White Christmas?

Oh, well. Last week Gov. Jim Douglas' said the important thing would be having snow this week for the Christmas holiday. Wonder what his comeback would be today:

"As long as we have a white Washington's Birthday?"

Nice piece on Vermont's senior senator Patrick J. Leahy in the Toronto Star. Here's a little taste:

He was the target of an anthrax attack through the mail and got under Dick Cheney's skin to the point that the vice-president loudly and publicly suggested on the floor of the Senate that Leahy perform an unnatural sexual act on himself.

The next time the two men met, Cheney was administering him the oath of office for his sixth term.

"I told Cheney, it is far greater to be sworn in than sworn at,'' he said.

His wife, Marcelle, is a Quebecer, one generation removed, who speaks French. Her father grew up in Quebec's Beauce region, her mother was born in Quebec City. Her great-uncle was a Quebec judge and relatives of hers were active in Quebec politics. The Pomerleaus, Marcelle's parents, moved to Newport, Vt., where she was born, Leahy says, "literally a few hundred yards from the Canadian border.''

The Vermont senator, himself, traces his heritage back through Montreal to Ireland.

Read the whole story here.