Charlotte's Web

"Never a follower but a L-E-A-D-E-R be!" Seems that for Assembly Delegate from Yarmouth, Charlotte Striebel, some of the slings and arrows of the recent election struck a nerve. She thusly decided to make the next two years in office more notable, by vaulting herself into the Speakership of the Assembly.

At the beginning of each year, along with the swearing-in of new Delegates, the members of the Assembly elect one of their own to lead as Speaker, and also a lesser, for Vice Speaker. As they approach that day in January, it seems that Charlotte wanted to rid herself of the label "follower", so-called by the Cape Cod Times.

Encouraged by a minority group of Assembly Delegates, mostly Democrats, who did not want the current Speaker, Tom Bernardo, to continue, Charlotte, currently the Vice Speaker, made a play for the post, using the endorsements of two of the County Commissioners, Mary LeClair, and Bill Doherty as further entanglements.

But wait a minute, Charlotte's not a Democrat. And even though Doherty is a Republican, he didn't endorse her. Unlike his colleague Leclair, he honors the tradition of non-involvement by members of the one body in the procedural affairs of the other, saying "leave me out of it".

As the coup was unveiled, and her supporters waivered, Charlotte's lust for power was alas, not satisfied. And in the light of day, having failed to snatch the Big Office, she will now have to surrender the Vice Speakership as well.

So as the Speaker consolidates his power, where does that leave the Grande Dame of Yarmouth? As is also the custom in the House of Commons, banished to the back benches with the followers.