Our lieutenant governor slash governor-wannabe has been ultra-vigilant during this campaign season, ever on the lookout for negative tactics and quick to criticize those (cough*BruceLisman*cough) dastardly enough to join the Dark Side.

Well, warm up the ScottSignal (searchlight w/stencil of the big green #14), because we’ve got a dangerous outbreak of negative campaigning.

Surely, under the circumstances, Our Hero will leap into action and upbraid the miscreants.

Over there, Phil — Look! it’s the Vermont Republican Party!

Go get ’em!

Hey, Phil, wait up! Where you going?

Yes, the VTGOP has continued its absurdly overstated effort to tie the Vermont Democratic Party and all its candidates to the idea of a carbon tax.

Now, the carbon tax is, in fact, a good idea, but not the way the Republicans are distorting it. It would be phased in over a ten-year period, easing the entry. There would be counterbalancing tax cuts to minimize the economic effect of the carbon tax. (A small portion of the revenue would pay for efficiency programs that would lower our costs by reducing energy consumption.)

Most of all, it’s a good idea because it puts an actual price on the unimposed costs of burning fossil fuels. But hey, Republicans are always quick to demagogue anything they think they can depict as a tax increase. Like the scorpion in the boat crossing the river, it’s what they do.

Last week brought the ridiculous @VTGOP Tweet that claimed the carbon tax would add $236 to the cost of a round-trip drive between Burlington and Bennington. (Actual cost of the tax, after the ten-year phase-in and assuming a gas-guzzling full-sized SUV is the vehicle: less than $16.)

The latest sally is a web-only ad* featuring a womanly voice-over issuing the anti-Democratic indictment, while the prices on a gas pump spin furiously upward. Far higher, need i say, than the actual, eventual 89-cent-per-gallon tax itself.

*Presumably it’s web-only because the VTGOP lacks the cash to buy TV time. So sad.

The visual is completely dishonest. The text is artfully worded to avoid the harsh reality that most Democrats, including our candidate for governor, have not signed on to the carbon tax. They have, in fact, turtled under the Republican onslaught.

But I guess the Republicans can’t think of any actual, real-life issues, so they have to resort to THE BOOGEYMAN!!!!!!

Please, Phil, won’t you stay true to your principles and speak out against this gross violation of the Vermont Way? Won’t you use your authority within the party to stop this ceaseless torrent of political slime?

What’s that?

Can’t hear you.