I’m posting this for a friend, colleague, and ally, Steve Schlipf, who is so busy crunching data for local candidates that he hasn’t got the time to come here and do it himself.

Here’s what he’s got to say about Martha and the Very Bad Crowd:

>>Based on the issues that Martha Rainville holds dear, I am very concerned about the crowd that she has fallen in with.  One of her strong suits has always been taking care of the people she’s responsible for. But what are we seeing now?

>>I can understand that when the importance of environmentalism is a new thing (it was only a few weeks ago that global warming was something that required more study) that it would seem very special to have former EPA chief Christine Whitman come and support you.

>>While an environmentalist would easily argue that Christine Whitman is no environmentalist, I’m looking at the federal judge’s ruling that Christine Whitman misled New Yorkers about air quality after 9/11, leading to incredible health consequences for residents and rescue personnel.  That doesn’t sound like taking care of your people.

>>Maybe that’s an anomaly and Martha just wasn’t aware of this issue.  Let’s look at caring for your people in an area that Martha does know all about.  The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America has compiled voting records on legislators on issues of concern to troops, veterans and military families since 9/11/2001. This includes 169 House votes and 155 Senate votes.  You can look at the specific votes and the details of who voted how at their website, http://iava.org .

>>But the bottom line is that the average score for Democrats in the House and in the Senate was a B+.  The average GOP score in the House is a C.  The average GOP score in the Senate is a D-.

>>Her website points out “As commandant of the Vermont National Guard, General Rainville has been fully informed of matters affecting the military”.  So why does she support the side that won’t support the troops?<<

NanuqFC for Steve Schlipf
 

Anybody else think that Scudder’s latest TV ad is goofy? When you see him on the stump, he’s serious, and passionate, and can quote facts and figures about the failures of the Douglas regime.

But for a candidate for whom being taken seriously has been an uphill slog, that TV commercial is like “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

(Speaking of fantasy: The “Promise Scholarships” touted by Jimmy D. in his own commercial amount to indentured servitude — they don’t create the jobs graduates need, they just trap the kids here in burgerflippin’/liftline-attendant land until their debts are paid.)

Maybe Scudder’s media adviser thought something like, “We’ll take all the myths out there about Scudder and attribute them to Douglas, that ought to change a few minds!”

Myth one: alternative energy. The myth about those who favor seeking non-fossil-fuel and non-nuclear sources of energy is that we’ll end up just like the family in this campaign ad, with daughter trying to study by a flickering lamp while dad cycles furiously to generate enough electricity. Scudder says this is really Douglas’s fault because he has opposed wind power and sought to reduce the budget for Efficiency Vermont.

Myth two: property taxes. In this one, a woman in top hat wields a magic wand over her checkbook, trying to increase the value of her account so she can pay her property tax bill. Scudder suggests that higher property taxes are Douglas’s fault, which is the same charge Jimmy D. has thrown at him. The text says Douglas proposed a $22 million property tax increase.

Myth three: healthcare. Here there’s an older guy struggling with duct taping an apparent broken arm, presumably because he doesn’t have health insurance and must make do on his own.

Here’s the problem: the image that sticks with these mythic situations is Scudder’s, not Douglas’s.

If you haven’t seen the ad on TV, check it out at Scudder’s website: http://www.scudderpa…. You need to have a “Flash 8” player or better (you can download it from Adobe for a free 30-day trial) to play the thing.

NanuqFC

Okay, so I’m listening to the news, reading the papers, browsing the blogs, and scan an item about how Ned Lamont made a fortune and is self-funding his campaign, followed by a number that suggests he’s doing it to an even larger degree than Rich Tarrant.

So none of us likes Rich T. He’s slimy (or at least his media advisors are, and he agreed to run the distorting ads — and did you notice how they’ve disappeared from the airwaves, replaced by golden-glow grandpa Rich with the kids and 35 years of healthcare “experience”?). He really doesn’t have a message, and his primary residence is really in Florida, where he’ll fit in quite nicely as a slezoid R over-endowed with money.

And we at least “sort of” like Ned Lamont because he drove DINO Joe Lieberman off the party’s ballot line by calling him on his

support for the war, among other Republican-sponsored horrors.

So help me out here … Richie T. is trying to buy a Vermont Senate seat, but Ned Lamont isn’t trying to buy a Connecticut one? Is the only difference the party for which each is running?

And last time I heard, Neddie is going to get his ass whupped because being off the Democratic ballot line has freed up Joltin’ Joementum Lieberman to appeal to his natural constituency: rich white Republicans, most of whom will find themselves voting “Independent” for the first time in their political lives.

NanuqFC

( – promoted by odum)

A funny thing happened at Democratic Headquarters in Franklin County today.

I was there volunteering when a 40-something woman came in and said she wanted some lawn signs. She took signs for virtually every candidate from the top of the ticket on down to local candidates … except Scudder’s.

“No,” she said, “I won’t put a minister’s sign on my lawn. I don’t want religion anywhere near my government.”

“If you knew Scudder,” I explained, “you’d know he’s not the kind of guy who would make religion an issue. Besides, he was a minister a while ago, he’s had other jobs since then. And even when he was a minister, it was for a fairly liberal church.”

“Ah,” she replied, “but I was at a Democratic fundraiser last year and he opened it with a prayer. I just can’t do it, even though it was the kind of prayer that I agreed with.”

“Are there any other concerns?” I asked.

“What’s his stance on abortion?” she queried. “Absolutely and resolutely pro-choice,” I truthfully replied.

“What about gay rights, gay marriage?” she persisted. “Scudder believes in equality for everyone,” I answered her back. “Scudder was at Gay Pride in Burlington last july. I was there. He promised, out loud, from the stage, that if the legislature passes a gay marriage bill and a gender identity non-discrimination bill, he would sign them.”

She was relieved! But still, she could not make peace with displaying a Scudder lawn sign. She left with her hands full of all the other signs, and I went back to helping with data entry.

Five minutes later, she was back.

“Okay,” she sighed. “You’ve convinced me. I’ll take two Scudder signs.”

You’ve got to know something about Franklin County to understand just how unusual that interaction was. You’ve got to remember that the good citizens of Franklin County booed legislators off the stage when they came to talk about civil unions. You’ve got to also know that Rep. Al Perry, a moderately conservative Democrat in the northernmost part of the county (Richford), voted his conscience for civil unions and lost his seat in the backlash election, only to regain it two years later. You’ve got to know how many “Take Back Vermont” and “Take it to the People” signs there were on barns and hay bales from Swanton and Sheldon and Richford to the Chittenden County line and the Lamoille County line, and how life-threatening that felt when driving by them every single day.

There’s hope in Franklin County. There are conventional dairy farmers looking to power their farms with manure-generated methane. There are farmers looking beyond conventional dairy farming to diversified harvests and organic milk. There are people who are passionate about providing and consuming local food as one way to address energy issues. There are candidates who totally get it that the economy of rural counties will increasingly depend on universal broadband access.

And there are 40-something women like this one and 30, 40, 50, 60-something women and men of my acquaintance who want to know for sure that no one will shove their religion down anyone’s throat, that women’s medical decisions must be just as private and government-interference-free as men’s, that all Vermont citizens will be treated equally in housing, healthcare, schools, banks, bars, restaurants, and every other public place. There are many of us here looking to the future. With hope.

NanuqFC

Matt Dunne has finally raised the abortion issue with Brian Dubie, and, unfortunately, I think it’s a mistake. The basic premise (which has been used before in the Lt. Gov. race) is that we don’t want a guy running the Senate who professes to be anti-abortion (or pro-life, I suppose), when he could be in a position to break a tie vote that would limit or outlaw abortion in Vermont.

I like Matt Dunne — a lot. I think his campaign has been great. But, look, there isn’t going to be any chance of a tie vote in the Vermont Senate on this or any other issue, with the Democrats (yeah, yeah, not all of them are pro-choice, either) holding a 21-9 majority. Raising the abortion issue is a booga-booga against Dubie, even though the premise is factually possible. It’s just doing scare tactics using an extremely implausible situation, at least for the near future.

Dubie said basically the same thing in a clip on VPR.

I, of course, as a l-o-o-o-ong time feminist, am totally pro-choice, and I’m glad Matt is too. And it’s killing me to apparently agree with Brian Dubie on anything. But this is the first thing he’s done in the campaign that I don’t respect.

Nobody likes being manipulated, and that’s what this tactic is. Can’t Matt find any other issue to confront Dubie on? Like how many Vermont cows were actually sold to Cuba (and wasn’t that breaking a trade embargo? not that I’m in favor of the trade embargo) after Dubie’s visit? And what has his “ambassadorship” to Quebec brought to Vermont?

Even more important, what will Matt do that Dubie hasn’t done (that almost sounds like a song …). Those answers are out there in Matt’s campaign materials and on his website (mattdunne.com). We need to see more of them in the mainstream media.

NanuqFC

So the reports are out now — must be true since Leno said it the other night — that Bush has “no plan” for dealing with a Democratically controlled Congress after the mid-term elections.

The pessimists I talk to suggest it’s because the election will be “postponed” (perhaps under martial law) or once again stolen. They regard the 2000 presidential election as a coup and the repeat in 2004 as an extension of the coup. This midterm election would be the beta test version of how to steal lesser federal elections.

Some folks think we’re near a popular uprising, while others see the bill signed today (abolishing habeas corpus, approving “hard treatment short of torture”) as one more link in the chain our elected officials have forged.

Query for “The Powerful” & Plugged In: has anyone fact-checked the RNC ad for Martha Rainville? You know, the one where it is claimed she “stood up to the Pentagon … and WON” over securing better body armor for National Guard troops being sent to Iraq.

Did she really play a major part in that?

NanuqFC