Category Archives: Electoral Politics

No Environmentalists Need Apply

7/19/2012 – 2:21 pm

Many people on the political scene are anticipating Mitt Romney’s vice presidential choice in a state of high agitation and none are more agitated than I.  Four years ago next month, I had just left the dentist’s office with a face full of novocaine when my boss’s boss called me on my cell and screamed, […]

By floegel | Also posted in Commentary, Energy, Global Warming | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Syrup on Jambalaya

6/28/2012 – 2:36 pm

Strange as it seems, Vermont has much in common with Louisiana.  Both states have a relatively large city (Burlington/New Orleans) which in many ways dominates the state’s profile, but folks who live outside that city take pains to disassociate themselves from it.  (“Burlington is close to Vermont,” is the refrain here.) Each state has a […]

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Decent Family Men

6/21/2012 – 6:59 pm

Forty-four years ago this spring, my mother loosed a weekly stream of invective against Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY).  A conservative Irish Catholic who had voted for JFK, she thought Bobby had betrayed his earlier, hard-line anti-Communist stance, then carpet-bagged his way in to the Senate.  Now she saw his presidential campaign as more political […]

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(Un)Free for All

1/19/2012 – 3:56 pm

I’m on Rick Santorum’s side – in a narrow, limited sense.  The former senator from Pennsylvania is not my kind of politician.  There may be a few issues on which we agree, but I’m not inclined to seek them out. That said, Mr. Santorum meets the qualifications to run for president of the United States.  […]

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Screaming to Get Out

1/12/2012 – 4:36 pm

I’m starting to believe there’s a decent man inside Mitt Romney, screaming to get out.  To my mind that’s the most logical explanation for Tuesday’s famous gaffe and several others. In a speech Tuesday, Mr. Romney said, “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.”  The context, which is important, was […]

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Daddy Issues

12/15/2011 – 6:59 pm

Whatever happened to Leslie King, Jr? He grew up to be president of the United States, but we know him as Gerald R. Ford, Jr.  Mr. Ford’s mother left his father (who was said to be abusive) 16 days after little Leslie’s birth.  Two years later, she married Gerald Ford, Sr. and though the future […]

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Still America

11/17/2011 – 1:53 pm

The teenaged girl did not want to attend the Democratic mayoral caucus with me, but I didn’t give her a choice. Burlington will hold a mayoral election the first Tuesday of March, town meeting day.  Four candidates put themselves forward for the Democratic nomination.  Vermont caucuses and primaries are open to all registered voters in […]

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