... Senate President Pro Tem is known for his ability to come up with snappy sentences that usually involve some sort of analogy. At a news conference today on health care, he got that look on his face like he was just about to launch one of those. Sitting next to him, House Speaker Gaye Symington developed a smirk that indicated she thought one of Shumlin's lines was coming. Then it didn't quite come out in one neat package. Something about people claiming to see catamounts in the woods, and if the governor takes money away from the Catamount Health Plan - as Shumlin claims he's doing - then this catamount too will never be seen. Instead of being snappy, it oozed out like mud. Just goes to show you that he doesn't have those lines all worked out by the time he gets to work each day.
... The House was just settling in for a long debate on physician-assisted death today, when Symington asked the usual question about whether members were ready to vote on the bill, which she expected would be met by a member or two or more rising to be heard on the matter. Symington looked up, saw no one standing and balked in surprise at the possibility that there would be no debate on this. Everybody laughed. Of course, there was then four hours of debate. It just took a second for the first one to step forward.
... Vermont Public Interest Research Group was having a 35th birthday party for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant today, with a cake in the Statehouse. This was their way of noting its advanced age and strongly hinting that it was time to retire it. On his way out, VPIRG executive director Paul Burns was carrying a piece of the cake in a Tupperware-style container. It struck me that the piece of cake was in a sort of dry cask storage.
- Terri Hallenbeck
