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


4.18.2008

 

Delicate balance


As Gov. Jim Douglas' news conference ended Thursday afternoon, Rep. Martha Heath marched up to the governor with flames shooting from her eyes.

The House Appropriations Committee chairwoman had been listening to the news conference and was angry that he had said that the Legislature's staff had come up with the list of possible budget cuts.

No, she told the governor, it was a joint effort between Douglas' fiscal staff and the Legislature's fiscal staff.

Douglas was not terribly apologetic. He corrected his comment for the benefit of the two or three people within listening distance. He did nothing to douse the flames shooting from Heath's eyes.

The significance of the comments?

The legislative and the administrative staffs had quite intentionally shared compilation of the list to share the blame (and the credit) for the ideas. Heath had spent the last few days getting hammered by her fellow legislators and advocates outraged that some certain item was on the list. She explained to her caucus the day before that it was merely a list of possibilities from both branches. Douglas was, in her view, selling her up the river.

It may have been inadvertent on his part - he would be less attuned to the delicate balance of whose list it was than those doing the actual negotiations. But he seemed to kind of enjoy doing it.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Comments:
Oh it wasn't "inadvertent." Don't fool yourself. Douglas can be a royal prick when he wants to be. He doesn't like it when people see him sweat, which he did a lot of yesterday. The press should demand that the Governor spell out exactly which cut proposals were his and which weren't. That's not too much to ask is it?
 
The man has no desire to collaborate.

He just plays games.
 
The man has no desire to collaborate.

He just plays games.
 
He's useless. Six years of nothing.
 
Who cares about a liberal idiot like Martha Heath? She and her fellow leftists are what put the state in such dire straights, and I guess all she is doing is trying to shift the attention away from the guv. They have spent the last several years spending money on trains to nowhere, bike paths, impeachment studies, Lets-put-Energy-out-of-business studies, gay-marriage studies, ad nauseum.

About time to -

TAKE BACK VERMONT!
 
Heath should be embarrassed for the way she has performed her position. In all this time she has offered no solutions to the problems.

Having seen her on VPR and WCAX news shows too many times, it is clear she has no ability to communicate clearly what she sees as the issues or what need to be done to solve them.

Serious issues need experienced people to resolve them. She is unfortunately not one of them.
 
Why hasn't Douglas given any details about his "plan" ???

Why has he waited so long to start talking about economic stimulus ???
 
I hope that our next governor is an adult.
 
Yeah. My vote is for Colby and Coopy....the Dream Team
 
I find it intersting that when a stimulus proposal is put on the table it is described by the Senior leaders in the legislature 'as if a grenade had been thrown in the process'.

It says it all about Peter and Gaye... a plan to move forward is viewed as destructive. It can't be more partisan than that. After all this time with their leadership, the only thing they have put forward is Cindy Sheenan and more tax proposals.
 
Anthony Pollina?? "We can do better!"
 
"I find it intersting that when a stimulus proposal is put on the table it is ..."

A PROPOSAL HAS NOT BEEN PUT ON THE TABLE !!!

We are 90% of the way through the legislative session and the Governor hasn't even proposed ANYTHING yet.
 
Perhaps a better response from Peter would have been something like ...we look forward to the Gov's proposal and the opportunity to work with him to move our economy forward.

Seems a little more forward looking and positive than to call it a bomb, no matter how late it was brought into play.
 
The legislature is trying to adjourn and get home.

Why didn't the Governor propose this thing 3 weeks ago?

The entire "stimulus package" is a fantasy.

The man is wasting everyone's time.
 
3 weeks ago??

How about 5 years ago??

He's been in office for 6 years and he's only now thinking of ways to stimulate the economy?

And he hasn't even proposed a plan yet??

What a do-nothing fool.
 
Jimmy Doesless lacks vision, leadership and courage.

Anything he proposes is his plan - until things don't go well, then he blames the legislature.
 
"Anonymous said... 3 weeks ago??

How about 5 years ago??

He's been in office for 6 years and he's only now thinking of ways to stimulate the economy?

And he hasn't even proposed a plan yet??

What a do-nothing fool."

So why aren't you asking/saying the samething to the entire Legislature. They had an equal amount of time to propose a sound fiscal plan for the state and did not. They were more interested in entertaining Cindy Sheehan, finding new and creative ways to raise and re-allocate taxs and leading, ineffectively by the way, in the fight against global warming. I would suggest Peter S, Gaye S, the Senate and the House are equally to blame.

Throw Douglas if you like but throwing him out to replace him with Symington or Pollina won't make things better. Where have they demonstrated an ounce of effective leadership?

Captain America
 
"What a dumb stimulus package you have Douglas", Shumlin asks, "can you tell us what it is"? Sounds like the Dems should be embarrassed, not blindsided.
 
Some liberal idiot had an opinion piece in today's paper that equated Douglas' stimulus plan with the Patriot Act, warning that if homes were built for middle income people then Vermont would immediately turn into Florida or Las Vegas.

Hmmmmm.........wonder what energy costs are in Las Vegas or Florida, not to mention taxes!
 
We still don't know why Douglas didn't propose something earlier.

His fantasy proposal is a day late and a dollar short.
 
Why wasn't his fantasy "stimulus package" part of the budget he proposed?

Oh yea, that budget was a fantasy too. It didn't even include money to pay for the November election.
 
The Dems idea of a stimulus package is to shut down VT Yankee and watch United Van Lines and American Van Lines line up to hire enough help to move everyone to a state they can afford to use light bulbs.
 
"Some liberal idiot had an opinion piece in today's paper that equated Douglas' stimulus plan with the Patriot Act, warning that if homes were built for middle income people then Vermont would immediately turn into Florida or Las Vegas."

It was perhaps the most absurd letter I have read in the BFP. It must either have been a slow day for incoming mail for the OpEd team or else somthing targeted for the comic pages was printed in the wrong section.
 
Yea, and some Republican idiot said that he had a $100 million stimulus package -- but he didn't.

I guess we've got idiots on both sides. The difference is that the Republican idiots are promoted to the top.
 
I saw Douglas' proposal in today's paper. Strangely I could not find one from Peter or Gaye.

Great leaders heading up the majority. No wonder the state is a legislative basket case.
 
Forget Gaye vote for Pollina!
 
signed,
Anthony's mom
 
Symington is the winner.
 
She's a winner alright...
 
Oh, yeah.......................
 
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