Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Democrat Bill Curry has just bowed out of what promises to be an energetic tousle in Connecticut’s 5 th District. “Some of you,” Curry noted on his Facebook page, “ know I ‘ve spent the last three years studying public corruption; the grass roots movements that have sprung up-- everywhere but here [in Connecticut] -- to fight it; the tools being used around the world to curb it. It’s the big problem that keeps all our other big problems from ever getting solved. The project is close to my heart; after three years it is just now bearing fruit. In the month since Rep Esty said she wouldn’t seek reelection I’ve tried to find a way to keep the project moving forward and still make this race. I couldn’t. The race looked winnable to me and I’m confident it will prove so for one of the fine Democrats contending for the nomination. I promise I’ll help.”

“If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” The saying was attributed to President Harry Truman by a playwright, but just because Truman may not have coined the phrase does not make it any the less true. Washington DC can be a cutthroat corner of the world. This is not to say that all well-mannered pols have cashed in their chips and left the casino in the hands of brutes. Some U.S. Senators still feel that politics should not be a murderous affair. If you do catch your enemy in a compromising position, it would be prudent to leave open a back door through which he might escape with his honor intact. Your enemy will appreciate the graceful gesture and, perhaps in some future encounter, pause and consider before he draws the knife across your throat”  

Joe Visconti, who styles himself these days “Donald Trump without the billions,” ran in a Republican primary for Governor a few years back but bowed out of the race when the primary finish line was in sight. Mr. Visconti this year is considering running against U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal, the state’s first consumer protection Congressman and a formidable political presence in Connecticut. Mr. Visconti is a voluble supporter of Donald “Make American Great Again” Trump, who visited Hartford, last week. At the Trump rally, Mr. Visconti bumped into Colin McEnroe, host of The Colin McEnroe Show on WNPR and a Hartford Courant columnist. A picture, slightly out of focus, crackling with humor, was taken. Mr. Visconti – who, it may be imagined, has had a great deal of experience smiling for the camera – is beaming as usual, but Mr. McEnroe appears to have stepped in a bucket of… well, the sort of stuff President Franklin Roosevelt’s first Vice President had in mind when he said the Vic...

Bill Curry -- who lost an election, honorably I might add, to John Rowland -- is usually aggravating, in the good sense, and pushing his party with Archimedean fervor to the left. It was Archimedes who said “Give me a spot outside the world where I may place my lever, and I will move the world.” The Democratic Party, most especially in his own state, has obliged Mr. Curry in one respect; it has put up between itself and Mr. Curry a political Berlin Wall that, in a recent piece in Salon , he valiantly and sometimes confusedly attempted to breach.

There is no question that Governor Malloy shakes things up. But when the fizz settles, you find yourself holding the same old bottle of beer – only now it’s flat. “The budget is everything to Malloy,” former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Curry told a New York Times reporter, after which Mr. Curry issued a timely warning: “The last thing you want is a sequel to a fiscal crisis.” National Democrats could not produce a budget, even though they controlled both houses of the U.S. Congress and the White House. The day that President Barack Obama delivered his “State of the Union” address marked the thousandth day the nation had hobbled along without a budget.

Another rumor about President Barack Obama has been exploded, this time by Bill Curry, a two term state senator defeated by moderate Republican Nancy Johnson. Mr. Curry held a seat previously held by Toby Moffett, once a progressive legislator, now a big time Beltway lobbyist who most recently was in the news explaining why he was proud to represent a country that seems determined to eradicate Christian Copts . Mr. Curry is famous enough to enjoy face time on Wikipedia where it is recorded that “During his political career Curry has been the favored candidate of liberal Connecticut Democrats and pundits frequently at odds with the old style moderate policies favored by such figures as former Governor William O'Neill and former party chairman John Droney.” The false rumor had it Mr. Obama was planning to buy the late Katharine Hepburn’s estate on the Fenwick waterfront in Connecticut. Absurd, said Mr. Curry, the author of a soon to be released book on Mr. Obama titled “Barac...

Bill Curry, who twice ran for office as governor, has written for the Hartford Courant an op-ed titled “ Reinvented UConn Health Center Is A Plan To Build Our Future On .” The Curry effusion appeared in the paper’s Sunday edition just before the politically rumbustious long holiday weekend. Because Mr. Curry's prose tends to be both dense and sprightly at the same time, it occurs to me that the student of his set pieces might profit by the equivalent of political Cliffsnotes, and I have supplied some here at the risk of turning Mr. Curry’s poetic performance into stiff analytical prose. Mr. Curry has not been quite as active on the political scene in Connecticut as, say, Mr. Malloy – who, only months into his gubernatorial reign, threatens to approach former Attorney General Richard (now Dick) Blumenthal in ubiquity -- and the notes may be necessary.

A bit like the batty uncle in the attic with a shotgun, Ralph Nader is unsafe in any conversation. No politician in Connecticut has been Naderish enough for the consumer protection scold; not Sen. Joe Lieberman, whose liberal rating in the congress has been respectable, and not Sen. Chris Dodd, the author of the small business-crippling Dodd-Frank bill. That bill may not impede Big Business, which has time and lawyers enough to cut deals with obliging senators. From the point of view of companies too large to fail, one of the purposes of Byzantine legislation – the Dodd-Frank Bill is a prolix 2,319 pages long -- is to squeeze out smaller competition though costly regulation while at the same time allowing preferments from legislators whose campaigns are financed by Big Business lobbyists. Nader, naturally, was happy to see the end of Mr. Lieberman’s career in the senate, nor did he cry crocodile tears when Mr. Dodd threw in the towel. “He couldn't leave the Senate fast enough...

Sen. Joe Lieberman’s post mortem began even before he officially announced his retirement. Here in Connecticut, a politically battered Susan Bysiewicz rushed to announce in advance of U.S. Reps. Chris Murphy and Joe Courtney her availability for the seat hours after she had told bewildered reporters and commentators she would be spending the next few years ensconced in her new job with a prestigious law firm, drying out from a recent political dunking and acquiring active experience before the state’s bar. Mrs. Bysiewicz has been portrayed in the state’s media as an ambitious Lady Macbeth, but she probably is not much more ambitious than the usual political specimen. Well… maybe a wee bit. Connecticut can expect the same scramble for political crumbs that occurred when U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd announced his retirement. The frantic melee would be a little less over the edge if the state had term limits, a process that would allow a more dignified free for all. The present political r...

Scot Esdaile, President of the Connecticut State Conference NAACP, has chided Governor-elect Dan Malloy for not including African Americans among his transition team. The mostly Irish American line up includes: Nancy Wyman, Tim Bannon, Lauri Aronson (Tim Bannon's Wife), Colleen Flanagan, Howard Rifkin, Mark Ojakian, David McQuade, Kevin Sullivan, Bill Curry and Ben Barnes. "The lack of diversity in Dan Malloy's transition team,” Mr. Esdaile said, “is a slap in the face to all of the urban areas in the State of Connecticut. Clearly Dan Malloy would not have been elected if the minority communities did not come out in record numbers on election day. Only time will tell, but we demand substantial representation at the table.” Soon after the NAACP media release was sent out Tim Bannon, Co-Chair of Governor-Elect Dan Malloy’s transition efforts, sent out the following missive: "It's unfortunate that the NAACP chose not to discuss their concerns with us first befo...

Christine Stuart of CTNewsJunkie continues to turn out prose that is readable and pertinent. In “Lamont’s Latest Ad: Risky Or Smart?” she lifts the covers on some Democratic gubernatorial supporters, which include some old Democratic political hands: Jonathan Pelto, now in the consulting business; Bill Curry, slowly working his way out of the closet as a Ned Lamont groupie; and Roy Occhiogrosso, attached to the Dan Malloy campaign as a consultant. The boys are cutting the cards on a new Ned Lamont ad in which Ned claims the independent mantle and even – the man’s courage knows no bounds – appropriates for himself in the ad a signature adage that once belonged to ex-senator, governor and self described “turd in the Republican Party punch bowl” Lowell Weicker. One of the pledges Ned is making to the people of Connecticut is – “I’m going to be no man but yours.” Not to be overly subtle, the ad is titled “Independent.” It worked for Sen. Joe Lieberman. Good ad? Bad ad? Wha...

Blumenthal In mid-June Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the nominee of the Democratic Party for the U.S. Senate, popped out of his bunker long enough to give  a brief interview to Mark Pazniokas . Formerly a state politics writer for the Hartford Courant who lost his job in a downsizing, Pazniokas, a veteran reporter of 25 years, now writes for the Connecticut Mirror (CTMirror). Pazniokas sought to tease from Blumenthal a rough accounting of the number of times Blumenthal “misspoke” concerning his service in Vietnam. Whether it was five, six or seven, Blumenthal remonstrated, “It was very limited… But whatever the number, I regret the mistakes. I'm sorry for them. I take full responsibility. I have been asked and I have answered questions about my service." Blumenthal strongly suggested in the interview that he had exposed himself to a draft by joining the Marine Reserves: "I could have stayed in the White House and continued the deferment," Blumenthal sa...

Following is an excerpt from a Hartford Courant story detailing politically useful notes that Susan Bysiewicz overlaid on her data base of business clients, innocent schleppers who wrote to Bysiewicz in her capacity as Secretary of State soliciting her help on various matters: “It says Kevin Donohue of Columbia is ‘Bill Curry's Cousin; Influenced by Edith Prague; Works in Windham.' Curry is a former Democratic state comptroller who ran unsuccessfully for governor. Prague, a Democratic state senator from Columbia, when told of the notation Tuesday said, 'That's hysterical.’ “It contains this description of a now-dead Democrat who held municipal office in the Naugatuck River Valley: ‘White beard; Former teacher; Likes attention ...’ “It says former New Canaan Councilwoman Ruth Smithers ‘loves George Jepsen.’ Jepsen is now one of Bysiewicz's opponents for the Democratic nomination for attorney general — an office being vacated by Blumenthal, who is running for U...

Most of the opinion press outside the state reporting on Connecticut politicians is an echo chamber. If someone from, say, the New York Observer wants the inside dope on Joe Lieberman – who, truthfully, is as predictable as the rising and setting of the sun – he will call one of his comrades in Connecticut’s press. That comrade will refer him to Bill Curry . Curry, aggregating data on Lieberman from a dozen liberal sources, will say something like this: “I do believe that if he runs for re-election in Connecticut (in 2012), it will be as a Republican. He never loses the capacity to shock. It is just so contemptuous of the president, who let him back into the caucus and the chairmanship.” Curry’s notion will be picked up by the local press, and it will be repeated in multiple stories. This is the way narratives are made. And a good narrative is the blade gleaming in the guillotine. Once a narrative gets into a liberal reporter’s head it is unshakable. It becomes the pivot poi...

One way to gain friends and influence people in the opposing camp, if you are a governor, is to leave office. This will please the opposition, particularly if you happen to be popular. As governor, Jodi Rell was more popular with Connecticut voters than any of the Democrats presently in the gubernatorial field. It is therefore not surprising that when Rell decided not to pursue another run as governor, reporters beating the bushes to find someone in the Democratic camp who might be willing to say something pleasant about the departing governor were amply rewarded. According to one report , Rell was a “fair-minded leader driven not by ideology but rather by old-fashioned common sense.” She was a “moderate,” which is far better than being a “conservative,” though lately the word “conservative” has been drained of much of its venom, particularly when it is forced to march hand in hand with the word “fiscal,” as in “fiscal conservative.” Former Speaker of the House Jim Amann, now run...

Judging from what George Jepsen, a Hartford lawyer and former chairman of the state Democratic Party, might call the preponderance of evidence, it is an easy and painless matter to assault Sen. Joe Lieberman in print. This happens frequently, most recently when the Hartford Courant – whose writers are not, shall we say, friendly to Lieberman – opened its pages to yet another assault, this time by Jepsen. The Jepsen piece in the Courant, “ Whatever Lieberman Is, It Isn't Loyal  ,” published in Sunday’s paper so as to expose it to more eyes, follows a piece written by Bill Curry in a previous Sunday paper pouring ashes upon the head of Lieberman for having “vowed to support a Republican filibuster of any health care bill containing the dreaded ‘public option.’” Both Curry and Jepsen are heavy hitters in the party, outspoken partisan spokesmen. They are both tied by bonds of affection to their party and are honorable men. However, if I had to choose one to have a cup of latte w...

The Hartford Courant, assaulted by the paper's columnist and ex-radio talk show host Colin McEnroe as being insufficiently empathetic to Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, invited Friends of Dodd (FOD) to weigh in on the senator’s sterling virtues. The shade of former Gov. John Rowland, towards whom all the commentators celebrating Dodd’s spotless career in the U.S. Senate were insufficiently empathetic, hovered over the whole enterprise like Banquo’s ghost. McEnroe wrote that the Courant had “engaged in an unattractive feeding frenzy,” displaying “a tabloid-style headline that was so garishly loaded as to constitute a real lapse in journalistic standards.” The “political establishment, with one or two exceptions, has shown itself to be utterly without spine.” They have repaid the kindnesses shown them “by treating him like a pin pulled hand-grenade. They stand 80 yards from the blast site feebly waving.” A lament for Connecticut's beleaguered ex-governor perhaps? Nope. It’s...

Jim Shea, the funnybone tickling guy at the Hartford Courant , spoke for the entire paper when he said in a recent column: “After shooting fish in a barrel for so long, Obama is going to be tough. Right now, other than the jug ears, I got nothing. Hopefully this will change. In the meantime ... I don't know about the economy, but right now, people in my business are about to enter a depression. We're going to have a hard time trying to put food on our families.” That little prepositional confusion was a black tribute to outgoing President George Bush, who tended to slur his ideas. But really, this comedy stuff is serious business. Asked by some tortured politician in the golden age of Greek comedy whether he “took anything seriously,” Aristophanes responded, “Of course, I take comedy seriously.” Twenty percent of voters this year followed the election through the rose colored glasses of comics, usually liberal ones like Gary Trudeau, the star studded cast of Comedy Central and ...

Rinker Buck of the Hartford Courant goes to church and finds the Rev. Jeremiah Wright tolerable. Wright was taken out of context. His compatriot Rick Green finds Fairfield, full of yuppies and “smart growth” illuminati, going moderate. He suggests that Republican politicians in the state follow their lead, so they may be picked off by illuminati like Green and Colin McEnroe and Bill Curry and the entire editorial board of the Hartford Courant. Mr. Green, a recent import, hardly notices that there are no “moderate” Republicans left in New England’s US congressional delegation pews. Where have they all gone ? They have been replaced by liberal Democrats. And why? Because asked to choose between a faux Democrat and the real thing, people generally will choose the real thing. Fearing conservatives – and mislabeling moderate Republicans as conservatives -- is a tradition among Courant commentators, all of whom are unapologetic liberals. Charlie Morse, the chief political correspondent for...

The report on the ethics probe exonerating Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin of any ethical wrongdoing in the so-called “troopergate” investigation was tucked away inconspicuously in the Hartford Courant . The paper's front page on Election Day was devoted to a bidding made by a company that had been implicated in the ancient Rowland scandal, which occurred several years ago. On the Courant internet site, the brief unadorned story was accompanied by an advertising box asking, “Is Sarah Palin Dumb?” Verily, the age of Obama is upon us. No doubt the Courant burried the story because it did not wish to disturb Bill Curry and other of its columnist who gave such play to the politically motivated story on the day of the election. The paper has endorsed Obama as president. Not a good day for the progressive Palin hunters at the Courant, Colin McEnroe among them, though they can consol themselves by reflecting that the report exonerating Palin will not be seen by those wh...