I almost fell off my ladder this morning listening to Neale Lunderville, the state’s new Irene Recovery Czar, on the Mark Johnson Show. Oh, how he cares about Vermont. Well, as long as you show him a six-figure salary. Because nothing says “I love Vermont” more than stepping up and cashing her checks, huh Lunderboy?
But that’s not even the part that almost made me fall from my painterly perch in – ahem – a state office building. That moment was saved for Lunderboy’s response to one of the same five conservative cranks who seem to call Johnson EVERY SINGLE DAY and say the EXACT SAME THING (read: It’s the unions! It’s the environmentalists! It’s the government!)
The caller asked Lunderboy what he felt about the clause in some state workers’ contracts that allow them to collect more pay in times of an emergency. And, with his pockets freshly stuffed with the state’s money in a time of an emergency, Lunderboy did what he always does when it comes to state workers: He threw them under the bus. Yep, he said that he would hope the state’s union workers wouldn’t seek to take advantage of the Irene mess.
Since this was all happening on the radio I can’t report on whether or not he got that out with a straight face or not. Probably. Because, as most of us should remember, Lunderboy’s the master of taking the government check and then working like hell to slash the jobs and pay of others who have the “audacity” to try and do the same.
And there’s no coincidence that the government jobs Lunderboy loves to slash most are…wait for it…union jobs. It’s all part of Lunderboy’s recurring Reagan-inspired wet dream, whereby he plays the government-hating prick (and boss) and the state’s union employees are his to kick around. Think: Air traffic controllers.
It’s unfortunate that Johnson turned to putty once again while interviewing the state’s political elite. He did slip in what felt like an obligatory softball about Senator Vincent Illuzzi’s concerns about Lunderboy being too fresh from his six-month stint at Green Mountain Power to take this new gig, especially since it’s Governor Shumlin’s Public Service Board that is considering GMP’s merger attempts.
Lunderboy just blathered it all away, all but cuing the National Anthem in the background, and Lapdog Johnson put himself back on the track of: So, tell me again, why are you and Vermont so great?
Fittingly, the show ended with Johnson giving Lunderboy a free bag of coffee. That’s a long, long way from Pulitzer’s motto that media people “should have no friends.”
And that chuckle you’re hearing is the sound of Lunderboy laughing on his way to the bank. Sweet dreams, indeed.