Machiavelli In The Mountains

“He came up to me at an event in Montpelier,” said Zuckerman, “and said we’ve really got to talk about how we’re going to get rid of Jim Douglas, and I think Anthony Pollina should really consider running.”
        Peter Freyne in Seven Days

    This latest on Peter Shumlin, reeks of desperation.  That, or some kind of exquisite calculation.  A while back, Shumlin was pushing Vince Illuzi, for governor.  Illuzi, a Republican, would run as a Democrat. A novel approach, to say the least.  But, hey, what are mere party labels when the future of the state, not to say the planet, hangs in the balance? 

    Shumlin, of course, is a Democrat from Windham County and President Pro-Tem of the Senate.  In the last session, he waged a messianic campaign to get Vermont to throw its full, albeit negligible, weight behind the fight against global warming.  His signature bill to create a state-run energy efficiency program was vetoed by Governor Jim Douglas.
    So Shumlin, not surprisingly, would like to see Douglas defeated -- nay, squashed -- when he runs for re-election in 2008. 
    Now people who spend time wondering who will run and who will be elected in years when nobody is running for anything (you wonder why they don’t consider getting a life) all thought that Shumlin, himself, would run against Douglas.  He’s a Democrat, after all, and perhaps the most conspicuous one in the state if you don’t count those holding national office.  And he’s never been short on ambition.
    But on the evidence, so far, Shumlin doesn’t think any Democrat ( not even he; and he obviously holds himself in high regard) stands a chance against Douglas.  This accounts, we are told, for the not-so-behind-the-scenes push to for Illuzi, the Republican.
    Lately, however, Shumlin has been talking up Anthony Pollina, of the Progressive Party, as the man to take on the Douglas the Terrible.
    One would think that there would be a Democrat living at the end of some dirt road somewhere between Massachusetts and the Canadian border capable of taking on Douglas.  The Democrats, after all, hold majorities in both houses of the legislature.  Big majorities, in fact.
    But, last session, they were unable to get anything done and ran like scared rabbits from what most Vermonters would call the state’s most urgent issue – property tax relief/reform. 
    Politicians are human (close enough, anyway) and it is a touchingly human trait to blame others for our own failures.  So in their minds, members of the heavily Democratic majority didn’t blow it last session.  It was Douglas the Terrible done it.  And until the great beast is slain, there will never be peace and love in the valley.
    Radical measures, then, are called for.  Run Illuzi as a Democrat and maybe he’ll pick off some Republicans.  Or, run Pollina as a Democrat and he’ll carry the Progs.  Whatever … as long as we get rid of Big Jim.
    A third, more spidery alternative is that by making the situation seem so dire that such desperate measures are called for, Shumlin makes himself the inevitable candidate.  Who knows?  And, at this point, who cares?  The story is for political junkies whose interest is like that of baseball fans who get excited about Grapefruit League scores.
    Still … there is a laugh in all of it.  Imagine being this politically intimidated by Jim Douglas.  Not even his own mother would take exception if you said that Douglas lacks charisma.  (An overused – and misused – word, by the way.  In a democratic society, we should pray for leaders who lack charisma.)  The idea that Douglas is some kind of political force of nature, able to thwart the will of the people or manipulate the masses is laughable.  Absurd.
    Douglas is, obviously, a capable politician.  His opponents characterize him, alternately, as a ribbon-cutting dunce or a Machiavellian genius.  Sorry, guys, he is just a working politician who can read a poll and who understands that you don’t get elected to put the squeeze on taxpayers.  If Douglas were all that stood between Vermont and paradise on earth, then he would have been gone by now and Shumlin or some other Democrat – pick one – would be signing those bills to make health care free, fuel oil almost free, farmers prosperous, and Vermont Yankee disappear into the Connecticut River mists. 
    Jim Douglas is no giant.  Merely a grown-up.

Comments

[Anonymous]

Shumlin's political career in Vermont is finished. He's been trying to play all sides of every issue for too long.

To call him desparate would be charitable.

Even the left-wing of the Democratic party can't stand him anymore. John Odum couldn't have summed it up any better with his blog post, titled "the party of one": http://www.greenmountaindaily.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1635

Now there is a credible challenger (see today's Reformer: http://www.reformer.com/localnews/ci_6944770). Pillsbury will clean out Brattleboro and appeal to the working class folks in Bellows Falls and Shumlin's history with Act 60 (one of its chief architects) will cost him dearly in the Windham County gold towns.

[odum]

Anonymous writes: "Even the left-wing of the Democratic party can't stand him anymore. John Odum couldn't have summed it up any better with his blog post"

While I appreciate the hat tip, I have to add that I write within that very blogpost "I've always liked Peter a lot. I'm not one to personalize these sorts of concerns, and I've never doubted that his heart is in the right place" and "This goes completely against the nasty narrative of Shumlin being all about Shumlin. It's gotta take a lot of humility to make such a call and put such a suggestion out there, given his history with Pollina. Anyone fixated on that narrative of the guy is going to be forced to re-evaluate it, unless they are determined to carry a chip on their shoulder."

So its not accurate to suggest that "I can't stand him anymore." We're just big on institutional self-criticism and refinement over at GMD.