Gov. Peter Shumlin had to sneak out the back door of his own inauguration.
That should tell you a thing or two about how politically weakened the East Montpelier Democrat finds himself as he settles in to a third two-year term.
Blocking Shumlin’s path from the dais of the Vermont House to its front entrance Thursday afternoon was a group of Vermont Workers’ Center activists irate over his decision three weeks ago to scrap his long-promised single-payer health care plan. After the governor concluded his inaugural remarks, the protesters sat down in the center aisle and would not leave the House for more than five hours, at which point the Vermont State Police arrested 29 of them.
Left-wing health care advocates weren’t the only ones standing in Shumlin’s path. Earlier in the day, 69 members of the Vermont legislature took the remarkable step of voting against returning him to office, despite the fact that he won a plurality in last November’s election.
To be sure, Thursday’s vote wasn’t even close, nor did it surprise most political observers. In a secret ballot, 110 legislators picked Shumlin over Republican Scott Milne, who came in a close second last fall.
But given the partisan makeup of the House and Senate (104 Democrats, 62 Republicans, eight Progressives and six independents), it’s safe to assume that the vast majority of Republican lawmakers — along with a handful of Ds, Ps and indies — bucked 150 years of precedent in order to send a message to Shumlin.
In his inaugural address, delivered just hours after the vote, the governor said he’d heard their message — along with the message sent by Vermont voters — loud and clear.
“Thank you all for making it possible for me to give this speech. I’m humbled. I’m grateful. And I can’t tell you how much it means to me from the bottom of my heart,” Shumlin said. “I heard clearly in the election this fall that Vermonters expect more from me and from the state to help improve their lives.”
To that end, the governor promised to deliver what he called, somewhat unimaginatively, an “agenda for progress.” It would include, he said, proposals touching on workforce development, education finance, health care, child protection and drug addiction.
But then Shummy did something funny: He declined to actually outline said agenda.
Due to “the enormity of the issues that Vermonters have called upon us to tackle in this biennium,” he explained, he would wait until next Thursday’s budget address to outline most of his plans and, instead, focus on just two issues in his inaugural: energy and the environment.
Precisely why Shumlin chose to backload the bulk of his political promises wasn’t immediately clear. After the speech, his staff did not respond to a request for an interview.
But there are a couple obvious possibilities: One is that he simply wasn’t prepared to offer solutions to the tremendous challenges facing Vermont state government. Maybe the dude just needed a one-week extension.
After ditching single-payer just three weeks ago, perhaps he found himself scrambling to find a new centerpiece to his legislative agenda. That would explain the cobbled-together nature of his proposals to expand renewable energy generation and efficiency programs, and to clean up Lake Champlain.
More likely, he was aware that pretty much any realistic proposal to address the state’s projected $100 million budget gap or to control the rising cost of education or health care would be politically unpalatable. On a day in which he found himself limping across the finish line to a third term in office, perhaps he just didn’t want to provide any more fodder to his critics.
Mission not quite accomplished.
Shumlin’s rhetorical pivot to battling toxic algae blooms on Lake Champlain was remarkable given how little political capital he has invested in the issue over the years.
His commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation, David Mears, is well-respected among those devoted to clean water, but Shumlin himself has consistently shied away from the issue since he took office four years ago. He has battled advocates and the Environmental Protection Agency alike over how much money to invest in the mess and delayed identifying funding sources.
So when he said Thursday that the state was “losing the battle for clean water,” it was difficult to remember when he last donned his armor to go to war over it.
There’s no question Shumlin has focused more on renewable energy in his tenure, winning plaudits from environmentalists and those in the generation business. But he has also alienated other enviros by supporting the Vermont Gas pipeline, opposing state divestment of carbon-spewing companies and championing the consolidation of the state’s two biggest utility companies.
Shumlin has made a practice of using his inaugural addresses as pivot points. Two years ago, he shifted his focus to education and welfare reform. Last year, to much acclaim, he seized on combating drug addiction.
It remains to be seen whether the liberals Shumlin has alienated in recent months will see this latest pivot as genuine — or just another tack away from the unpopular issue of the moment. And it remains to be seen whether Shumlin will follow through on the commitments he made Thursday or push them aside when the business of governing grows tough.
Environmental advocates may want to check in with single-payer advocates to see what they think.
Shumlin did make one thing clear in his inaugural address: that even as electoral rivals start spreading their wings and commentators pre-write the governor’s political obituary, he’s not quite ready to call it a day.
“From jobs to the environment, I have an agenda for progress that I will partner with you to fulfill,” he said, “in this term and beyond.”
And beyond? That doesn’t sound like a guy who thinks six years in office is enough.
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I kinda think 6 years of Shummy is enough, but hey, that’s just me.
I wish to commend you-Mr. Joseph-for your excellent commentary, as you highlighted some of the most important issues. Unfortunately, the majority of Vermonters are totally unaware of rally how serious things are with this Administration.
Thank you Ms. Graham for your kind and thoughtful note. Best wishes in this New Year. Thomas Joseph
Shumlin compared to Moses saving the little “lost sheep”!
I DID NOT want to be the first to bring up the eulogy presented just before Mr. Shumlin’s address.
I kept checking the usual places, in vain, for a report about the breathtaking comparison of Shumlin to Moses by Rabbi Tobie Weisman (Director of the Yearning for Learning Center for Jewish Studies, Montpelier) in her eulogy just before Shumlin’s inaugural address at the State House.
Rabbi Weisman, a very attractive, young woman; retold the story of Moses leaving his flock to search the mountainside for his single lost sheep and how this act lead the Lord to choose Moses to lead his people out of bondage to the promised land. Now I would not want to speculate as to the deeper meaning that Rabbi Weisman wanted the audience to take away from her stirring message, as a listener I felt moved to consider the Governor as our “chosen” leader ordained by a higher authority to lead Vermonters out of servitude to the promised tranquil Green Mountains here he would bring all of his people together in peace and harmony. I considered it and rejected it immediately – this sad attempt to compare Shumlin to Moses was beyond belief. Shumlin as God’s prophet who will lead his lost Vermonters to the promised land of free healthcare, free “green” energy and full employment, where everyone can afford endless taxes to pay for endless benefits.
Wow, you almost had to be there to believe it, thus my consternation in being the first to report on it.
Now it appears that the Shumlin sycophants in the media either thought that this little allegory was so “right on” that they didn’t even think of reporting it OR did they view it as so outrageous that they dare not mention a word about it?
Someone should ask them to explain. For anyone who does not believe the press is little more than an extension of his public relations office – I offer this as Exhibit #1.
H. Brooke Paige
Washington, Vermont
Postscript – Leave it to Prophet Pete to find a beautiful female rabbi to give a rousing tribute to “our” fearless leader – amazing!
Shumlin compared to Moses saving the little lost sheep!
I DID NOT want to be the first to bring up the eulogy presented just before Mr. Shumlin’s address.
I kept checking the usual places, in vain, for a report about the breathtaking comparison of Shumlin to Moses by Rabbi Tobie Weisman (Director of the Yearning for Learning Center for Jewish Studies, Montpelier) in her eulogy just before Shumlin’s inaugural address at the State House.
Rabbi Weisman, a very attractive, young woman; retold the story of Moses leaving his flock to search the mountainside for his single lost sheep and how this act lead the Lord to choose Moses to lead his people out of bondage to the promised land. Now I would not want to speculate as to the deeper meaning that Rabbi Weisman wanted the audience to take away from her stirring message, as a listener I felt moved to consider the Governor as our “chosen” leader ordained by a higher authority to lead Vermonters out of servitude to the promised tranquil Green Mountains here he would bring all of his people together in peace and harmony. I considered it and rejected it immediately – this sad attempt to compare Shumlin to Moses was beyond belief. Shumlin as God’s prophet who will lead his lost Vermonters to the promised land of free healthcare, free “green” energy and full employment, where everyone can afford endless taxes to pay for endless benefits.
Wow, you almost had to be there to believe it, thus my consternation in being the first to report on it.
Now it appears that the Shumlin sycophants in the media either thought that this little allegory was so “right on” that they didn’t even think of reporting it OR did they view it as so outrageous that they dare not mention a word about it?
Someone should ask them to explain. For anyone who does not believe the press is little more than an extension of his public relations office – I offer this as Exhibit #1.
H. Brooke Paige
Washington, Vermont
Postscript – Leave it to Prophet Pete to find a beautiful female rabbi to give a rousing tribute to “our” fearless leader – amazing!
Mr. Paige, of what relevance is it that the speaker was attractive, beautiful, young, a woman, or a rabbi? What point are you making? Also, if I recall correctly, there were a number of clerical commentators throughout the ceremony, not just one. I would like to see the transcript, but I don’t think the connection you are trying to draw would be substantiated in her remarks. And if it were, then so what? It was her speech to give – just imagine that someone would have the temerity to say anything in support of the man whose inauguration she was speaking at!
Ducking out the back door to avoid confronting those who might disagree with him. How childish, or maybe cowardly. Why did you people elect this bum anyway? All he has done is destroy your state, fighting to close VY, bringing in more natural gas to burn, pipelines under lakes, ridgelines and mountaintops destroyed by ugly, unreliable windmills. What kind of scumbag does all that and still gets elected?
And there most likely be another door, a trap one in the floor, about 18 months down the road from which the Governor will escape Montpelier to some bozo organization where his “substantial talents” can be utilized.
I find it laughable that Shummy wants to concentrate his political capital on spreading manure. He is pretty good at that he has a new plan to change how and when and how much Im curious what science he is using or will it just be his usual too much is never enough.
What is befuddling is that the people’s representatives feel they need to go “to war” to protect a basic necessity vital to all life itself, Rs, Ds, and Ps, alike. Makes you wonder whose team they have been on all along.
Shummy built a lead airplane for his health care debical. Get ready for the lead boat when it comes to the lake. Four years of him WAS enough. Two more is torture.
RE: VERMONT GAS
Cris Ericson shared Ozaway Pinesse’s post.
Ozaway Pinesse
The huge costs and over-burdening of the Canadian Universal Healthcare System
can be blamed for the most part on Alberta. Families move their to work in the
toxic tarsands
and join the toxic sickness club
filled mostly by the Indigenous people
whose territory is being raped by oil companies
who order both federal and
provincial governments.
After the men and women have worked in the toxic tarsands
for years, they move back to their home provinces and years later,
many ailments
including various forms of cancer emerge and the impact is an added pressure
and cost to the universal healthcare system.
Those damned Oil companies
should be forced to pay for these costs with their obscene profits so public funds
could be expended in other areas like old age pension, veterans, education etc.
I wish media would investigate this angle by surveying people in every province
and asking if they have worked in the tarsands, how long and what illnesses
emerged later on in life due to this exposure to contamination then present those
publicly.