On Gay Rights and Immigration, Leahy Sticks it to Fellow Democrats

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As the Senate Judiciary Committee wrapped up its weeks-long debate over comprehensive immigration reform late Tuesday, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) did a rare and remarkable thing: He forced four Democrats who generally support gay rights to publicly acknowledge they would vote against a controversial gay rights measure.

In the backslapping world of the U.S. Senate, in which members of the same party typically look out for one another's political interests, that ain't how it usually works.

"It's courageous," former Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank tells Seven Days. "The hardest thing to do is to have to break with some of your friends."

The issue at hand, as we touched on briefly in this week's Fair Game, was a pair of amendments Leahy authored that would extend to gay Americans the right to request green cards for their foreign-born partners.

Leahy's been pushing the idea for a decade — first as a stand-alone bill called the "Uniting American Families Act." When its provisions weren't included in the comprehensive immigration bill drafted by the bipartisan "Gang of Eight," Leahy filed two amendments to the bill that would accomplish the same.

But the pushback from Senate Republicans was fierce — and even Democratic members of the Gang of Eight warned that if offered and accepted, Leahy's amendments could topple the delicate balance of immigration reform yet again. Those Democrats were so nervous Leahy would force a vote on the matter, they asked the White House to intervene — which it did Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

"The real question was, 'Will Leahy buck the pressure and offer this?' Not even will he call for a vote, but will he offer it?" says Heather Cronk, co-director of the LGBT social justice group GetEqual, who attended Tuesday's mark-up.

Sure enough, after dispensing with nearly 300 other amendments to the immigration bill, the Judiciary Committee chairman called up one last amendment late Tuesday: his own.

"I don't want to be the senator who asks Americans to choose between the love of their life and the love of their country," Leahy said. "Discriminating against a segment of Americans because of who they love is a travesty and is ripping many American families apart."

Then, without indicating whether he would force a vote on it, the senator from Vermont said, "I know this issue is important to many who serve on this committee. Before I speak further, I'd like to hear from other members — especially from those who drafted this bill — who, for whatever reason, decided not to remove discrimination from our current immigration system in their legislative proposal."

Translation: If you're against this, speak up now and explain yourself. I won't let you quietly dodge the issue.

Four Democrats did.

Vermont Life Wants You!

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In case there was any doubt remaining that Vermont Life is in the middle of a reboot, don't miss this ad in this week's issue of Seven Days. It's been no secret that the state-owned quarterly, now 67 years old, is trying to recruit new, younger, and in-state subscribers.

And apparently Seven Days readers fit the bill. The magazine is inviting you bold, hip, edgy lot to try the magazine for two years for the price of one. 

Drumming up new subscribers is crucial for the magazine, as we reported in January. As of this winter, paid circulation was at its lowest point in the magazine's history. Vermont Life has reported deficits for 17 of the last 28 years, putting the magazine in the hole for a cumulative $1.3 million. And while the magazine's aggressive changes are an effort to dig out from that hole, only time will tell if the quarterly once most popular among out-of-state, silver-haired vacationers will win over a new demographic.

This Week's Issue: Unions, Gramma and the Changing New North End

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This week's dead-tree edition of Seven Days is the summer preview issue!

Inside, you'll find stories about a brewery tour, photographing every Vermont town, the new state entomologist and summer art tripping (not that kind of tripping).

And in the news pages, you'll find a smorgasbord of stories.

• Burlington's New North End ain't what it used to be. (Read: it's younger and hipper.)
• Some say Burlington's effort to redistrict its voting wards is mired in dysfunction.
• Vermont's F-35 foes have a new hand-picked poster child — and her name is "Gramma."
• And in Fair Game, Paul Heintz reports on a brewing labor battle, division within the Vermont GOP and Sen. Patrick Leahy's decision to withdraw a gay-rights amendment from the immigration reform bill.

 

Morning Read: East Montpelier Man Regrets Real Estate Deal with Shumlin

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The legislature has adjourned, and you know what that means! Vermont Press Bureau scribe Peter Hirschfeld is back on the gubernatorial real estate beat.

Hirschfeld, as you may recall, wrote a series of stories last October about Gov. Peter Shumlin's real estate wheelings and dealings as the gov relocated to East Montpelier. As Hirschfeld first reported, Shummy got a pretty sweet deal on a plot of land he bought last summer with a few friends. 

When reporters raised questions about the transaction at a press conference soon after the story appeared, Shummy got mighty huffy and accused Hirschfeld of practicing tabloid journalism.

That didn't stop the Press Bureau chief from following up the next week with a story about the gov buying another East Montpelier property. This one, adjacent to the first, was headed for a tax sale before Shumlin agreed to help out its owner, Jeremy Dodge, by lending him money and allowing him to stay on the land for a time.

Well, Dodge and Shumlin are back in the pages of the Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus today. Dodge, it seems, is having second thoughts about the deal he struck with Shumlin last fall.

As Hirschfeld reports, the East Montpelier man says he didn't have a lawyer when he signed over his property and now believes he got a bum deal:

“I don’t have nothing bad to say about [Shumlin], but yeah, I got ripped off, plain and simple,” Dodge said Tuesday. “I wish it had turned out differently. I wish that I had let it go to tax auction.”

Shumlin, who says he advised Dodge to get a lawyer, sees it differently:

“I believe $58,000 was a fair price, and we both agreed to it,” Shumlin said. “The house is in terrible shape; it will have to be knocked down or totally gutted.”

It's a fascinating story — and we don't want to spoil the details — so be sure to check it out online or grab a copy at the news stand. 

Morning Read: Suspects ID'd in O'Hagan Murder

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Burlington Free Press cops reporter Mike Donoghue has a scoop in today's paper about the unsolved 2010 murder of Sheffield senior citizen Patricia O'Hagan. Donoghue has been reporting for months about how prosecutors had identified one of the suspects as 22-year-old Michael Norrie in court documents related to a separate case.

Now, in newly filed court papers in yet another case, prosecutors name two other men as suspects in the homicide: 26-year-old Richard E. Fletcher and his brother, 32-year-old Keith Baird. None of the three has been formally charged with O'Hagan's murder.

From the Freeps:

The papers say O’Hagan, 78, was shot in the back of the head inside her home and sexually assaulted during the incident.

The suspects, who are related, provided different reasons for the killing, including robbery and that O’Hagan had learned about methamphetamine being cooked at an abandoned home next door, the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated in the court paperwork.

Donoghue also reports that prosecutors allege Fletcher left a confessional note in his jail cell that read, "I Richard E. Fletcher ... was involved with the robbery that went wrong on the night of Sept. 10, 2010. Me and my brother Keith John Baird ... pland (sic) to rob Miss O’Hagan."

The story relates some unsettling details about the crime and the attempt to cover it up. It also notes a striking coincidence: One of the prison guards who Fletcher allegedly confessed his crime to was among the people who discovered O'Hagan's body while bird hunting in Wheelock, three weeks after her murder.

Click here to read the full story.

Weinberger Reaffirms Support for Gun Control and Urges Additional Action

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Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger reaffirmed on Monday his support for banning assault weapons in the Queen City, and urged city councilors to take additional steps aimed at preventing gun violence.

"You are on strong legal ground to move forward with an assault weapons resolution of some sort, and I support that,” Weinberger told the three members of the council’s charter change committee. He noted that similar initiatives by other municipalities have survived court challenges.

But any attempt by Burlington to regulate possession of firearms would require a change in the city’s charter thus could not take effect unless approved by the state legislature. City Councilor Rachel Siegel, the Ward 3 Progressive who chairs the charter-change committee, said it’s unlikely the legislature would even consider such an initiative until 2015, assuming it was first endorsed by the council and approved by Burlington voters in March 2014.

“More immediately,” Weinberger told the committee, Burlington might be able to adopt another measure relating to access to firearms.

He noted that in the aftermath of the Newtown, Connecticut, mass murder of schoolchildren and educators, 24 communities around the country “have passed resolutions to encourage action to fix the federal background-check system.” This screening process for prospective gun buyers is “badly broken,” the mayor said. He added that Vermont is one of 19 states rated as having done the least to submit data to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Weinberger then handed out to committee members a model resolution that urges action to strengthen federal background checks.

“Burlington does have a stake in this, and I’m very much in favor of it,” the mayor said.

The Week Ahead: On Hiatus

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This just in!

The Week Ahead is on indefinite hiatus. Actually, it's been placed on paid administrative leave. The Week Ahead declined to discuss the reason for the absence, but sources close to the situation said it related to an inappropriate incident in Montpelier last week involving the Scoreboard. And a Bengal tiger. And Mike Tyson. We'll have more on this developing story as we get it...

In the meantime, check back on Off Message often for the latest Vermont news and politics.

 

 

 

'To Live the American Dream, Move to Denmark' — And Maybe Bring Along the F-35

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Burlington might be one of the few places in the United States where a crowd would cram an auditorium on a sunny spring Saturday to listen to a lecture on the Danish social welfare system. 

The 200-plus audience members gathered in city hall auditorium got what they came for. In a 90-minute session sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Denmark's U.S. ambassador, Peter Taksoe-Jensen (pictured), laid out a lengthy list of benefits his country provides all its citizens.

He said Danes receive free health care; free education from pre-school through university; $40,000 annual pensions after age 65, "with no need to have any attachment to the labor market"; a full year of maternity benefits, including payment of the woman's full salary for the first six months after her baby is born; and guaranteed day care through age 5, with parents paying a maximum of 25 percent of its cost. The list also includes a $17-an-hour minimum wage (compared to the U.S. standard of $7.25) and two years of payments to unemployed Danes of 90 percent of the wages they had been earning.

Taksoe-Jensen also described Denmark's progressive energy policy, which aims to phase out all fossil fuels by 2050. Already, he said, renewable sources cover 40 percent of the country's energy consumption. In the U.S., it's 13 percent.

The ambassador pointed out that Danes rank as the happiest people in the world, according to a United Nations survey. And the Vermonters listening to his litany might in turn have qualified as the most envious people in the world.

The Scoreboard: This Week's Winners and Losers

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If you haven't picked up this week's print edition of Seven Days, you might've missed our special edition of the The Scoreboard, looking back at the 2013 legislative session's winners and losers.

Well, nothing's happened since then — except this:

Vermont's legislators have retreated back to their caves until next winter. Lobbyists are readying their invoices to cash out on the session. And Statehouse reporters, recovering from their epic benders following Tuesday's adjournment, are coming to terms with the fact that they'll have nothing to write about for another eight months.

And The Scoreboard's gone on vay-cay for the week.

So, if you're looking for a dose of winners and losers this week, we direct you back to Wednesday's paper, where you'll find out how everyone fared these last four months.

Media Note: WCAX Probes Welch's "Role" in IRS Scandal

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Is Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) to blame for sicking the Internal Revenue Service dogs on conservative political groups and launching a national scandal?

That's the impression one might have gotten from watching a WCAX report Wednesday night examining a letter Welch sent the IRS in March 2012.

Introducing the story, WCAX anchor Kristin Kelly promises serious drama, saying Welch "is now feeling some heat" from a scandal that's rocked the Obama administration and already claimed the jobs of at least two top IRS officials.

Senior political reporter Kristin Carlson takes it from there.

"The fallout hitting the White House has also reached Congressman Peter Welch," she reports. "Some conservative critics charge he encouraged the IRS to do what so many are angry about now."

Exhibit A?

"In a press release last year announcing he sent letters to the IRS and president," Carlson says, "Welch encouraged the IRS to, quote, 'investigate whether nonprofit 501(c)(4) organizations affiliated with Super PACs — such as Crossroads GPS, the Karl Rove-backed group... are in violation.'"

Wait a second. Welch specifically called on the IRS to investigate Crossroads GPS? 

Well, no. Not exactly.