Steele is no Tea Partyer, not a Palinite, not a Paul drone, not a liberal or a conservative, not a Democrat or a Republican, is endorsed by no official party, has no corporate donors. He's the kind of candidate who, spending his own money and taking time out from his work and family, drives around the state crashing gubernatorial debates to which he is clearly not invited. Last April, organizers for the Democratic Party in Barre, gathered in that town's Old Labor Hall, called the state police after Steele repeatedly shouted out from the crowd to his fellow candidates on the rostrum: "$1.5 billion dollars -- our pro-rata share of a failed foreign policy -- the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- what could be done with all that money right here in Vermont?" The cops grabbed him by the arms and hauled him away, amid fearful yells from the crowd that he might be tasered. He wasn't, but instead was booked on disorderly conduct -- for saying something no one among the Democrats wanted to hear.

So much for the vaunted political tolerance in granola-eating, tree-hugging, gay-marriage-condoning Vermont.