( – promoted by JDRyan)

From CNN:

The fate of a controversial $700 billion financial bailout plan was in doubt Monday as a House vote turned against it.

The next steps were not immediately clear but supporters were scrambling to put it up for another vote.

What was supposed to be a 15-minute vote stretched past the half-hour mark as leadership scrambled for support. Investors who had been counting on the rescue plan sent the Dow Jones industrial average down as much as 700 points while watching the measure come up short of the necessary support, before rebounding slightly. The key stock reading was down more than 500 points.

The measure needs 218 votes for passage. Democrats voted 141 to 94 in favor of the plan, while Republicans voted 65 to 133 against. That left the measure with 206 votes for and 227 against.

US Representative Peter Welch is among those who have voted against the bill.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/2…

( – promoted by gnome)

The national Democrats seemed to have some success with their “culture of corruption” message last year. They made the case that Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham etc, were part and parcel of a Republican culture that government needed to be cleansed from.

I’m wondering if we aren’t seeing some of that same dynamic here at home? Last week’s attempt to override Governor Jim Douglas’s budget veto generated two high-profile stories in this vein.

There’s the incident in which Transportation Secretary and Douglas advisor Neale Lunderville seemed for all the world to be attempting to bribe a Franklin County Representative to get his vote.

Then there’s the vote Montpelier’s Joe Lieberman – Jon Anderson – cast as well, which looked for all the world like payback for his appointment to the legislature. Anderson has denied that there was any sort of deal cut, but that’s not the word in town. Snarky Boy reported overhearing talk of such a deal. And I know Michael Colby might not be the most reliable source, but the truth is I know of one other person in town who has the same story – that Anderson was saying weeks before the Democrats met to choose names that he already had it. With corroboration to Snarky’s post like that, it’s hard not to assume that there was a deal and that Anderson wasn’t being very discreet about it.

So that’s two incidents in one high profile vote. Is it enough for a pattern? Has Governor Douglas has brought the “culture of corruption” to the Green Mountain state?

( – promoted by JDRyan)

Our new state Rep. Anderson’s first days have generated a lot of talk over at vtbuzz, where he has NOT taken over Francis Brooks seat on the Housing, General and Military Affairs Committee and was instead switched over to Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources. vtbuzz had this to say:

House General Chairwoman Helen Head needed a woman to join her on the panel and she needed a liberal woman at that.

Is that really the reason? I think another one is more likely base on this (emphasis added by me):

“Jon cares deeply about the people of this community and will work hard to make it a more affordable place to live, work and raise a family,” Douglas said in a statement Friday.

Anderson, 54, said he would focus on housing issues

Notice the Governor’s big buzzword: affordable, reminding us why he sent Anderson in there against the wishes of Montpelier Dems -; to promote his “affordability agenda” nonsense. And from Anderson’s work for people like Skip Vallee, his interest in “housing” actually equals “uncontrolled sprawl.”

In Fish & Wildlife, Anderson will have little opportunity to help along the Governor’s hopes. The speed at which he was moved makes a clear statement that the Dem leadership know exactly who they are dealing with in this guy.

Of course that’s not to say he can’t still cause mischief. Rumor is that Anderson has already informed House leadership that he intends to support Douglas’ (expected) gubernatorial veto of the budget adjustment – you know, the one that cuts funding for the $750,000 paying for Douglas’ army of spinmeisters on the state payroll FY ’08 budget that House Approps just passed.

I’m going to make something less than a prediction; but lay out a possible scenario: by this time next year, Anderson has figured out he’s going to get creamed by Mayor Mary Hooper in a Democratic primary and gets “Pelhamed” with an administration appointment allowing him to avoid an embarassing defeat. Given that he’s a “conservative Democrat” who through the Party nomination process, was rejected, went around it as – an independent Democrat? – and got in with the support of the right, and due to his alliance with the Republican Chief Executive, the Lieberman label applied by JDRyan will probably continue to stick to him through his term.