A couple items from Gannett News Service reporter Erin Kelly on the Vermont delegation in Denver:
- Sen. Patrick Leahy said Wednesday that his speech before the Democratic National Convention was delayed a bit Tuesday evening because he suffered a nose bleed just before he was about to take the stage.
Leahy had been scheduled to speak immediately after New York Gov. David Paterson.
Instead, the schedule was quickely re-arranged as Leahy's wife, Marcelle, a nurse, tended to him. He gave his speech without incident about 20 minutes later.
Fellow Vermonter Howard Dean, chair of the Democratic National Committee and a doctor, went backstage to find out what the holdup was.
"He asked if he could do anything, and I told him, 'No thanks, the nurse has it under control,' " Leahy said.
Leahy said Denver's altitude and dry air caused the problem.
- Since he is about 1,500 miles from Vermont, former Gov. Howard Dean figured it was safe for him to pull on a pair of black cowboy boots without subjecting himself to ridicule from his fellow Vermonters.
Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told Vermont delegates to the Democratic National Convention this week that he has been looking for an excuse to wear the boots since 1992, when the governor of Oklahoma gave them to him as a gift. Dean was Vermont's governor at the time.
"Of course I couldn't wear them in Vermont," he said. "If you wear cowboy boots in Vermont, you're considered to be either an eccentric or a poser."
Who knew Dean was so sartorially conscious?
Dean said the boots seem appropriate in Denver among the cowboy hats and statues of horses.
"I haven't taken leave of my senses," he assured the Vermonters. "But when in Denver ... ."
- Erin Kelly
