You won't have Rob Kusner...

I suppose like Jay Leno I should root for the biggest goof to win the all-important election. With his national audience the President is a natural target and the bigger the goof in the White House the easier it is to write material for a monologue (especially now that he has to write it himself).

Considering my provincial concerns that means the Select board contest coming up, appropriately enough, on April 1’st.

So am I disappointed that Selectman Rob Kusner announced on Monday that he would not be seeking a second term? Not really, he stood little chance of reelection anyway.

People were going to create an attack website and upload his famous t-shirt incident at Town Meeting, the mp3 file of his threatening phone message to the Amherst school committee chair and maybe even the goofy election picture ad he used three years ago in the Amherst Bulletin of him hugging two trees.

Of course now it becomes entirely more apparent why Professor Kusner should have abstained at the September 17’th Select board meeting. With his sabbatical announcement (amounting to six months off with pay) coming only three months after his tie-breaker vote awarding Umass, his employer, a $200,000 gift of water effluent, some folks are going to wonder…