Coventry Rep. Scott Guthrie said he is supporting Rep. Nick Mattiello for speaker because “a couple people pissed me off.”

He said he initially contemplated caucusing with the group supporting Rep. Mike Marcello, but at the outset that group didn’t even know who it would put forward as the candidate for speaker.

“There was no one they had a name for,” he told me this morning. “If you have a name you can build a team around a name.”

He also said the group was “cutting deals here and there.”

“I like Michael but now it’s going to turn into silly season,” Guthrie said. “Do we have a smooth transition and do the people’s business? All this is is politics for the next election.”

South Kingstown Rep. Spencer Dickinson, another occasional ally to the progressive movement, said he too is supporting conservative Democrat Nick Mattiello.

“I began by supporting O’Neill or Lombardi, but lack of sign-on by the progressive wing made those choices unavailable,” he wrote on his Facebook wall. “I believe that if you had been with me for the last 72 hours, and seen what I have seen, you would have made the same choice.”

On my Facebook wall, Dickinson, a vocal critic of Gordon Fox and his leadership team, wrote: “Plausible intel that the Ucci Blazejewski team (that later grafted on Marcello as speaker) actually started out as the team of horses that was to keep [Frank] Anzeveno in power. Mattiello put a credible stop to that and that’s one reason why he will be the next speaker.”

Dickinson has long been at odds with the previous leadership group.

That’s maybe worse than cyber-harassment. It’s cyber-deception. According to the Providence Journal Attorney General Peter Kilmartin “has tried – and failed – to convince the General Assembly to pass legislation creating a new category of crime for ‘online impersonation.'” According to this TIME post, such activity is against the law in nine states.

Worth noting, though, that Rhode Island holds our public school students to a higher standard than our public officials. Here’s the applicable section from RIDE’s 2012 cyber-bullying policy:

Forms of cyber‐bullying may include but are not limited to: a. The creation of a web page or blog in which the creator assumes the identity of another person; b. The knowing impersonation of another person as the author of posted content or messages; or c. The distribution by electronic means of a communication to more than one person or the posting of materials on an electronic medium that may be accessed by one or more persons, if the creation, impersonation, or distribution results in any of the conditions enumerated in clauses (a) to (e) of the definition of bullying.

So, to recap: not criminal but for reference we expect better conduct from children. And for those who will confuse this as a First Amendment issue, this isn’t the issue:

This is:

For such a small state, Rhode Island has a plethora of parody political accounts on Twitter. There’s Fake Anthony Gemma, Fake Brendan Doherty, Fake Gina Raimondo, Fake Ted Nesi, Fake RI GOP, Fake Angel Taveras, Fake Lincoln Chafee, and Rep. Scott Guthrie’s mustache. And those are the ones I could find in two minutes. Thankfully, a great many are defunct, or inactive, especially since their respective actuals have been ushered from spotlight or the account owner grew tired of maintaining the damn thing.

Satire is one of the Internet’s most popular forms of comedy, partly thanks to the Onion, which has hit its stride in recent years. And its popular for political purposes, because its an easy way to make your opponents seem ridiculous to your supporters. It’s a simple way to appeal to an audience you know.

However, most of the parody Twitter accounts I’m seeing aren’t very good. Take the three for the three possible contenders for Democratic nominee for governor. They’re all pretty much there to insult each respective candidates. I’m pretty sure they were set up by the same person; someone who’s confused “being an asshat” for “wit.”

See, satire isn’t effective if it’s simply putting the words of an idiot and jerk in someone’s mouth and then slapping the word “fake” in front of it to shield you from a response. Great political satire works by building a persona that’s based around exaggerated aspects of a person; to the point of absurdism. Saturday Night Live has been doing this well for ages, whether it’s Chevy Chase’s bumbling Gerald Ford, Will Ferrell’s dimwitted George W. Bush, or Fred Armisen/Dwayne Johnson’s Barack Obama. Another example is the Onion’s take on Joe Biden as a Trans-Am driving ladies’ man.

Good satire doesn’t even have to use a real person. Dr. Strangelove utilizes characters like Gen. Jack Ripper and the titular doctor to lambast recognizable figures within the U.S. defense establishment. If those characters had been named Curtis LeMay and Werner von Braun, would the film have been as good? Not likely.

If you’re looking for an example of Twitter parody done right, the one that ran alongside Rahm Emanuel’s campaign for mayor was well done; it featured an over-the-top foul-mouthed Emanuel in a world populated by odd characters and an absurdist story arc that ended with him being sucked into a time vortex.

For something a bit closer to home, I personally recommend @GuthriesStache, the one based around Rep. Guthrie’s mustache. While not incredibly active, it’s a good-natured account that mainly keeps updates on where Guthrie’s (glorious) mustache is and what it’s doing, the state of other political facial hair, and revels in its own existence without attempting to insult the representative. What’s more absurd than a mustache with a Twitter account?

Political comedy can be good a release for people, allowing them to vent the anger they might otherwise feel when the government does something they don’t agree with. But that venting can be an issue as well; people nod sagely that a policy is stupid, but do nothing to resist it. For all the satire of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, they’ve helped make precious little change in America.

They remind me of a politician in pre-revolutionary Mexico, who perennially challenged Mexico’s dictator Porfirio Díaz. Nicolás Zúñiga y Miranda was an eccentric who belongs to a sort of Mexican clown tradition, after every election (which he lost handily), he proclaimed voter fraud and declared himself president. After locking him up the first time, the Díaz regime eventually realized he was harmless and ignored him. Voting for Zúñiga became a great way for Mexicans to defy the regime without risking their lives. Zúñiga’s value instead was in getting Díaz’s and his successors to fail to recognize serious political challenges until they arrived in the form of Francisco Madero and the eventual Mexican Revolution.

There’s an interesting – and small – mix of conservatives, moderates and populists who seemingly aren’t supporting Gordon Fox’s effort to be re-elected speaker of the House. His detractors from the left – Reps Scott Guthrie of Coventry and Spencer Dickinson of South Kingstown – have a disdain for pension cuts in common.

Guthrie may seem like the smartest progressive at the State House if and when the pension reform lawsuit gets decided. The retired Coventry fire fighter has long contended that Rhode Island was breaking a contract with its employees by changing the deal. As for Dickinson, I like him a ton, but I won’t be calling him a progressive until he can better support civil liberties. Unlike Guthrie, Dickinson doesn’t support marriage equality.

There’s a similarly diverse coalition that nominated Fox, reports Ted Nesi. Rep. Edith Ajello is the most influential progressive legislator in the House and Rep. Doc Corvese is the single biggest detractor of the liberal agenda in the chamber. Lady MacBeth, what some progressives jokingly call the religiously anti-abortion Rep. from Cumberland, also seconded Fox’s bid.

By the way Scott MacKay chastised the ProJo for buying into the hype that Fox’s reelection as speaker was in any doubt. Sometimes in journalism it’s hard to separate a good narrative from actual real life events and consequences; doesn’t mean both aren’t newsworthy.

Rhode Island has the fourth most student loan debt in the nation … so let’s all focus on how our corporate tax rate is causing our economy to sputter…

Jack Reed is right: Liz Warren should be on the banking committee. There was an excellent quote by MIT prof Simon Johnson in an excellent piece in Sunday’s New York Times about the optics of not doing so for Democrats: ““Not putting her on banking would make the Democratic Party look like a creature of Wall Street, which, by the way, it is. But they don’t like to be too explicit about it.”

Here’s how Patch not-so-subtly shills for Walmart in a story posted to most sites in RI (emphasis mine): “Shoppers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island will have to wait until after Thanksgiving to take advantage of Black Friday sales at retail giant Walmart.”  (Or you can !)

Speaking of Patch, the company reports it cut costs by 30 percent in an effort to become profitable. Local editors have seem their freelance budgets literally disappear and some are being asked to take on second sites, like Joe Hutnak who now oversees both Johnston and Smithfield Patch. No wonder they gush about Walmart … they share the same business model!

Puerto Rico is moving closer to becoming our 51st state, says the ProJo editorial page. I’m sure the GOP would prefer the Bahamas or Bermuda…

Twin River is hiring! Reason enough to be glad that full casino gambling is coming to the Ocean State … though I wish Newport was getting table games too. The City-by-theSea could have had one of the classiest and coolest destination resort-style casinos in the country. Twin River, on the hand, might be able to compete with the other regional gambling parlors that will soon be sprouting up all over New England…

Speaking of Newport …. did you hear that Carolyn Rafaelian, Alex and Ani designer, owner and founder, bought Belcourt Castle. On one hand, it’s pretty cool that Rhode Island’s most successful businesswoman will own one of the state’s most well-known mansions. On the other hand, old Newport miss the Tinney family, who were kind like the Adams Family of Aquidneck Island! Trivia: Rafaelian won’t be the first jewelry designer to call Belcourt home!! In the late-1980’s it served as a sort of haunt (pun intended) for local artists…

On this day in 1974, Karen Silkwood dies in a mysterious one-car accident on her way to meet with a New York Times reporter and a union organizer about the nuclear plant where she worked and was poisoned with plutonium.

Kudos to the legislators willing and able to forgo the raise on their $13,962 State House stipend and thanks to those of you who sent out press releases on the matter so that the media would know of your good deed. But we should also recognize Rep. Scott Guthrie, a progressive Democrat from Coventry, who refuses to take the salary at all.

According to the Joint Committee on Legislative Services, Guthrie is the only member of the General Assembly to not accept the salary that comes with being a part-time legislator.

But he’s not bragging about it. In fact, he declined to comment when I asked him why he doesn’t take the pay.

Guthrie, a retired fire fighter from North Kingstown, has served in the House since 2008. For the past three sessions, he has sponsored bills that would have raised taxes on Rhode Island’s richest residents.

Guthrie also doesn’t take the health insurance that comes with being a state legislator. But he’s not alone there.

Here’s the list of legislators who don’t take the health insurance, as provided by Larry Berman:

Reps: Lisa Baldelli Hunt, Woonsocket; David Bennett, Warwick; Chris Blazejewski, Providence; John Carnevale, Providence; Mike Chippendale, Foster; Spencer Dickinson, South Kingstown; Deborah Fellela, Johnston, Frank Ferri, Warwick, Jim McLaughlin, Central Falls; Scot Slater, Providence; Lisa Tomasso, Coventry.
Sens: Frank Devall, Providence; Walter Felag, Warren; Frank Lombardo, Johnston; Harold Metts, Providence; Donna Nesselbush, Providence; Chris Ottiano, Portsmouth; Deb Ruggerio, Jamestown.

Of course, they get a $1,001 check from the state for not taking the benefits. Here is the list of legislators who also forgo that “waiver bonus”:

Reps: Doreen Costa, North Kingstown; Robert DaSilva, East Providence; Scott Guthrie, Coventry; Joy Hearn, Barrington; Ray Hull, Providence; Robert Jacquard, Johnston; Karen MacBeth, Cumberalnd; Mike Marcello, Scituate; Rene Menard, Cumberland; Mary Messier, Phillips, East Providence; Dan Reilly, Portsmouth; Patricia Serpa, Coventry; Stephen Ucci, Cranston; Larry Valencia, Richmond.
Sens: Louis DiPalma, Middletown; Paul Fogarty, Burrillville; Maryellen Goodwin, Providence; Paul Jabour, Providence; Frank Maher, Charlestown; Jim Sheehan, North Kingstown; Glen Shibley, Coventry. 

“By instituting a fourth tax bracket we could solve many of our immediate budget problems, the ones that include deciding if we should cut more services for the needy or force classroom teachers, first responders and other public servants to take pay cuts and layoffs in order to balance budgets,” he said in a pres release issued today.

He’s got four proposals submitted, and while none of them would raise as much revenue as the so-called Cimini-Miller bill, one of them may be more politically practical given that leadership has vowed to fight against any increased taxes on the rich.

From his release:

2012-H 7305 would impose an additional one percent tax increase for all personal income over $500,000. Doing that would bring in an additional $18.4 million in Fiscal Year 2013 and an extra $19.5 million in 2014, according to a State Fiscal Note provided by the Budget Office of the Department of Administration.

2012-H 7379 would impose an additional one percent tax increase for all personal income over $250,000. That would result in an additional $32.4 million in tax revenue in FY 2013 and an extra $34.3 million the following year.

2112-H 7382 provides for an additional two percent tax increase on personal income over $500,000. The added revenue would be $37.3 million for FY 2013 and $39.4 million for FY 2014.

Finally, 2012-H 7381 provides for an additional two percent tax increase on personal income over $250,000. Added revenue is projected by the Budget Office at $65.3 for fiscal year 2013 and $69.2 million for the following fiscal year.

Guthrie added, “We need a shift back to a more fair tax policy. Trickle down doesn’t work. We’ve tried it for years and all the benefits continue to trickle up. As the state budget deficit continues to loom large, for yet another year, one phrase continues to remain popular from elected officials – shared sacrifice. Well, I see municipalities sacrificing, as well as many of the residents of those communities. I see sacrifices from the poorest and neediest in Rhode Island, the results of continued trimming in the social services funding. What I don’t see is sacrifice from the wealthiest members of our society who could most easily afford to give a little more to help their many neighbors and fellow citizens who are suffering.”

Last week, Speaker Gordon Fox told me he doesn’t see any of the tax equity bills going anywhere during this session, noting that this will be the first year in which the new tax rates, which were pushed by former Gov. Don Carcieri, will be factored into the budget.