot of people.” Asked whether the IRS “was headed in the direction of killing a lot of people,” LePage answered: “Yeah.”

Yes, if by “killing a lot of people” you mean “imposing modest fines on those who fail to buy health insurance,” then I’d agree. Otherwise, Mr. LePage, you are an idiot.

After the jump: Randy Brock tries really, really hard to clarify matters.

After LePage’s sterling performance, attention turned to the Vermonter who invited Governor A$$hole to town and profited from his presence.

Brock, who stood side-by-side with LePage during the nine minute interview, at first declined to disavow the Maine governor’s comments, saying,”Each of us has friends who make comments that they stand by. Those are their comments. They’re not necessarily my comments.”

Each of us, Randy, when events warrant, have to consider our friends and whether they should remain our friends. If Paul LePage is the kind of person you are proud to consider a friend, then I question your judgment and your temperament.

Asked again whether he disagreed with LePage’s contention that the IRS is on its way to killing people, Brock said he interpreted it differently.

“What I interpreted the governor as saying is that the policies that we’re following may lead to unintended harm, and that’s my interpretation,” he said.

Yeah, when I think “unintended harm,” I think Nazi Germany. Hitler just got a little bit out of control, that’s all.

In closing, I’d again like to thank Randy Brock for subjecting us to this ill-tempered assclown. And congratulate him, again, for profiting on the deal.  

No sooner does BP point out Lt. Gov. Phil Scott’s Democrat-heavy website, than news comes from VTDigger of Vince Illuzzi’s first big fundraiser in support of his Republican bid for Auditor. The host committee, Digger reports, “includes prominent business and nonprofit leaders, a real estate executive, and current and former elected officials across the political spectrum.”

That includes a number of Democrats, particularly some who’ve spent time with Vince in the State Senate. Hinda Miller, Dick Mazza, and Elizabeth Ready, to be specific. Ready, you may recall, is a former state Senator who served two terms as Auditor in the early Aughts, and was defeated by Randy Brock in her bid for a third term due to a very severe case of resume-fluffing. (On her official resume, she claimed a bachelor’s degree from UVM when she actually attended Burlington College, and listed a nonexistent Master’s degree. Guess she never bothered to audit her own document.)

Also on the list: Paul Bruhn, head of the Preservation Trust of Vermont, who insists he’s acting completely on his own, not on behalf of his organization. And David Coates, Shumlin-appointed chair of the Vermont Long Term Disaster Recovery Group, who most recently made headlines by sounding the alarm about Vermont’s public-employee pension gap.

Of course, Vince has some Republican heavyweights as well, including Ernie Pomerleau, Frank Cioffi*, and Kurt Wright. But the presence of some notable Dems is rather disturbing. If not altogether surprising, especially from his old Senate buddies.

*Correction: Cioffi is nominally a Democrat. My mistake. However, he has been a prominent “Democrat for Douglas” and a “Democrat for Dubie,” and he apparently just hosted a fundraiser for Republican State Rep. (and Senate candidate) Dustin Degree. So he’s definitely a DINO. I think I just made him an honorary Republican, which really ain’t far from the truth. Thanks to Jack and Sue for the info.

There’s also a curious passage in the VTDigger article…

Several well-informed sources say that Illuzzi wants to hire Democratic candidate Douglas Hoffer in the event Illuzzi wins the auditor’s office. A rumor is also circulating that Illuzzi will offer Hoffer a job in the auditor’s office on the condition that he drop his campaign.

Both Illuzzi and Hoffer strongly denied the latter. Each called it, respectively, “an insult” and “offensive.”

Hmm. They denied “the latter,” but not the idea of a no-strings job offer. Indeed, while Illuzzi denied any plan to hire Hoffer, he did admit that he could understand why some people might expect such a move: “Doug Hoffer has provided testimony often to my committee over the years, and I’ve often appreciated his viewpoint on the issues before the Legislature.”

Trying to buy off the opposition, Vince? Or encourage some fence-sitters to break your way, by floating the notion that a vote for Vince is really a vote for both? Sneaky.  

Here comes an unlikely champion of the environment. Well, one specific chunk of the environment anyway: the not-so-pristine area near I-89 Exit 16 in Colchester. The newborn Earth Defender is none other than R.L. “Skip” Vallee, noted Republican moneybags and owner of a chain of gas stations. (If you stop at Maplefields, some of your money is going in his pocket.)

Yes, the Skipster is all het up over Costco’s attempt to add a gas station to its Colchester store. And Skip, who owns a nearby Maplefields, insists it has nothing to do with the fact that Costco usually sells its gas at bargain prices. The Freeploid: (Don’t click unless you’re a subscriber or are willing to use up one of your ten July freebies.)

A check earlier this week of gas prices at Costcos in Connecticut and Massachusetts found gas prices to be 14-22 cents per gallon below the average price for a gallon of gas in those two states.

Ruh-roh. That’d be bad for Skip’s profit margin. His outfit is one of four companies that collectively own nearly 60% of Chittenden County’s gas stations, and have been enjoying substantially higher prices than the rest of the state. That fact prompted Bernie Sanders to call for a federal probe of gas pricing in northwest Vermont.

But Skip insists his opposition has nothing to do with his profits. Oh no, absolutely not!

Opponents, including fuel distributors R.L Vallee Inc. and Timberlake Associates, contend the Costco gas station would endanger an adjacent wetland and add to traffic congestion in the area, among other concerns.

…”Because Vallee’s property is at a significantly higher elevation than Costco’s property, there is a clear view of the project site from Vallee’s offices and gasoline station,” one R.L. Vallee filing stated. “Vallee is concerned about the aesthetics impacts of the project.”

Ah. He’s an aficionado of the natural scenery around Exit 16. You know, that parade of strip malls, restaurants, gas stations and chain motels? Yeah, that one.  

You’d think this ardent free-marketeer, this devout supporter of the Republican Party, would have a bit more dedication to open competition and a bit less concern about an already-degraded piece of freeway adjacency. You’d think he might feel a twinge of conscience about trying to drag out a permitting process when his party yammers constantly about gutting Act 250. But noooo, not when his own profits are at stake.

Skip’s pulled this little maneuver before, and managed to scuttle a proposed Costco station five years ago. As a result, he’s enjoyed five more years of cozy oligopoly.

And lest you wonder if a single Costco would have that much effect on gas prices, let’s travel down the highway to Middlebury, where the per-gallon price is 20-25 cents lower than in Burlington.

Bill Heffernan is one of the owners of Champlain Valley Plumbing and Heating in Middlebury and a purveyor of that elusive $3.40-per-gallon gasoline.

“Basically, we set the tone in Middlebury,” Heffernan says. “Whatever we go to, people follow.”

And if Bill Heffernan can have that much impact on the Middlebury market, Costco can do the same for the Burlington area. Or at least the area around Exit 16. To the lasting diminishment of Skip Vallee’s deep pockets.

Can somebody please give that poor crocodile a hanky?

At the time of this writing, the ill-tempered ultraconservative Governor of Maine, Paul LePage, is probably lounging around at Rockledge Farm, the home of his host Randy Brock and site of tonight’s fundraiser for the Brock campaign.

LePage has uttered more than his share — hell, more than the average country’s share — of rude remarks about reporters, protesters, and the President. Among others. Most recently, he called the IRS “the new Gestapo” for its role in enforcing Obamacare’s insurance mandate. ‘Cause, you know, imposing a few-hundred-dollar fine is just the same as shoving Jews into a gas chamber.

But his outrage ends abruptly at the border of practicality, as was reported by Josh Barro of Bloomberg News:

Yet the most remarkable aspect of LePage’s remarks wasn’t the Nazi comparison. It was what he didn’t say: Instead of joining Republican governors of six other states in announcing he will refuse to participate in the expansion of Medicaid, he wants to wait and see how the numbers add up.

According to Barro, Maine already provides Medicaid coverage to many of those who will be newly eligible under Obamacare’s expansion of the program. And that means the state is likely to save a boatload of money — somewhere between $65 million and $118 million over six years — because it will get more generous federal grants in the new Medicaid. Thus, as Barro notes:

LePage undoubtedly understands he’s going to have no choice politically but to take the Medicaid expansion funds.

Barro’s story goes on to say that Republican governors who are now talking tough, like Rick Perry and Nikki Haley, are likely to shut up and take the money as well.

But let’s stick with Governor Loudmouth for the moment. Speak loudly, and carry a small twig, eh, Paul? Bluster about principle and freedom and the Constitution, but when push comes to shove, you’re happy to get in bed with “the new Gestapo” if it means a few federal dollars.  

You’d better watch out, complacent Vermont Democrats: Randy Brock’s about to light the fuse on a money bomb — an Internet fundraising ploy designed to induce a quick influx of donations.  

The goal is to raise $40,000 by Friday afternoon, to help him “defeat Governor Shumlin’s single-payer health care experiment” which Brock has lovingly dubbed “Titanic Care.” (The webpage even has an outline drawing of an ocean liner with its nose pointed downward. Ha ha, get it? The Titanic is sinking. Those Republicans and their impish sense of humor.) So far, it looks like he’s raised about $8,000..

$40,000 might seem like a lot of money, but remember that in 2010, Shumlin and Brian Dubie each raised and spent well over a million dollars.  So 40K is nice, but it’s not a game-changer.

It’s quite the coincidence that Brock has launched his “money bomb” on the eve of two major fundraising events — a Wednesday evening reception and a Thursday morning breakfast with special guest Paul LePage, the notorious Governor of Maine. The cheapest admission is $200 for a pair of tickets to the “general reception” and the real high rollers will cough up $2,000 for four tickets to a “private reception” and one ticket to the breakfast. Which means that if Brock sells 20 combo packs, he’s met the goal.

This is assuming, of course, that fundraiser tickets count toward the “money bomb” goal. I think that’s likely, considering the consequences of a dud on the eve of the first campaign finance reports, which seem likely to show a formidable lead for Shumlin in the fundraising battle.

If Brock gets a halfway decent turnout for the LePage events, he’ll be able to announce a “money bomb” total well in excess of $40,000. Then, even if Shumlin scores big on Monday, Brock will be able to claim that he’s got the momentum. It’s kind of a sad little tactic, really, but when you’re challenging a deep-pocketed incumbent who’s flying high in the polls, you need every bit of good news you can scare up.

Feel the Brockmentum!

The chairman of the Vermont Republican Party is at it again: whining about the Democrats’ criticism of Maine Governor Paul LePage’s upcoming visit. Those scurrilous Dems, trying to make Vermont Republicans and their candidate Randy Brock somehow responsible for LePage’s far-right agenda and frequent bouts of verbal diarrhea, when all they did was invite LePage here for some big-bucks fundraisers.

What’s on Jack Lindley’s mind this time?

The Democratic Party can’t stand the thought of hearing the words or ideas of a reform minded Governor, elected overwhelmingly in a liberal state, who has in just a few short months made the tough decisions necessary to put Maine back on a path to prosperity.

Uhh, a couple of problems there, Sparky. First, Paul LePage was “elected overwhelmingly” with THIRTY-EIGHT PERCENT OF THE VOTE. He barely squeaked into office, while a Dem/Centrist and a Dem shared 60% of the vote.

But I can understand Jack’s confusion. When his own candidate stands at 25% in the latest gubernatorial poll, then 38% must look like a landslide by comparison.

Item #2. The Democrats may or may not be able stand to hear the intemperate words or simplistic ideas of Paul LePage, but we’ll never know. Because the two events on the Brock/LePage calendar are OPEN TO TICKET-BUYERS ONLY. If you really wanted to expose the good people of Vermont to the ideas of Paul LePage, you should have scheduled a public speech and news conference.

But no, you really don’t want LePage to be visible or audible to the public. You just want to use his notoriety to raise some money for Randy’s beleaguered campaign, and then ship him back to Maine as quietly as possible.  

A couple of weeks ago, Bruce Lisman (humble scion of Burlington’s North End turned Wall Street panjandrum) paid a visit to southeastern Vermont and had breakfast with the Brattleboro Chamber of Commerce. He was there to bring his message of “common-sense” (*cough*business-friendly*cough*) solutions to Vermont’s problems as he sees them, and tout his “nonpartisan” (*cough*obviously conservative*cough*) advocacy group, Campaign for Vermont.  

Thankfully, CFV has seen fit to post a video of Lisman’s talk. (Part 1, Part 2.) Unthankfully, it’s one of the blandest pieces of public discourse I’ve ever seen. A big tasty dish of oatmeal, straight up; not a drop of maple syrup. The thinly-veiled partisanship of CFV’s advertising and policy statements had been carefully scrubbed. There was no criticism, veiled or otherwise, of Governor Shumlin and the Democratic legislature. Instead, Lisman claimed that CFV was a centrist organization — and furthermore, that successful policymaking could only come from the center, with the participation of both sides.

It seems clear that Lisman is trying to soften CFV’s image (and his own), cutting the overt partisanship and cushioning the rough edges of his small-government, low-tax, business-first agenda with soft, pillowy rhetoric. I suspect that CFV has been less effective than he’d hoped, because it alienated so many liberals (and even centrists) in its earlier stages. Heck, maybe this humble website has forced Lisman to make some changes. He seems to be trying a reboot of CFV in hopes of attracting broader support. Without changing its fundamental character, of course. it’s bipartisanship George W. Bush style: I’ll work with you as long as you agree with me.  

His talk lasted only about 15 minutes. That isn’t much time for a wide-ranging policy presentation, but it’s an eternity when the speaker is delivering a big load of pablum. There was a Q&A period after the talk, but CFV did not see fit to post that video. Did someone ask an embarrassing question? Was the audio quality just too poor to abide? (The audio of the speech isn’t great.) Did Lisman, as he did two years ago in a talk in South Burlington, reveal more about his views in the Q&A than he intended to?

(In that 2010 Q&A, he called for cuts in corporate and capital-gains taxes and higher income taxes for the working poor. He really nailed it there: the poor just have too darn much money, and the rich don’t have enough.)

He began by stating that CFV is “an advocacy group for public policy” — sponsoring no candidates, not interested in endorsing anyone. “Our orientation,” he said, “is at the center of the political spectrum. If we are extreme in any way, it’s in maintaining a moderate path and staying on the high road.”

Let’s pause for a moment and contrast that with CFV’s previously stated positions. It has slammed Governor Shumlin’s health care reform plan in language strikingly similar to the VTGOP’s. It has complained of the state’s “unfair treatment” of Vermont Yankee. It has been critical of Shumlin’s efforts to encourage alternative energy sources, and called for a “least cost” approach to power generation. It has accused the state of overtaxing and overspending, and abdicating leadership on education reform. It assessed the 2012 Legislative session as a complete failure. It has posited that state government’s focus should be, first and foremost, on fostering economic growth. Which means, among other things, cutting regulation, overhauling Act 250 and cutting taxes — which will, naturally, result in higher tax revenues because of all the growth that will surely follow.

Yep, they’re still trying to sell the Laffer Curve.

CFV’s agenda is full of conservative buzzwords and dog whistles. They were almost entirely absent from Lisman’s talk in Brattleboro, replaced by homey anecdotes and hazy generalities.

He recounted the 18 months he spent touring the state (after his 2009 retirement from Wall Street), meeting with hundreds of people from all walks of life and listening to their views on the state’s future. Funny thing about that listening tour; his agenda (or, as the CFV website puts it, “The Lisman Perspective”) remains pretty much unchanged from his 2010 speech in South Burlington. I guess those hundreds of jus’ plain folks all happened to agree with Bruce Lisman. Remarkable.

He talked of “changing the state’s strategic goals” to make Vermont more responsive to rapidly-changing economic times and “grab the opportunity that comes from all those changes.” Later, he noted that CFV had been promoting itself through “lots of op-eds, print ads, and radio ads” — an astoundingly 20th Century strategy for a group that wants the state to be adaptable in a time of rapid change.

(CFV is on Facebook and Twitter. Whoopee. As of this morning, its Twitter feed had 73 followers and fewer than a hundred Tweets.)

After about ten minutes of background and folksy recollections, Lisman rattled off his group’s priorities in just a few moments. It was not much more than bullet points with very little explanation and absolutely no specifics. Building a vibrant economy, creating a more responsive, transparent  government, improving public education (without raising taxes, of course), reform the health care system “with a lot less drama but with better results*,” craft a more inclusive energy policy, blah, blah, blah.

*Don’t know what he’s talking about there. All the “drama” in Vermont’s health care reform process is coming from its opponents on the right. I see no “drama” in the work of Anya Rader Wallack and company.

He did promise that “we’ll be rolling out more information… in coming months.” (Through those good old radio and print ads and opinion columns,natch. Maybe Morse code and Aldis lamps, too.) Gee, the group’s been around since last November; what are you waiting for?

If you’d like to sample Bruce Lisman’s new brand of oatmeal in person, he’ll be doing another breakfast gig Thursday morning at 7:30 at the Dutch Mill restaurant in Shelburne. Funny, he’s a nonpartisan representing a nonpartisan group, but his talk is sponsored by the Shelburne and Charlotte Republican Town Committees.