Getting revved up for the legislative session, us news-types gathered around the table this afternoon for a news conference with Gov. Jim Douglas.
Here's something he revealed:
He's not afraid of cows. The governor was photographed for an article in AARP magazine, sitting in a chair on a farm in front of a few black and whites. Apparently the photo crew was a bit timid around the cows, but the governor was only mildly concerned about slobber on his suit. You can see it
here.
The chair he is sitting in was taken from the very conference room where the news conference was taking place. Perhaps even the very chair I was sitting in. I was not afraid.
The focus of the AARP article - Douglas was given a 2007 Impact Award for signing Vermont's Catamount Health Plan - went over with some of his political opponents more poorly than cow slobber on a suit. Douglas, after all, vetoed the Legislature's 2005 health-care reform plan and tussled mightily with the legislators over the 2006 plan. The AARP story says:
"While the bill was clearly a bipartisan effort, much of the credit goes to
Douglas, 55, for refusing to give up."
That's not exactly how some people see it. Douglas was reluctant to comment on the article. He said it would be a dangerous precedent to comment on news articles written about him, given that it might cause him to disagree with what some of us write about him.
- Terri Hallenbeck
