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Political notes from Free Press staff writers Terri Hallenbeck, Sam Hemingway and Nancy Remsen


4.12.2007

 

Dorks are us

Give people an anonymous billboard and they turn into mean little critters. The phenomenon would make an interesting Lord-of-the-Flies-like study.

I will grant you that yesterday's downed-computer posting was not the most insightful or earth-shattering. It was but one morsel thrown out while I was eating my ham sandwich that might make somebody go "huh." I could've just concentrated on the sandwich and left you with nothing to read at all.

So what does one of our dedicated, politically thirsty and ungrateful blog readers call it? "Dorky." I haven't been called dorky, at least not to my face, since the 7th grade.

It's all right, I can take it. I see that you all moved on from my dorky comment and found your own thread. And new reasons to lob mean-spirited bombs at each other and the handful of politicians whom you blame for every ailment you've ever heard of.

I don't mean to be (even more) dorky here, but I wonder if it's possible to have a lively discussion without the mean-spirited bombs that you're only making because you sit behind the mask of anonymity.

Let's take a stab at the tete-a-tete between Neale Lunderville and Rep. Jim Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, for his part, says he doesn't want to talk about it anymore, would like the issue to die down. No doubt, the governor would too, but he was asked a number of questions about it at today's news conference.

He says he believes it was a matter of two people interpreting an exchange in two different ways, and not a matter of either one of them lying. Though Lunderville and Fitzgerald agree that they had two quick discussions in which both the road project and the veto vote came up, the governor doesn't find it odd that both topics managed to get squeezed into both conversations.

He did say that the exchange of one's vote for a favor would be completely inappropriate. And that the politics behind which road project gets built is less under his administration than previous ones because of a point system that's attached to each.

Give it a shot - express yourselves on this one. But let's see if you can you do it without the cheap, mean shots.


- Terri Hallenbeck

Comments:
"Give it a shot - express yourselves on this one. But let's see if you can you do it without the cheap, mean shots."

Terri,

That was cheap and mean.
 
Censored even in the blogosphere. Where's Snarky Boy when you need him?
 
Sorry Terri, it was immature and childish. I just hate taking crap from anon's.
 
Mike Smith has a Napoleon complex. Discuss...
 
Focusing on this is the same as slowing down to look at a car wreck - you know it is not really right but you can't help yourself.
Besides it breaks up the dull days
of nothing moving forward for the Democrats.
 
We need Shumlin or Dunne to take on the republicans.
 
Yes, let's elect Dunne who is nothing more that a very transparent self-serving egotist. Really smart move to start pushing him for us D's to elect
 
The point in the Lunderville issue is not whether there was an explicit quid pro quo discussed, it is the appearance of impropriety. Each man knew the issues at hand and so the connection was implicit.

Lunderville holds the future of your project in his hands. He talks to you about the project during tough budget times. He then talks to you about whether or not you will support his boss on the biggest vote yet that year. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to read between the lines.

Lunderville acted inappropriately, and the governor should clearly acknowledge that.

Also, you're not a dork. Just a blogger of sweet irony.
 
Lunderville needs to go.
 
If he goes, that'll open up a spot open for Barnett. McCain is beginning to slash his campaign staff, so I'm guessing Jimmy Jr. be back in Vermont soon looking for work. He's as unqualified as Lunderville.
 
Keep Lunderville, we don't want
Barnett!!!!!!!
 
that's flawed logic.

ethics violations are wrong. we can not tollerate them.

nobody has any idea who will replace lunderville.

everybody knows that his behavior is unacceptable.

The man needs to be fired.
 
Lunderville may be the savior of the Dem's yet. With all the focus on the Repub's and people yelling scandal, maybe nobody will notice how little the dem's actually accomplish.

For having a majority, its an awful shame how little has gotten done. Jimmy boy is just as bad though. Its all a big joke, Vermont's own rendition of wag the dog.

The dem's say geez, if I get everyone focused on the bad things the republicans do, maybe nobody will notice how little I do.

The repub's say geez, if I get everybody focused on how little the dem's do, nobody will notice that we really don't do anything either.

It's your average Vermonter that loses in this game.
 
With so much hubub about this Lunderville scandal, isn't it strange that Shumlin has been so quiet?

Notice that the least political (Symington) of all the Dems is the one pushing the issue. Maybe because the usual suspects (namely Shumlin) are just as guilty.

Something tells me that this will blow right back into their face. Stay tuned.
 
"Something tells me that this will blow right back into their face. Stay tuned."

Jason Gibbs? Is that you? Karl? Karl Rove?
 
You were right - look at the front page of the Brattleboro Reformer!
 
Oooh, the Reformer story. Read the piece and you'll see that Pillsbury himself says it's apples vs. oranges. Don't get yourself all excited GOP faithful. There's major difference between leg/leg discussions and exec/leg discussions. Plus no one knows what was offered, outside of a freakin' meeting. We know what Lunderville was offering.
 
Seems that everyone in Vermont except "public enema" know what a sleeze ball piece of crap Shumlin is.
 
Thanks for encouraging civil discourse Terri! It's all but vanished in Vermont. And by the way, pointing out the cheap, mean shots that fly back and forth on this site (amd others) is NOT cheap or mean!
 
Pillsbury for Senate!
 
Shumlin is Pro Tem Booba. Part of his job is to whip (don't get excited Boobs) like-minded legislators on votes. In this case, he asked The Doughboy for a meeting to discuss lord knows what. Might have wanted him to join the pool on when the session would let out. The issue's not about whether or not Shumlin's (how did you so eloquently put it) "a sleaze ball piece of crap." Maybe his is, maybe he's not. Not for me to judge. I happen to think you're a "sleaze ball piece of crap," but I give Shumlin credit for putting himself out there, as opposed to you, who hide in blog sites and cast stones. Frankly, you're a chicken sh*t on top of it (sorry. did I break civil discourse there. oh my!) Any time you'd like to meet face to face too, just let me know where and when. No bars hold.
 
Bubba is just another wuss republican.
 
Its time for Shumlin to be impeached. He has lied to Vermont for too long on too many issues. Someone has already kick-started the movement: www.impeachshumlin.com
 
Bubba's right. We don't waste time on dates.

It's purely physical.
 
You can't be serious about Pillsbury for senate!!!!!!!!
 
I love me some Pillsbury. He's dreamy.
 
The delivery operation of the Free Press is an absolute joke; it's no wonder the paper is facing financial challenges. This is the 4th time in 7 days I didn't get a paper. How sad that reporters who are professional find their reputations - and their salaries - negatively impacted by the worse-than-ever circulation operations of the Freeps. The changing economics of newspapers means that hard copies may become a thing of the past; I will venture a guess that the Freeps itself will become a thing of the past and will be replaced by a statewide daily . . . hopefully one that, unlike the Freeps, the organization can get to people's houses in the morning!
 
Grumpy subscribers should start flooding this blog with comments until management addresses the problem. Flyers going up today asking Montpelier folks to do just that!
 
Actually, grumpy subscribers should start picketing the offices of the BFP. This blog has very limited range. Good luck. That Gannett money will go a long way to stomping the masses.
 
Or you could just subscribe to a better newspaper ...
 
Wow, I will agree wholeheartedly with the people having issues with BFP delivery. How about a new topic: given changing economics, is home delivery of the newspaper quickly becoming a thing of the past? discuss . . .

p.s. hey, why don't the reporters give us some feedback on this issue? sounds like it has touched a nerve . . .
 
"...why don't the reporters give us some feedback on this issue?"

Because Gannett would probably fire them for thinking on their own.
 
" rednalsi said...

Sorry Terri, it was immature and childish. I just hate taking crap from anon's. "

huh? And you are not an anon?
 
I think Bubba is that grumpy whinny-ass who calls into the Mark Johnson show from time to time.
 
It just seems like a big statewide political game of he said, she said. One must ponder the political motives of keeping this going, will it be yet another excuse for nobody to get anything done at the statehouse.

P.S. as for home delivery, I don't subscribe to the paper, but have one wrapped in blue plastic tossed in my driveway anywhere's between 1 and 3 times a week. I just recycle it.
 
Perhaps the motive is to push for a higher ethical standard.
 
Fire Lunderville already. Shouldn't be hard to replace an individual who had absolutely no qualifications for the job. Who's left in the Douglas inner circle who hasn't received a plum position yet.

BTW: I read where Jimmy D.'s salary is about to be elevated to $150,000! Governor Affordability relatin' to the common folk. Yeah, right.
 
Fire Shumlin. Oh... that's right. We elected him.

OK - how about impeachment?
 
There is always political motive in keeping something alive in the press - for both sides.
 
Here's a great motive ... pushing our Governor to attain a higher ethical standard !
 
Didn't receive your Free Press this morning? Log onto all of the BFP's blogs and sound off! Together, we will force BFP management to get their circulation operation back on track (and stop ripping off advertisers and subscribers alike).
 
Here's an idea ... cancel your effing subscription, and stop bitching.
 
Politics is a game. Newspapers are a business - if the service is not good then cancel your subscrption.
 
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