burlingtonfreepress.com

Sponsored by:

vt.Buzz ~ a political blog

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


6.27.2008

 

Anthony's Ag-ony

Progressive gubernatorial candidate Anthony Pollina is under attack from a group you'd least expect to have it out for him -- the Northeast Organic Farmers Association. Note to fans of political irony: Pollina himself once served on NOFA's board of directors.

Here's what happened. On Wednesday, Pollina put out a statement asserting that Gov. Jim Douglas, or at least his administration's Agriculture Department, was wrongly taking credit for encouraging Vermonters to "buy local" when it came to grocery shopping.

Pollina's statement cited a remark made in "Vermont Harvest" a department publication, that the buy local movement was initiated by Douglas in 2003. "The idea that Jim Douglas started the buy local movement ranks right up there with the idea that Al Gore invented the Internet. It is simply not true," Pollina fumed.

He goes on to tell how he was in on the ground floor of the buy local movement more than 20 years ago and doesn't recall Douglas being a colleague in the cause.

Exactly how Pollina sees this as a front-burner issue in the gubernatorial campaign is a discussion for another day.

Thursday, Enid Wonnacott, NOFA-Vermont's longtime executive director, told PolitickerVt's Zach Silber that Pollina's comments were and "severe exaggeration" and that Douglas and his Ag folks had been "incredibly helpful" in promoting the buy local effort.

Wonnacott agreed that the buy local movement has been around for a long time, but said Douglas deserves credit for having the Ag Dept. institute a Buy Local Program in 2003.

"The Agency of Agriculture has a massive promotional arm that was incredibly helpful," she said. "I understand that this is a political campaign and the goal is to raise conflict, but I see this with a much different message ... I think about how exciting it is and how strong this program is that the governor would want to take credit for it." For PolitickerVt's full post on the matter, click here.

Both the Douglas campaign and the Vermont Republican Party have quickly trotted out separate press statements gloating about Wonnacott's rebuff of Pollina. Not exactly a boffo moment for the Progressive, who is having his troubles being heard in the ongoing back-and-forth between Douglas and his Democratic rival, Gaye Symington.

FYI: A word about PolitickerVt, a relatively new kid on the political blog landscape in Vermont. It's a "chain" blog, one of 13 state political blogs owned and operated by the New York Observer around the country.

-- Sam Hemingway
.

Comments:
Poor Tony- his "ace-in-the-hole" turned out to be a "joker".
 
PolitickerVT gets a lot of facts wrong. Their editor can't spell the names of most of Vermont's counties. Their coverage is always slanted to the right.

The people behind it won't even use their real names -- given the quality of the product, I don't blame them.
 
PolitickerVT reminds me a lot of the fake blog that Richie Tarrant's set up back in 2004.
 
PolitickerVT.com has stepped it up this summer though. And given the size of our state I am happy to have more than three places to read.
 
Yea, they've stepped up the lies and the foolishness.
 
More to the issue at hand,
Jim Douglas often takes credit for stuff others, inc. the legislature, did.

Just last week he took credit for adding $1.5 million to the weatherization program for needy Vermonters.

Guess what - he actually proposed a cut in his budget, and it was the legislature that added the money back in, and just for good measure the legislature added an additional $500K in the Economic Stimulus package.
 
true that.
 
"Exactly how Pollina sees this as a front-burner issue in the gubernatorial campaign is a discussion for another day."

But don't worry, Hemingway won't have the discussion. It's a very important issue to everyone expect inept freeps reporters.

"Promotional arm", indeed. It's a promotion for the governor who records public service announcements, or free political ads.

There's is no doubt that NOFA knows who the stronger governor would be on their issues. They have to kiss up to the governor because he's leave them behind if they didn't.
 
He's leaving them behind anyhow.
 
So if all these people distrust PolickerVT.com, should the Freeps check the story out? It only seems fair that the Freeps look into it, since they gave so much coverage to the original story. Comment from the freeps???
 
Anthony "dump-your-milk" Pollina for Guv?
 
Gee, if Tony was forced to withdraw from the race and doogie has to go head-to-head with Symington in a year where the only suspense is whether Vermont's gonna have Obama beat McCain 3-1 or just 2-1, in what promises to be a year of record Dem turnout, the jimi douglas experience could have a hard time not gettin' booed off the stage.

Maybe doogie can follow McCain's lead and have Jason tell Sam Hemingway that Doogie would really benefit from a terrorist attack before Emerson Lynn comes to his aid to claim Jason must have been distracted by Sam's cleavage, 'cause if that does't work, the doogie/doobie debacle just might be toast.

Bummer.

Always a pleasure.
Dismissed.
 
Pollina for Governor - all the way.
 
Go Douglas!
 
What's Douglas done?

Dump Douglas.
 
Douglas has given a lot of his cronies nice little bonuses!
 
What has Pollina done???????????
 
Pollina has done nothing. Douglas has done nothing. What's your point?
 
It would seem that JWCoop now employs a room full of monkeys for his posts. Pretty good, if incomprehensible.

I don't see how any of this hurts Pollina. The only people who know that NOFA has an objection got it from Hemingway's blog. Barely anyone reads his printed stories say nothing about a stupid blog.
 
Anonymous...

"It would seem that JWCoop now employs a room full of monkeys for his posts. Pretty good, if incomprehensible."

In other words, you're still dumb, you're still scum and your ignorant anonymous ass still has bupkis. I'm shocked.

Thanks for clearin' that up. There's no "seem" or seems like about it.

"I don't see how any of this hurts Pollina. The only people who know
that NOFA has an objection got it from Hemingway's blog. Barely anyone reads his printed stories say nothing about a stupid blog."

And your ignorant anonymous ass is sure that no op-research intern or volunteer for the Doogie or Symington campaigns will make a note of it and have their respective candidates run with it to one degree or another and Sam's blog entry will be the end of it, eh, little factually-challenged, eh, nameless-nitwit fella?

Clearly, there's not much that you would comprehend or wouldn't be over your clueless cabeza, little fella.

Christ, why don't ya just follow the clueless McCain campaign's lead and have Jason tell the freeps folks that a terrorist attack would help doogie's reelection chances and/or have him call Pollina Symington in a skirt with a tan and get it over with.

Always a pleasure.
Dismissed.
 
Hey Anthony!! Wednesday is spaghetti day, forget milk, etc/
 
"Anonymous said...
Pollina has done nothing. Douglas has done nothing. What's your point?"

Symington has done nothing. Great choices.

JWCOOP for Gov! He may not do much but be assured he will torque you off.
 
"Anonymous said...

"JWCOOP for Gov! He may not do much but be assured he will torque you off."

Only if you're ignorant anonymous trash with bupkis.

Always a pleasure.
Dismissed.
 
Idea: how about the real people who read this blog (i.e., not the VSEA professional blogcorps; you know who you are, Doug) agree to to ignore JW Poop?

Poop is the Kim Jong Il of this blog except without possible nuclear weapons (one only hopes!). If we ignore him, he'll eventually find somewhere else to blog. Think Team America: "I'm so Ronery / So ronery / So ronery and sadry arone / There's no one / Just me onry / Sitting on my rittle throne."
 
A wonderful idea in theory, but given Coopy's habit of asking and answering his own questions not a practical one. Besides, he can just use "anonymous" as a sock puppet.
 
Anonymous said...

"A wonderful idea in theory, but given Coopy's habit of asking and answering his own questions not a practical one. Besides, he can just use "anonymous" as a sock puppet..."

Yeah, but your ignorant anonymous ass has just taken care of all that for me, little fella. Besides, given your hysterical history, it's not like you have the capacity or the inclination to provide any answers.

You may be dumb, scum, have bupkis and lack any and all capacity for rational thought, but you're very thoughtful to take care of the heavy lifting for me.

Gee, ignorant anonymous trash with bupkis finding their ignorant anonymous asses in agreement with ignorant anonymous trash with bupkis by ignorant anonymous trash with bupkis for ignorant anonymous trash with bupkis.

Imagine that.

Always a pleasure.
Dismissed.
 
To get back to the point of the thread, there's no doubt this incident was a stumble for the Douglas team, if only because it fed into a couple of the Democratic/Prog narratives, namely that Douglas hasn't accomplished anything and takes credit for what others have done. Of course, it also gets them off message for a cycle or two.

But like Sam said, it's hardly a front-burner issue; for non-political junkies who hear Douglas' "Buy Local" ads on the radio, they scratch their heads or just say, "Whatever. Sounds like nitpicking to me." If they even read, listened to, or watched one of the stories on "Localgate." Plenty of Vermonters tune out the campaign at this stage of the summer; it's all noise to them right now.
 
It is all noise to most voters right now - they want to enjoy their summer.
 
It is all noise to most voters right now - they want to enjoy their summer.
 
IndependentVter...

"To get back to the point of the thread, there's no doubt this incident was a stumble for the Douglas team, if only because it fed into a couple of the Democratic/Prog narratives, namely that Douglas hasn't accomplished anything and takes credit for what others have done."

In other words, reality substantiated by fact and evidence. That's never good for gops.

"Of course, it also gets them off message for a cycle or two."

Yeah, screw the facts. It's time to get back on message.

"But like Sam said, it's hardly a front-burner issue; for non-political junkies who hear Douglas' "Buy Local" ads on the radio, they scratch their heads or just say, "Whatever. Sounds like nitpicking to me."

Yeah, shop your local Walmart. Who could possibly sense irony or mixed-messages in that or incompetence and cluelessness in doogie and his supporters given the facts on the ground.

Yeah, I'm sure everyone's gonna be too busy focusing on family, fun, vacations, loading up the family in the SUV for a Summer trip and enjoying the great weather to notice the price of gas and the cost of everything else going through the ceiling as their wages, benefits and purchasing power continues to fail to keep pace and decline under the jimi douglas experience and the policies, party and President he supports and McCain will continue to implement and keep in effect.

Well, you can always pray that that's the case, indy. Clearly, doogie and your indignorant ill-informed ass can't fall back on the facts and reality.

Yeah, I'm afraid public apathy and the power of prayer is all ya got, little fella.

Because if your prayers aren't answered and Vermonters ever loaded up the truck and moved to reality, you and the jimi douglas experience are toast.

Gee, that'd be a shame.

Always a pleasure.
Dismissed.
 
Anonymous...

"It is all noise to most voters right now - they want to enjoy their summer.

Yeah, too bad life under the Bush Administration and the jimi douglas experience won't let them, little fella.

Always a pleasure.
Dismissed.
 
I'm enjoying my summer.
 
Lots of Vermonters are enjoying summer and could care less about politics.
 
Anonymous...

"Lots of Vermonters are enjoying summer and could care less about
politics."

Yeah, I'm sure you're right and nobody notices sky-rocketing gas prices when they're driving down the road in their SUV, little factually-challenged, nameless-nitwit fella.

You and your invisible anonymous little friends best say your prayers and hope nobody notices the difference in Vermont Life and the cost of it before and after the jimi douglas experience hit the stage, schmuck.

Lord knows the facts ain't doin' ya any favors.

Always a pleasure.
Dismissed.
 
John and Cindy McCain failed to pay taxes on a California property for the past four years. This is especially odd considering that the McCains are worth an estimated $100 million, and could easily afford to pay the bill.

After a reporter inquired about the bill with the McCain campaign, they immediately sent San Diego County a check for $6,744.42 -- and even then, they're still short by $1,742.
 
Gee, maybe they'll put McSame in the same cell bubbles and his band of bupkis-spewin' boneheads had Al Franken in a couple of months back.

When's Al eligible for parole again, little factually-challenged nameless-nitwit fellas?

Always a pleasure.
Dismissed.
 
Al will get back to you as soon as he finishes writing his latest porn story for Playboy. He has returned to writing these days since he has plenty of free time now that his stay on Air anti-America crashed and burned.
 
McCain won't pay his property tax bills, but wants to be the POTUS? Oy.
 
Anonymous said...

"Al will get back to you as soon as he finishes writing his latest porn story for Playboy. He has returned to writing these days since he has plenty of free time now that his stay on Air anti-America crashed and burned."

Really?

Is it your ignorant anonymous ass's coalition of the clueless cretin contention that Al Franken is not running to replace gop-scum rubber-stamp nitwit norm coleman in the Senate and that he left Air America less than voluntarily?

Evidence? That's what I thought.

In other words, you're still dumb, you're still scum, you've still got bupkis and your ignorant anonymous ass's claims that Franken was unquestionably going to jail for tax evasion have proven to be as bogus, specious and unsubstantiated as your nameless-nitwit claims that I'm Doug Hoffer.

Thanks for clearin' that up, little factually-challenged, nameless-nitwit fella.

Always a pleasure.
Dismissed.
 
Now, now, Coopy. You need to quit infering you are Doug Hoffer. In your wildest dreams you are not Doug Hoffer. I thought we got beyond that in previous counseling sessions.

Doug had the courage to present logical,civil arguments and defend his position...clearly something of which you are incapable. With luck we will get you there in the future as you continue your therapy.
 
Anonymous...

"Now, now, Coopy. You need to quit infering you are Doug Hoffer..."

Nice try, little factually-challenged, nameless-nitwit fella.

I didn't infer anything. It was your ignorant anonymous ass who made that claim while you in the process of misspelling inferring.

Ya couldn't spell or substantiate your delusional dreck then and ya can't spell or substantiate it now, nitwit.

You and your coalition of the clueless comrades have been ignorant anonymous trash with bupkis since ya got here, schmuck.

Always a pleasure.
Dismissed.
 
I wuv you Tickle Me Elmo!

Poke poke!
 
I bet the Pollina camp would love to see this post go away...
 
I think Shay Totten shed a little truth on the subject in his column this week. Hope Sam takes a look. So, yes,this post ought to go away since it's all crap.
 
Anonymous said...

"I bet the Pollina camp would love to see this post go away..."

And I know the jimi douglas experience hopes Pollina doesn't go away because in a two-person race in a Dem Year where the only question is whether Vermont is gonna go 2-1 or 3-1 for Obama and Vermont voters take a look at doogie's six-year record of incompetence in the cold light of day, they just may decide that they don't want another two years of more of the same, incompetent "leadership" and failed policies that have brought us to this point on the State Level any more than they want another four years of the same, incompetent, integrity-challenged, gop-scum leadership and failed policies on the Federal Level and the jimi douglas experience just might finally find itself booed off the stage and rightfully so.

Always a pleasure.
Dismissed.
 
Pollina is just trying to aggravate Gaye he has no clue how to be a governor
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

June 2006   July 2006   August 2006   September 2006   October 2006   November 2006   December 2006   January 2007   February 2007   March 2007   April 2007   May 2007   June 2007   July 2007   August 2007   September 2007   October 2007   November 2007   December 2007   January 2008   February 2008   March 2008   April 2008   May 2008   June 2008   July 2008   August 2008   September 2008   October 2008   November 2008   December 2008   January 2009   February 2009   March 2009   April 2009   May 2009   June 2009   July 2009   August 2009   September 2009   October 2009   November 2009   December 2009   January 2010   February 2010   March 2010   April 2010