Ouch. Daniel Barlow has announced he’s leaving his reporter job at the Vermont Press Bureau this month. For those who don’t know how it works, the Bureau is a group of, at present, three reporters (Barlow, Louis Porter, Peter Hirschfeld) who provide the political reporting for The Times Argus and the Rutland Herald. And of those three, Barlow stood head and shoulders above the others in terms of his thoroughness in covering a story, and his clarity in presenting unfiltered facts.

Hirschfeld tends to skimp mightily on details – particular in the “both sides” department. Possibly he just has a tendency not to look beyond the press releases he’s received from the Douglas administration. Whether its that or ideological leakage, a political story under his byline is often not the full story, and has tended to only support the Governor’s messaging.

Bureau Chief Porter on the other hand, tends to comes off as the sort of journalist who doesn’t want to simply report the news, but wants to be its gatekeeper, deciding what really matters and what doesn’t in an idiosyncratic way and reporting from that subjective position (this was often Chris Graff’s problem at the AP as well). I suspect he’d be much happier as a columnist. A particularly disturbing example comes from earlier in the year, and his bizarre (and repeated) brazen misrepresentation of Governor Douglas’s budget proposal in a manner consistent with GOP talking points (see here and here).

So anyway, it’s not hard to understand how someone with Barlow’s obvious talent and intelligence would like to move on, but its a blow for Vermonters – and another nail in the coffin of the Times Argus and Rutland Herald, who seem to be determined of late to hasten their own demise.

Here’s the press release from PPNNE:

Burlington (VT) – This Tuesday, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England’s Action Fund kicks off a Women for Shumlin Rally. The next governor of Vermont will make critical decisions about women’s access to reproductive health care services as health care reform is implemented. Peter Shumlin will protect access to affordable health care for women and is 100% pro-choice.

What: Women for Shumlin

When: Tuesday, October 5th at 7:30 p.m.

Where: Lake and College Building, (Atruim Room), Burlington, sponsored by Main Street Landing and the PPNNE Action Fund

Speakers will include former Vermont Governor Madeleine May Kunin, lieutenant governor candidate Steve Howard, gubernatorial candidate Peter Shumlin, Planned Parenthood, and others.

I used to work for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. They rock. I wish I could make this, but I at least want to encourage other folks. A good turnout would be a big boost to the effort. Independent women voting on the choice issue could well be key in November.

During this election season, it’s interesting to consider the Republican political bench of the future, which is already turning into the face of Vermont Republicans today. It wasn’t that long ago when it was hard to imagine where their candidates would come from. There were not many names in circulation from the depleted legislative corps (a corps largely depleted because the efforts of the state party during the last decade were largely slaved to the needs of Governor Douglas, to the ongoing depletion and detriment of the legislative caucus).

Just last cycle we were left to wonder who exactly the other team had? Randy Brock still wants to stay in the game, but is clearly on the decline. Skip Vallee took his first shot and failed. Wendy Wilton fired up the far right base, but then evaporated. Going back another cycle, there was a lot of speculation on the future of former Speaker Walt Freed, but he too seems like yesterday’s news. Tom Salmon? Puh-leez. There’s a guy who has peaked if there ever was one.

But there are a few new GOP-ers already in circulation who, though running for “lesser” offices now, are likely the stars-in-making who will be the Vermont Republicans candidates for Governor, US Senator, and US Rep – not necessarily in that order.

Washington County Senator Phil Scott is one, and blunting his ascension/graduation into the Lieutenant Governor’s spot this time around is no small task for Democratic candidate Steve Howard (go Steve!). Scott has a well-earned reputation as a nice guy, so it’s not easy to beat the guy up. He’s also got a record as a moderate, which the weeniecrats self-described conservative Dems just looooove (cause apparently nothing shows what a free thinker you are than to be the only one among your self-described Demmycrat buddies that voted for a Republican. Barf.).

Scott is the exception in this list, being the only one emerging from that skimpy legislative bench. For others, the GOP has had to work non-traditional paths of ascension. Jason Gibbs was Jim Douglas’s spokesman until he went on the administrative resume building boot camp into the office of Forest and Parks. No one has been more obviously groomed for ascension by the Douglas crowd than Mr. Gibbs, who may well be encouraged to go for the top spot next time out if (when) Dubie loses to Shumlin (assuming Gibbs defeats Democratic candidate Jim Condos for SoS – which, honestly, I’d have to bet against Gibbs on, assuming Condos starts getting out there more visibly, and soon)

Finally, there’s the other Dubie – and another in the long line of Frankenstein monsters created by the state Democrats (the Democratic majority really didn’t have to help him along by voting him into the position, did they?). Michael Dubie holds the same position Martha Rainville (for whom it was clearly a political stepping stone) did before her run for US Representative, and he too would seem at a glance to have US Representative candidate written all over him. Perhaps if his brother does win (not gonna happen), he’ll respond to growing murmurs about the appropriateness of having a sibling team in charge of the state Guard by saying “fine, I’ll step down and go for Peter Welch’s office….”

The emerging threesome – and no doubt there are more. What other GOP rising stars are there to watch out for…?

Is this the beginning of a sea change? We’ll see. Blogger and State House candidate Ntodd Pritsky has broken the taboo and engaged the Vermont Commons crowd directly in a discussion of the implications of allying with white supremacist secession groups such as the League of the South. Here’s an excerpt:

Anyway, Odum has forcefully brought his opinions to bear, as he always does, and in our exchange he challenged me to “disavow any racist associations.”  I’m not entirely sure this will count, but I will try:

I think racists and white supremacists are evil.  I think one should call them out.  I think having such people in leadership positions of an organization like SVR is actively aiding and abetting said evil. There is much on the now-outed SVR mailing list I explicitly disapprove of, particularly the Rothschilds-related conspiracies which are anti-Semitic bullshit warmed over, any threats of violence, embracing capital punishment, misogynist remarks, and so on.

Sure its not exactly a “let’s talk about this” and more of a “there, I did it already” kind of post – but he still has crossed the line. Maybe he’ll light a fuse that could lead into a “clean” secession movement.

Or maybe it’ll just get yanked down (note: the diary is not displayed on the main blog site and – as such – will only be read by a handful in its current form it’s up front now), and maybe ntodd will get tossed into the SVR scrapheap along with the others who have dared question these affiliations (Bill McKibben, Robert Riversong, Dan DeWalt, Frank Bryan). After all, from the very beginning (at least its beginning at this site), the then-cooly and clinically expressed concerns and objections were met with personal attacks and harassment campaigns. One hopes the SVR leadership is capable of learning that such an approach has not helped their cause any.

In any event, Todd (or is it ‘n’?), thanks for stepping up and speaking the truth in what is bound to prove to be an unpopular way o’er yonder. Well done.

Let’s not take up too much front page real estate with this during an election season, but for those who are looking for a distraction, click after the jump for some candid thoughts on the death penalty for lying politicians, mandatory population caps in a Vermont Republic, and some rather ugly misogyny-laced comments about a local woman reporter from Vermont’s fringiest…

(Note: AS expected, the links referred to below have been taken down. No worries, you can download it all right here.)

Some of you will recall the drama that ensued when I started blogging my opinions of the Vermont secessionist crowd’s unapologetic associations with (and frequent promotion of) the neo-confederate movement, which represents much of the most frightening racist, misogynist and homophobic elements in our culture. Not only have the leaders of Vermont’s movement embraced these scary people institutionally (bringing them to Vermont on several occasions for conventions and the like), they’ve casually lent their own platform (Vermont Commons) to individuals prominently featured on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of national racist and antisemitic leaders (people such as Thomas DiLorenzo, Robert Griffin, Franklin Sanders, Donald Livingston). And like their comrades in other states, when faced with those who do not approve of such values, their response has been to aggresively engage in campaigns of personal destruction, without ever addressing the core criticisms. In my case, that meant an ongoing campaign of harassment over the ensuing several years from SVR founder Thomas Naylor, coupled with a strange but steady parade of childish conspiracy theories from his partner, Rob Williams of Vermont Commons.

For my part, I said my piece a while back and moved onto other things. Partly because I have other things that have moved me, but also because, frankly, the whole business makes me sad. Here in the whitest state in the union, so many Vermonters would rather look the other way and roll their eyes at a movement they see as a cute, but crazy uncle who lives in the attic, rather than honestly confront the fact that the Vermont secessionists continue to defend, collaborate with and promote a national network of friends who wouldn’t hesitate to give the Matthew Shepard treatment to people I care about. It’s hard not to be appalled at that. Granted, Rob Williams has been very clever in nurturing this benign tolerance (and not just by co-opting the flag used by the Vermont National Guard). Over the years, he has aggressively courted contributions to his publication from local activists who have no idea their own piece may end up printed alongside the byline of a known neo-confederate racist. More clever, though, is how readily Williams hands out free advertising – sometimes himself, sometimes under the guise of it being an “anonymous gift” – in order to fill the pages with “ads” that create a permanent record branding the names and logos of numerous reputable businesses and nonprofits alongside his movement. This creates an incentive for those folks to look away from the secessionists’ associations, rather than invite criticism onto themselves. It’s very clever, and it’s the kind of approach that has won the open admiration (and emulation) of scarier members of Williams’ club, such as League of the South Founder (seen here on Glenn Beck’s old show with Naylor), Michael Hill.

Still, you may have noticed a flurry of activity on JD’s site, as well as the blog of online anonymous activist “Thomas Rowley” who first publicized the secessionists’ associations. JD has discussed the weird theories that he (and I, actually) is Rowley (as if either of us needs an alias to hide behind…? Perhaps Williams thinks his and Naylor’s multiyear campaign of personal harassment against me was effective after all). Rowley has looked at the secessionist concerns about the “Israeli Mafia” among other things. Both playfully imply they have a source, and have quoted from “leaked” emails.

But it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye I suppose. Not to spend too much time on these guys here, but it’s probably time to come out with the identity of that source – it’s the internet. Rowley noticed some time back that the secessionist crowd had done what is still so frequently done even in 2010; that is, left their complete email correspondence hanging out there on the web for anyone to read. Emails were read, chuckles were had, some eyebrows were raised, and links were shared with local activists as well as some in the national hate group tracking community, and “Tom” and JD took a few days to mess with them a bit before it was decided that there was a responsibility to go up with this. Sitting on it would just get tacky.

It was cathartic to be sure, but it’s time to move on. Where do these emails fall in the long, long history of leaked and exposed emails in the political or activist world? Nothing earth shattering per se, as we’re only talking a tiny fringe group here. There is the same civil war revisionism common to all the regional secession groups in the US on display. But there are some interesting insights into the psychology in play to be had.

Links will be provided, but no doubt this stuff will come down quickly. No worries, though, it’s all downloaded.

There’s a lot up there, but most of it quite benign. There is a little bit of campaign coordination that, without in-kind donation reporting, could well run afoul of campaign finance law. Some fretting about people calling them “racists,” which I don’t think anyone has done. Let me say for my part that there is such a thing as active racism and passively-programmed cultural racism, and certainly anyone who would freely and unapologetically consider leaders of the League of the South to be be their partners in building a Utopian world is at the very least guilty of the latter. I mean… good grief.

But from looking at the back and forth, it seems that most of the Vermonters actively involved in this cabal are more of the tagalong sort than committed to the cause. These are folks very much looking for an alternative politics and who tend to flit from counter-institution to counter-institution, and the “Second Vermont Republic” is just their latest stop. That’s, for example, how you likely get the bizarre disconnect in this document, which is set up as sort of a FAQ for the listserv, but then includes some of the individual candidates and menbers own particularized views of… er…utopia?

Atop the page, it says:

Tension Reduction. Consistent with Vermont’s long tradition of “live and let live” and nonviolence, we do not condone state-sponsored violence inflicted either by the military or law enforcement officials.

…and a bit further down the same page, Washington County Senate candidate Gaelen Brown advocates the death penalty for any elected official who is caught lying (I kid you not):

3. Lying in official duties, to the detriment of the populace, by Elected officials at any level is a capital crime

I guess the meaning of “state-sponsored violence” remains to be worked out in an independent Vermont.

Brown then offers the absurdity of these two statements in succession:

8. Live and let live “bill of rights”

9. Population cap and regenerative organic agriculture

No doubt the reproduction police will acquit themselves in an approriately Vermonty live-and-let-live manner (?!?!).

Again in the same page, gubernatorial candidate Dennis Steele’s first action as head of an independent Vermont would presumably be to engage the new Vermont military (?) to start a war with the United States, given this stated first order of business (emphasis added):

5. Close Yankee and seize all dams.

Then there’s this from Brown on September 1st, which probably speaks for itself:

Personally I believe that it’s likely that NASA has been collaborating

with beings from other planets to mine the dark side of the moon in

exchange for them giving us some of their technology.

(I’ve seen unexplainable UFOs several times and I know a man who works

for Carlisle who says there is heavy investment going on re

infrastructure to mine the moon for titanium, H3 (nuclear fuel), and

other minerals that are rare on earth.) I have also studied the

chem.-trail and HARPP systems/history and there’s a lot of sketchy

activity in this category as well.

But I’m not going to focus on these issues in my campaign.

There is a lot of unfocused rage, bitterness and (often understandable) frustration in circulation, hence the frequent discussions of how to become more engaged with the Vermont Tea Party movement. That rage does cross a bit into the creepy, though. Perennial candidate Dennis Morriseau shares his opinion of vtdigger’s Anne Galloway in terms that are rather disturbing. It’s odd that Galloway has earned their ire, as she has actually done them some favors. She herself has added her own byline to Vermont Commons by entering into an arrangement whereby her own digger pieces have been reprinted there. In fact, during the very month her piece appeared, she penned this article (without revealing her relationship with Vermont Commons, unfortunately), in which SVR founder Naylor was freely allowed to trash me personally over my own opinions of his associations, without any attempt by her made to approach me for the same article (I only became aware of it inadvertently).

Despite this favorable treatment, it wasn’t enough for State Senate candidate Morriseau (who refers to himself as the Vermont Republic’s “Foreign Minister”) who on February 16th of this year had this to say about how Galloway should be dealt with:

Because I savaged her in our first few exchanges.

Now I am making nice.  And she likes that better.  So she is liking me better……

Before I punched her, she did not know me or care a fig……..

Now she sees I can laugh, I am playful….possibly intelligent…and I differ with her……..

She begins to be intrigued.

We have to be lovers to these sorts……  I know that is a little crass….but it’s DO OR DIE time.

And later (May 28th):

No reason for her to breathe OR DO WHAT SHE DOES…..unless she is a SPOOK.

NOBOCY is that venal from stupidity.

Yikes.

The complete archive, for the moment, can be found here. Again, in the long, ongoing history of leaked emails and communications left hanging on the web, the Vermont secessionists’ blunder merits barely a footnote. It is, though, a reminder that this group is among the last we would want shaping society – and among the first likely to collapse under its own zaniness at any given moment.

There’s a big, beaming piece from Rutland Herald/Times Argus Publisher John Mitchell today, proudly launching the new paid subscription system for online content from the struggling independent newspapers he runs. He goes through the frustrations – rising costs, more people accessing content for free online than paying for it. All important, all a concern.

But here’s the thing – paywalls don’t work. They just don’t. The Argus/Herald is coming into this game very late, and this subscription thing has repeatedly been tried and been a total bust. Just because people would like to read something, doesn’t mean they’ll pay for it. The New York Times, the LA Times, even online sites like Salon – all famously tried and dropped their own paywalls after reporting an up to 97% drop in online traffic!

So I’m sympathetic – really – but this is still old style thinking. Slap a pricetag on it. Whatever the solution is, it aint that simple – just as media itself is no longer as simple as it was in newspapers good ol’ days. This is especially true with Anne Galloway’s vtdigger on the scene, operating under a completely different business model and providing both solid content and even more raw, undigested information that the Argus and Herald do, either online or in print.

No, the good ol’ days are gone – which is not to say that the new days can’t be good too – or even better – but subscription paywalls are demonstrably not the right tool for the right job, and I don’t know if struggling operations like Mitchell’s can afford to learn the hard way. They need to be worried about reinventing the wheel, rather than continuing to try the square wheel their comrades have repeatedly discarded.

So what do they do? I dunno. I have some ideas from a new media perspective. They may be as limited and problematic as ideas like the paywall that come from an exclusively legacy media perspective.

It’s a shame we can’t get together, compare notes, and pool experience and ideas to come up with new solutions. Unfortunately, as Herald/Argus editorial is so fond of reminding their readers, new media folks are little more than “blogmaniacs,” (for instance, see here and here – at least, see that second link while you can). And what possible good can come from breaking bread with a maniac?

In the meantime, I give this paywall business 6 months to a year.

(Note: Blogger Morgan Brown offers his more comprehensive thoughts on this in his own diary)

(Crossposted from the Huffington Post – local readers will allow for the overly expository language written for non-Vermonters reading that site)

A prominent Washington lobbyist and longtime national Republican operative now living in Vermont and working as an unpaid adviser to the campaign of GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Dubie, has become the latest prominent Republican to engage in strange, disproportionate bullying behavior towards someone deemed a political enemy (see Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell for another recent example). Former head of the Republican Governor’s Association Paul Hatch has been caught engaging in a take-no-prisoners vendetta (with a disconcertingly obsessive flavor to it) against a county-level Democratic candidate who defeated his partner in the recent primary election.

Hatch, currently the Senior Vice President for Republican DC lobbying and elections firm Total Spectrum/Steve Gordon & Associates, has a remarkably deep history with national Republican politics. According to his bio at the Spectrum site:

In 1991, Paul served as Finance Director, Treasurer and Advisor for the gubernatorial campaign and political operation of former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt. In 1994, Governor Leavitt asked Paul to serve as Executive Director of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) in Washington, DC. Paul provided gubernatorial candidates in all fifty states with political strategy, and helped them plan and execute fundraising events that raised millions of dollars. During his tenure at the RGA, the number of Republicans leading their state governments soared from 17 to 32 governors.

Paul also served as the governors’ liaison to the leadership in Congress. He established valuable relationships with the leadership and members in the United States House and Senate, and has represented several current and former members of Congress.

The story thusfar:

Hatch’s significant other of many years, Laura Moore, was making a second run at a State Senate Seat from Washington County (which includes the state capital of Montpelier). Moore had previously gained the Democratic Party’s nomination but lost in the 2008 General Election. This time, however, there was an open seat, but the county Democrats had a contested primary. Democrats may well have given Moore a second nod, but for the campaign finance report filed by the Republican candidate for Governor, sitting Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie. The report revealed a $450 contribution from Moore to the GOP standard bearer, who is strongly conservative by Vermont Republican standards, being opposed to both abortion rights and same-sex marriage equality.

The contribution became a hot topic in County Democratic circles, where it finally bubbled into the public arena on the left-wing community blog, Green Mountain Daily in a piece penned by GMD front pager and Washington County Democratic Party Chair, Jack McCullough (it should be noted that I am GMD’s founder and current Publisher). From there it was picked up by the local newspapers, and it took little time for the bottom to fall out of Moore’s primary support. Moore attempted to rally – and Republican big gun Hatch took the unusual step of posting on the Daily Kos-style Green Mountain Daily himself in her defense.

Moore finished last in the primary.

But Moore and her partner were not about to let it go. After unapologetic defenses of her contribution (and the peculiar spectacle of a candidate waxing victimized because of her party rank and file’s displeasure with her support of the other party’s candidate for the top office), Moore and Hatch apparently launched a plan for payback, focusing their ire on the candidate who did win the nomination insiders have suggested she felt “entitled” to: former State Representative Donny Osman. Osman’s campaign was being informally advised by McCullough’s fellow Green Mountain Daily contributor John Ryan (who blogs under the name “JD Ryan”). Ryan, on his own Vermont-based blog fivebeforechaos.com, expressed his feelings a bit more bluntly than McCullough in a piece entitled “Laura Moore: Lovin’ Herself Some Republican Ass”. FBC is a more personal site than GMD, where Ryan shares his thoughts on politics, movies, religion and other topics, and as such receives around 100 visitors per day only.

The first sign of what was in store was the appearence of Moore at a post-primary town Democratic meeting, where Moore was decidedly uninterested in party unity. There, she made a teary eyed public condemnation of Ryan and Osman, quoting the title of the blog post and claiming it had gone “viral.”

Osman responded afterwards with an effort at conciliation that also separated himself from the post:

“Dear Laura,

I have to say that I think what happened at the Barre Democratic meeting was unfair to me, not helpful to the causes we Democrats believe in and not appropriate discourse for a meeting of fellow Democrats.  I have never made nor will I ever make a personal attack for political gain.  The assertion that I did attack you is simply wrong.

For the record, I asked John (Ryan) to keep his views far away from my Senate campaign.  John Ryan offered to help me because he wants my political points of view to be heard when formulating the policies of Vermont.  John is a very independent guy, not my employee who holds strong sometimes caustic views. He does not ask or consult me about expressing those views.

I am truly sorry that you got hurt and I hope it is clear that I did not hurt you or direct anyone to do so.  I would welcome the chance to sit with you, put this incident behind us and focus on the work of getting Democrats elected to the legislature.  I will understand if you want to withdraw from the process.   However, I ask in the name of Democratic unity that you not be public in expressing anger or any personal distain for me.

Laura, our political opinions are very much in sync.  I hope that we can agree that it vitally important to elect Democrats so that we can move Vermont forward.  It is my sincere wish that you would join in helping me get elected since we share so many of the goals for our state.  My experience in politics has showed that people who seemed our adversaries yesterday are often our vital allies of today and tomorrow.

I hope to hear from you.

Donny

This is where an otherwise pedestrian sore-loser episode started getting stranger.

According to several people, the former RNC Deputy Director Hatch began an active whisper campaign to make Osman pay for his victory over Moore, and began promoting the theory that Osman was the mastermind behind a concerted effort to destroy his partner’s political career. Whisper campaigns, too, are fairly pedestrian – but Hatch has taken his vendetta straight to the Osman campaign with threats to continue. In an email to Osman Campaign Manager Nick Charyk dated 9/28/2010, Hatch wrote:

From: Paul Hatch

Date: Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 3:16 PM

Subject: Donny and Me

To: nick@donnyosman.com

Dear Nick –

I don’t believe that we have had the pleasure of meeting, but my name is Paul Hatch and I was immortalized in one of J.D. Ryan’s blog posting.  Yes, I am the Republican Ass that Laura Moore is Lovin’.  The posting continued in a downward spiral and contained crude and vulgar language and ideas.  And of course, J.D. was Donny’s campaign manager at the time and remained so for six more weeks.

While Ryan was Osman’s Campaign Manager in an unsuccessful bid for office in a previous cycle, Campaign Manager Charyk is – and has been – Osman’s only staffer for this election.

Hatch continued:

Laura tells me that you are a very decent guy who is just getting a start in politics — I am truly sorry that it is with Donny Osman.  Laura also tells me that you have assured her on a couple of occasions that Donny would apologize for his shameful character attack on her in the primary election.  Instead, he chose to send her a letter which represents yet another attack because she had the temerity to tell the Barre Area Democrats that she would not be supporting your candidate.  At least she did so right out in the open (as they say, in front of God and everybody) whereas Donny engaged in a cowardly whisper campaign to delegitimize her (and directed his campaign manager to post ugly blogs).  As I am sure you know, his behind-the-back attack declared her guilty by her association with me because I have held some top staff positions at the Republican Governors Association and Republican National Committee.

Anyway, with that introduction, down to business.  Because you are apparently a pretty good guy, I decided to give you a heads-up.  I am raising a few dollars from Republican sources to run some radio ads and send a couple of pieces of direct mail against Donny’s candidacy.  Following is the gist of what I am putting together.  (By the way, Laura knows nothing about my campaign against Donny or about this email; she would rather I not get involved, but you see, Donny attacked me too, and I am not inclined to just let it go).

I am going to tell the entire county that a prominent, current Democratic legislator thinks that Donny lacks the “mental capacity and emotional stability” to serve in the Vermont Senate.

Here is the background:  Laura heard from a number of people that three sitting members of the Vermont House were engaged in the aforementioned whisper campaign (along with your boy and (4th place Washington County Senatorial Candidate) Kim Cheney).  So, being the direct and upright person that she is, she confronted all three of the legislators.  Two of them were big enough to admit that they had been involved and she had very productive discussions with them.  The third adamantly denied any involvement whatsoever.  I was present (at the Montpelier Farmers’ Market) in this third discussion and had the foresight and good luck to record the conversation on my iPhone Voice Memo application.  Great little device, the iPhone.

Several conversations with insiders have yielded nothing but confusion about what Hatch references, and in fact, the contribution was very much an open topic of discussion, rather than a “whisper” among Democratic voters in the region of Montpelier, where – as a state capital – such conversations are inevitable. By the time the topic hit Green Mountain Daily, it had migrated to listservs and Facebook pages and was already a full-on scandal among many in Democratic circles.

According to a source close to his campaign, Hatch’s “mental capacity” comment, however, is a direct attack on Osman’s past struggles with Depression, despite the fact that this history nver emerged as an issue during his successful tenure as a State Representative or the campaigns for that office. Nevertheless, Hatch’s threat to use personal funds to make that history a local campaign issue out of spite is a difficult one to ignore. He continues:

Anyway, when the House Member denied involvement in the attacks on Laura, she asked him if he was supporting Donny in the race, to which he said no and went on to say that “sadly, Donny lacks the mental capacity and emotional stability to serve in the Vermont Senate”.   As a campaign operative, you agree, I am sure, that in this case, using the legislator’s own words (and voice!) in a radio ad will have the most impact.

I contemplated just going ahead with the effort without my fingerprints on it, but like Laura, I try to be an upfront and direct person.

I will also be at Donny’s event for (Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate) Pete Shumlin next Sunday (Pete is a good friend of mine).  I hope you and Donny won’t mind if a wear a sticker on the back of my jeans that says: “Laura Moore was here”.

It is too bad, Nick, that a simple apology from Donny to Laura and me would have gone a long way to smooth things over.  But instead, your candidate chose to attack her again.  I must say that when I read Donny’s letter it seemed irrational and frankly, a bit crazy, to me.  Apparently that legislator is on to something . . .

All the best,

Paul

Paul D. Hatch

101 Strategy Partners

101 Constitution Avenue, NW

Washington, DC  20001

Hatch followed up on the 29th with another email:

Nick –

Thank you for your email.

You missed a few subtleties and nuances in my initial note.  A few observations:  

Although JD Ryan and his blog are an elegant metaphor for the assault on Laura, this is not about him; it is about Donny Osman and the lying, sniveling legislator who is as much a target of my I.E. campaign as Donny.

If you want an intelligent dialogue, don’t waste my time and insult my intelligence with this nonsense about JD not being the manager.  After the controversy peaked, several people told Laura that JD was Donny’s campaign manager.  And, oh, there is the fact that JD was introduced as Donny’s manager at the unity breakfast.  I have confirmed that with the host of the breakfast.  If JD wasn’t “officially” the manager, why was he widely portrayed as such?    

Please don’t complain that I am finding Donny guilty by his association with JD.  The entire smear campaign against Laura was based on her association with me and the lieutenant governor.

Yes, it is true:  I deplore the politics of personal destruction.  But, your campaign set the ground rules.  If I should walk away because it is the “right thing to do” by your definition, it means that your boy suffers no consequence for his actions. And make no mistake, he acted.  At least half a dozen people told Laura that Donny (not JD, not the legislator, not Kim Cheney) had some very ugly things to say about her.  If that many people knew her well enough to say something to her about it, it of course begs the question:  to how many dozens or hundreds of people did Donny malign Laura?

I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that your plea that I not execute my campaign is motivated by idealism and is not a cynical, cold calculation designed to play on what little idealism I have left.  But, isn’t it easy to take the moral high ground now that Donny’s attack has done its damage and the primary is over?

You may not have an emotional investment in this, but I do.  I still hear nearly every day about how Donny ruined Laura’s political career.

I am happy to meet with you and discuss this.  However, understand that Donny will pay a consequence of some kind.  It might be as simple as an apology or it could be the negative campaign that I have outlined — your choice.  If our meeting does not start with that premise, we need not waste one another’s time.    

Take care,

Paul

All of this has caught Osman offguard. When asked if he had any history before this election with Hatch, he replied simply “I do not know this man Mr. Hatch. I think at a party we were introduced, said hello and that is the full extent of my relationship with him.  I have never attacked Laura in public or in private. I did not and would not be a part of a whisper campaign to besmirch a person’s character.” He added “I do believe that making a $450.00 donation to Dubie’s campaign is not what a Democratic candidate for State Senate should do,” a sentiment clearly (and understandably) shared by a majority of county Democratic voters.

His campaign moved to get ahead of the story, saying in a press release:

Unfortunately, my participation in a spirited primary has made me the object of a smear campaign. In an email sent to my campaign, Paul Hatch, a Washington, D.C.-based Republican operative and adviser to Brian Dubie describes secretly taping a Vermont legislator and has threatened to use the dishonestly obtained tape in radio and print mail. He has promised to reach out to Republican money sources to pay for the vicious attacks. Voters in Washington County deserve to know about this vendetta by Mr. Hatch as it introduces into Washington county the politics of personal destruction, made famous by Mr. Hatch and his allies in Washington. This type of politics of personal destruction have no place in Washington County or Vermont. I ask that Vermont voters join me in standing up to this type of unethical action by national Republicans in Vermont.

In truth, it’s likely that the whole business will only serve to help Osman, who is hampered by poor name recognition. A narrative of being bullied by national, out-of-state interests combined with the pronounced sense of entitlement Moore and Hatch seem to exude towards the nomination could easily work to his advantage.

Putting aside the rather loathsome promise to incorporate the Democratic candidate’s history with depression into a smear campaign, all of this would be little more than an entertaining “news of the weird” episode if not for the fact that Hatch is hardly a small town crank, but is someone who has been a major player in national Republican politics for decades. Complicating matters for the state Republican Party is the fact that he is also a highly placed adviser to gubernaqtorial candidate Dubie. Dubie is already under fire for his uniquely atypical (for Vermont) slash-and-burn style attack campaign headed by the recently defeated Campaign Manager for former US Representative Thelma Drake (R-VA), Corry Bliss. The campaign has drawn criticism for going negative right out of the gate against Democratic nominee Peter Shumlin, including repeatedly propogating demonstrably untrue claims designed to cast the Democrat as soft on crime. Dubie himself has already been fingered twice for false statements on the campaign trail, and the Republican Governor’s Association (at one time headed by Hatch) has been credibly charged with illegally coordinating its activities directly with the Dubie campaign.

The news that a chief architect of the campaign is engaging in a personal political vendetta in a way that seems more than a little obsessive comes at a bad time for the state GOP.

To the rest of the country, it simply stands as the latest example of behavior by a prominent Republican that can be characterized as eccentric and creepy.

Despite the underground machinations reported in this diary, the Vermont AFL-CIO endorsed Peter Shumlin over Brian Dubie yesterday.

A defeat for the Vermont IBEW leadership (and George Clain in particular) who, in a fit of self-destructive pique, have chosen to move beyond understandably advocating for rank and file employees at Vermont Yankee to become the loudest cheerleaders in the state for demonstrably anti-labor candidate Brian Dubie (and in the process, reducing themselves to the status of unpaid spokespeople for that champion of the workingman, the Entergy Corporation).

The next defeat for Mr. Clain and company comes in November.

Yes its been a slow start to the week here at GMD, but stuff is a-brewin. In the meantime, here’s an email that came to front pager Maggie:

I just got off the phone with a “pollster” about the campaign for governor.

It was the most amazing piece of crap I have ever heard.  It included several anti-Shumlin push questions and three or four softballs for Dubie.

The guy doing the poll laughed a few times at my responses and at one point said, “Please, don’t hang up on me now.”

Dubie says he’s going to keep the campaign clean but this is certainly an indication of how he really plans to run.

Such a nice evening.

A true “push poll” (which is “when did you stop beating your wife” style nastiness-propagation masquerading as an independent survey) would have to be targeting a whole lot of people to be effective, otherwise it’s likely to just be garden variety GOP message testing.

So the question is – how many others are getting these calls. Anyone? And can anyone supply some of the specific questions being asked in the comments?

If you heard the VPR debate last night between Brian Dubie and Peter Shumlin (which you can listen to in full here), you may have been struck by how whiny Dubie was. For much of the debate, he seemed almost like a petulant – and often confused – child. It wasn’t pretty.

Here’s a You-Tubized version of some of the highlights: