Blumenthal can beat McMahon with one hand tied behind his back

And one foot in his mouth...

Despite "supposedly" putting his own foot in his mouth last week, Dick Blumenthal still manages to put a good old fashioned WWE Smackdown on Linda McMahon, where Blumenthal keeps a formidable lead, 56-31, over McMahon in the most recent Quinnipiac polling.

Proving that this was the non-story that it really should have been from the start, regardless of the GOP's McMahon planting it, the NY Times doing a bang up job of corporatist stenography for the GOP and right wing Bloggers desperately trying to make more of it than was ever going to be worth.

When McMahon tries to float one we will flush it...

Rob Simmons Drops Out of the Race

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That's Too Bad - I'm Going To Miss His Attacks On Linda

Only one is still up on his site - here.

But here are some more classic Simmons attacks - well worth reading, viewing (great videos!) and saving:

Simmons Campaign Attacks McMahon

Simmons Campaign Pins McMahon

Another Beautiful Rob Simmons Ad

More Simmons McMahon dirt - I'm loving it

More McMahon Mayhem

It's interesting that he did not endorse Linda and is leaving his name on the ballot.
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Mike Jarjura "I'm no Al Capone."

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Reminds me of Richard Nixon "I am not a thief."

Here's the story about his good friend, Joseph Davino:

Davino, 65, was arrested earlier this month on a felony charge of second-degree larceny after police concluded that he ordered his crew of city workers to stock private vending machines located in halfway houses in the city... (H)e was handpicked by Jarjura to lead the city's blight team, a position where police say he abused his authority by directing his workers to perform his private bidding.

As the investigation into Davino widened, Jarjura defended his friend and political appointee, calling him a "tremendous asset" to the city. He also suggested that the Republican-American was giving too much space to coverage of the Davino investigation...

Jarjura said: "To think I was involved in this, to give it the kind of ink that the newspaper is giving it, above the fold on the front page and everything, what do we got here, Al Capone? Joe Davino is no Al Capone. I know I'm certainly not."

To read the complete story see Monday's Republican-American or our electronic edition at http://republicanamerican.ct.newsmemory.com.

Eddie, Dick And The Etiquette Of Misspeak

On June 27, 2007, Inspector Michael Sullivan received a report that Mayor Eddie Perez had some work done in his house by a contractor appointed to do a major job for the city of Hartford. The information supplied to him tickled his worry wart, and Sullivan arranged a meeting with Perez the following day.

A record of the meeting was made. Sullivan asked Perez whether people who were doing work for the city also had done work on his house.

Perez answered yes.

Did the mayor pay for the work, and did he receive a cost reduction?

Perez said he paid the market price for the housework done by Carlos Costa in the amount of $20,000 a year and a half earlier. There was no contract involved; the work was done by verbal agreement. Sullivan asked for a copy of Perez’s cancelled check. Perez said he would be happy to furnish a copy of the check. There was no check. Payment on the work – minus a 50% discount, according to the contractor -- was made a year and a half after the work had been completed.

After this stressful meeting, Perez suddenly felt the need of a lawyer and betook himself to Huber Santos, who requested and was permitted a meeting with Perez’s prosecutor, Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane.

Santos corrected the record, telling Kane that the mayor had earlier “misspoke.” In fact, he had not paid the bill. However, an invoice existed, and the mayor would be paying the bill shortly. According to Santos, he told Kane that Perez “misspoke” because John Rose, the city’s lawyer, was present at the meeting and Rose was unaware of the home renovation work.

Following the second day of the Perez corruption trial, a Hartford paper summarized these events under a blaring first page caption -- “PEREZ OFFERS REASON HE LIED.” It was a pull no punches title, forthright and unsubtle, that quickly brushed aside any notion of misspeaking.

Below three paragraphs of the front page story, the paper printed a useful index of single line teasers under the title – “CAUGHT ON TAPE.”

Hope springing eternal, one may hope in the near future to read in a Connecticut paper some such caption as this – “BLUMENTHAL OFFERS REASON HE LIED.

Before Blumenthal had been chosen by acclamation at the Democratic Party’s nominating convention for U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd’s seat, the attorney general had been exposed to an unremitting barrage of criticism from all quarters by people, not all of then reliable Democrats, who did not hesitate to use the “L” word in connection with Blumenthal’s serpentine evasions concerning his non-service in Vietnam.

The joke most often told by Blumenthal’s Republican opponents following a press conference in the course of which Blumenthal claimed to have misspoken was that Hanoi Jane Fonda had spent more time in Vietnam than the attorney general, now the choice of his party as U.S. Senator.

At the convention, his harshest Democratic critic, Merrick Alpert, was rolled over by reality and endorsed Blumenthal’s nomination as inevitable, after which he disappeared into the political woodwork. But before the convention, the “L” word was almost as ubiquitous in print as the attorney general himself, possibly the most often quoted Connecticut politician in the last twenty years.

The forbidding Chris Mathews, host of “Hardball” and certainly not a reflexive Republican kept pet, called Blumenthal a liar several times in two separate broadcasts. Democratic operative Paul Begala nuzzled up to the word in one interview and was dismayed by the attorney general’s inability to offer an honest apology to Vietnam vets Blumenthal dishonored by flitching their glory. Having attacked the initial New York Times story probing Blumenthal’s misspeakings, Colin McEnroe, a leftist columnist for the Hartford Courant and the host of his own program on Connecticut Public Broadcasting appeared, in a subsequent posting on his blog site “To Wit,” to slip-slide away from the possibility that Blumenthal was not lying about his non-service in Vietnam; this after the Hearst newspapers in Connecticut, scouring their archives, produced other fatal Blumenthal quotes falsely proclaiming that he had served in Vietnam.

Blumenthal has not fully and frankly apologized for his LIES. His method when faced with searing public criticism, both as attorney general and now as the nominee of his party of the U.S. Congress, has been to hunker down and wait for the war to pass over his placid head, barely denting his halo.

After Blumenthal’s coronation, his supporters were regaled by theTom Petty song “I won’t back down:”

“Well, I won’t back down. No, I won’t back down
You could stand me up at the Gates of Hell
And I won’t back down.”

The convention itself seemed to be unaware that the song, in the Johnny Cash version below, is a tribute to men who have seen action in battle, an unexpectedly ironic commentary on Blumenthal’s several LIES.



With the indispensable righteous wind of Connecticut politics at his back, an adulatory media, Blumenthal may not have to worry overmuch about the kind of headlines bearing the “L” word that are rasping Perez, who will quietly – very quietly, one may be sure – support Blumenthal’s candidacy. Ned Lamont, who wants to govern both the state and its national guard, is already on board.

Dump Dick?

Managing Editor of the Journal Inquirer and columnist Chris Powell says the provenance of the story in the New York Time concerning Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s non-service in Vietnam is unimportant:

“Blumenthal's defenders also argue that the Times' reporting about his misrepresentations is compromised because it originated with information provided by the campaign of a Republican candidate for senator, wrestling entrepreneur Linda McMahon. But of course everyone in public life feeds and tries to spin the press, the attorney general himself most of all -- which may explain some of the excuses being made for him in the press.

“McMahon's campaign and that of her rival for the Republican Senate nomination, former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, long have been feeding the press uncomplimentary information about the other, and now that Blumenthal has lost his big lead and no longer can ignore the opposition, his campaign soon will be doing the same to whoever runs closest to him. A good story will remain a good story no matter where it came from.”

And then he drops the 800 pound gorilla on Blumenthal:

“But the big issue on the eve of the Democratic state convention is not whether the Times story was perfectly fair or whether the enormous damage it has done to Blumenthal's candidacy can be mitigated but rather whether Blumenthal and his party will put at grave risk what ordinarily would be a safe Democratic seat in the Senate by continuing with his candidacy.”

Another Embarrasing Video

A clip, courtesy of News Channel 8, shows a mano e mano between Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo and Merrick Alpert, who met unarmed in a Hallway to discuss democracy.

Himes, Finch Endorse Flatto For Comptroller

Congressman Jim Himes has endorsed Fairfield First Selectman Ken Flatto for State Comptroller.



Jim Himes with President Obama

Congressman Himes said, "Facing tough economic times and the urgent need to restore fiscal responsibility in all levels of government, we need someone like Ken Flatto to keep the books balanced in Hartford. Ken has the experience making tough budget decisions and the strong accounting background necessary to serve us well as Comptroller."

Ken Flatto stated, “I am very proud and honored to receive this endorsement from Congressman Himes. I greatly admire all the good work he is doing for our State.”



Ken Flatto

Ken Flatto has also received endorsements from a number of officials, including Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch, Westport First Selectman Gordon Joseloff, former Trumbull First Selectman Ray Baldwin, former Newtown First Selectman Herb Rosenthal and former Monroe First Selectman Andrew Nunn.

Ken Flatto is the only candidate with a career CPA. He has a Comptroller and CFO/CEO background. Ken stands out among challengers in his career breadth of having over 20 years of financial experience in the private and public sectors and governmental accounting knowledge. As a five term First Selectman, Ken Flatto has served Fairfield as the second longest serving town chief executive officer in its history, overseeing one of the State’s larger municipal budgets of approximately one-quarter billion dollars. Ken has managed Fairfield's triple AAA financial rating and was co-featured as a model municipal executive with fiscally strong management skills in a GASB magazine article in 2007.

In addition to his service to Fairfield, Flatto served as Comptroller and CFO for Orangetown, New York, and Deputy Controller and interim Controller for Yonkers, New York in the 1990's, as well as staff for a State Financial Control Board. Flatto also served as the Controller for the renowned Natural Resources Defense Council in the 1980's, a national environmental organization. Flatto began his career at Touche Ross & Company CPAs.

Blumenthal Plants A Flag

In addition to being compendiums of facts, news reports are a series of embedded impressions. Some politicians call the practice of leading by impressions "planting the flag."

In the matter of embedding impressions, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is a rather artful flag planter. As attorney general, Blumenthal has had a good deal of practice, mostly through press releases, of convincing reporters that those people he has targeted for prosecution are guilty of the charges he has brought against them, the reporters being temptingly spurred on by the lurid charges he dangles before them like battle flags.

The reporters who receive these impressionistic press releases generally print them in full and then wait until the litigatory process has been completed, at which point they are certain to receive from Blumenthal yet another summary press release that they obligingly print, usually in full.

But the real story often lies outside the press releases, curled like some fugitive small animal amid a welter of affidavits, depositions and court documents that reporters, especially here in Connecticut, rarely consult. For them, the bookends of Blumenthal’s press releases are quite enough.

One of Blumenthal’s prosecutions is discussed in some detail here.

And here.

And here.

Blumenthal plants his flag, gets the prospective criminal – by any means necessary – and walks off, trailing after himself streams of glory.

He is not alone. Most successful attorneys general in the United States follow the same battle plan.

Blumenthal Misspeaks

At the beginning of a speech  before a group of veterans, Blumenthal told an appreciative crowd that he "served in the military during the Vietnam era.” Towards the end of his speech, he said, "We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam."

There were few or no reporters at the event. But an attendee recorded the proceedings for posterity and later, after Blumenthal had announced his candidacy for a U.S. Senate seat, her video surfaced in a New York Times report.

The question before the house is this: If we string both statements together so – I "served in the military during the Vietnam era. We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam’ -- are we left with the impression that Blumenthal did NOT serve in Vietnam? Is it not a virtual certainty that the people who heard the whole package would conclude the speaker DID serve in Vietnam?

The answer to the question is as unambiguously clear as Blumenthal’s second statement: “We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam.”

Having been more or less caught with his pants down on the question of his service in Vietnam, the Blumenthal camp now is attempting to replant its flag, which pushes to the fore yet another question: Assuming Blumenthal’s audience, including reporters, had over a period of years been laboring under the misapprehension that Blumenthal DID serve in Vietnam, is it Blumenthal’s responsibility to correct the record?

The answer to that question is “Yes.” The primary responsibility for correcting the record rests with Blumenthal.

Blumenthal sought four or five draft deferments. When Lyndon Johnson came into office and threatened to make such deferments less likely, he voluntarily joined a military group that kept him out of the rice patties.

Now, by itself, there is nothing wrong with all this. But one need not rely on a Times news report to conclude that Blumenthal was successful in his attempts to avoid active service in Vietnam. One does not need to read a news report to conclude that Blumenthal knew he did not serve in Vietnam, having made such strenuous efforts to avoid doing so.

So, it is a settled matter that HE KNEW HE DID NOT SERVE IN VIETNAM.

No one has yet questioned the veracity of Blumenthal’s statement, made on video, that he DID serve in Vietnam. And the province of the tape does not change the assertion.

It may surprise the general public – but it will not surprise reporters at all – that many stories about candidate A come from opposition candidate B, who would dearly like to see candidate A hung on a scaffold in front of the Old State House in Hartford, sentiments usually returned in full, in due order, by candidate B whenever the opportunity presents itself.

This is how stories are made in the journalistic sausage factory.

In any case, it has been established, whatever the province of the data that : 1) Blumenthal did not serve in Vietnam; 2) Blumenthal knew he did not serve in Vietnam; 3) Blumenthal said he served in Vietnam.

According to a survey of some prominent Connecticut reporters made by Colin McEnroe on his blog site “To Wit” most Connecticut news reporters cannot recall Blumenthal saying that he served in Vietnam. There is in this crowd, as usual, the noxious exception. The assertions on the tape were not made by Blumenthal to Connecticut reporters. But why would McEnroe or any of the news people whose responses he has collected suppose that Blumenthal would make such assertions to people who had the wherewithal to fact check those assertions when (see above) HE KNEW HE DID NOT SERVE IN VIETNAM ?

There is no political profit in that, and Blumenthal is a man who has learned in the course of his twenty years as attorney general how to wring a profit from a reporter.

The fact that Blumenthal did not share the clear assertion he made on the compromising tape with the reporters McEnroe mentioned obviously does not mean that Blumenthal did not make the assertion to others. Proof of this is – IN THE TAPE, right there, in front of the noses of the reporters McEnroe surveyed.

Those who have eyes to see will see. Those who have ears to hear will hear.

Two days after McEnroe's critical examination of the Times report, Greenwich Time, Blumenthal's hometown media ran a new report detailing other occassions during which Blumenthal claimed to have served in Vietnam.

Unless, for some reason, they don’t want to see or hear. Among these may be numbered Blumenthal as a party, one hopes, of one.

Other Connecticut reporters are now being invited to join that party. They should resist the invitation.

Richard Hanley, a journalism professor at Quinnipiac, whose comment appeared in the commentary section of "The Connecticut Mirror" got it exactly right, and Connecticut media, massaged so lovingly by Blumenthal, should pay heed:

“The Connecticut press corps did not notice Blumenthal's occasional inconsistencies with his own record as it raced to reproduce news releases trumpeting victories over Big Tobacco and MySpace, among many others, on behalf of Connecticut citizens. To be sure, the dispersed locations of the remark, generally offered during rubber-chicken-and-cold-peas talks around a state with one hundred and sixty nine towns covered less and less by statewide media, made it difficult to detect moments when Blumenthal strayed from his record. Still, the media needed to be as aggressive with Blumenthal as they ordinarily are when covering other elected officials.”

Beyond this suppurating mess, lies the question whether the same standards used by Blumenthal in his many prosecutions should apply to the prosecutor himself. That question is intelligently presented here under the headline “Why Should Anyone Give Blumenthal A Break?”

Blumenthal Dips in Polls

Since he used (misused?) a Veterans of Foreign War (VFW) hall in West Hartford to answer charges that he falsely claimed to have served in Vietnam, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has been given a thumbs down by:

1) Rob Simmons, a four year veteran of the war. Mr. Simmons told Politico, “He's not a veteran of foreign wars,” said Simmons, who is a VFW member. “He should not be a member of the VFW, and I find it offensive that he's still wrapping himself in the veteran flag of those of us who served in Vietnam."

2) Vets for Freedom, the largest group of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans:

“After the New York Times exposed his real service record, Mr. Blumenthal remained defiant at his rebuttal press conference, saying he takes ‘full responsibility’ for the statements, yet refuses to apologize,” said Pete Hegseth, an Iraq war veteran and the group’s executive director, in a statement. “Mr. Blumenthal also claims he merely ‘misspoke’ on a few occasions, and did so unknowingly. As a combat veteran of Iraq, I find this very hard to believe. All veterans know what they did and where they were. There’s a big difference between the battlefield and your hometown.”

3) Richard DiFederico, The commander of Connecticut’s Veterans of Foreign Wars:

“Mr. Blumenthal was considered one of the best friends a veteran could have in Connecticut. It is a true shame that he let a false claim of Vietnam service change that. Those who served in uniform during the Vietnam era also deserve our gratitude, which makes Mr. Blumenthal's claim to be something he is not so outrageous.”

And Linda McMahon, credited by Hartford Courant columnist Kevin Rennie with providing the spark that lit the bonfire at the New York Times, is now in a virtual dead heat with Blumenthal, according to the most recent Rassmussen Poll:

“The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Connecticut finds Blumenthal with just a three-point advantage over Linda McMahon, 48% to 45%. Two weeks ago, he led the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment by 13 percentage points. The New York Times story broke late Monday; the survey was taken Tuesday evening.”

And Rob Simmons is creeping up on Blumenthal’s Achille’s heel:

“When matched against former GOP Congressman Rob Simmons, Blumenthal leads by 11 - 50% to 39%. Two weeks ago, the longtime state attorney general held a 23-point lead over Simmons.”

On the upside, Daniela Altimari of the Hartford Courant is reporting that two prominent Democrats have rushed to Blumenthal’s support.

Dan Malloy, running as a Democrat for governor, said of Blumenthal, “"He said he misspoke several times, and that he regrets it. I believe when the people of Connecticut measure his entire body of work against these misstatements they will put them in the proper context and move on. I look forward to working with him when I'm Governor and he's a U.S. Senator."

And U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, who is planning to end his long career in the U.S. Senate at the expiration of his term, said that Blumenthal is “"an honorable man who has served his state and country proudly. He is a terrific Attorney General and he will be a great United States Senator."

Blumenthal And The Blame Game

A bingo moment occurred in a stinging rebuke to modern journalism written by Richard Hanley, a journalism professor at Quinnipiac, printed in the commentary section of "The Connecticut Mirror":

“The Connecticut press corps did not notice Blumenthal's occasional inconsistencies with his own record as it raced to reproduce news releases trumpeting victories over Big Tobacco and MySpace, among many others, on behalf of Connecticut citizens. To be sure, the dispersed locations of the remark, generally offered during rubber-chicken-and-cold-peas talks around a state with one hundred and sixty nine towns covered less and less by statewide media, made it difficult to detect moments when Blumenthal strayed from his record. Still, the media needed to be as aggressive with Blumenthal as they ordinarily are when covering other elected officials.”

Connecticut’s press has for a long time been drugged on Blumenthal’s press releases, spectacularly failing to exert what some critics of politicians call “due diligence.”

Bob Woodward of Watergate fame made a similar point on MSNBC’s Morning Joe” program hours before Blumenthal appeared in a presser to answer the charge made in a New York Times front page story in which Blumenthal said – unambiguously, plainly, proudly – that he had served in Vietnam.

Not true.

Why, oh why, Woodward wondered, had Blumenthal’s misspeaks and clever deceptions not been noticed by a print media that traditionally was used to fact checking every utterance of politicians, including pedestrian claims such as the politician’s middle name, the name of his wife, and whether or not he served in Vietnam.

The most plausible answer to the question is the old, safe retort: How could we be expected to know? If Blumenthal knew he did not serve in Vietnam – and he certainly must have known this -- why would he not be excessively cautious to avoid saying in the presence of Woodward’s fact checking reporters that he did serve in Vietnam?

The damaging claims were not made in editorial conferences with editorial board members who were intimately familiar with Blumenthal’s sterling record as an attorney general, as represented in his frequent press releases, many of them printed almost verbatim as they were submitted by Blumenthal without burrowing too deeply into court records, affidavits and depositions.

It is not possible to make a “mistake” about service in Vietnam. It may be possible to misspeak, Blumenthal’s alibi. But even in that case, why, oh why, would Blumenthal, or the keepers of his public persona, not be anxious to correct reports that just might, way on down the line, positively harm one’s future political prospects?

Does anyone doubt that Blumenthal’s claim of service in Vietnam, embarrassingly caught on tape, has put his reputation in harm’s way?

The jokes are just beginning. Best line so far is from Howie Carr: "...even Jane Fonda spent more time in Vietnam than he did."

At the same time Blumenthal appeared at a noonday presser along with his decorative background of supportive veterans, the state Supreme Court ruled that Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz did not meet statutory requirements to run for attorney general, effectively ending her bid. A finding is still pending concerning a notorious list compiled by Bysiewicz that might show the secretary of state had used her office for questionable political purposes. That finding will be made by Blumenthal, whose judgment has now been seriously compromised. A caller to the Dan Lavallo’s “talk of Connecticut” radio show speculated that Bysiewicz might usefully replace Blumenthal in his bid for U.S. Senator Chris Dodd’s seat because “she’s now available.” It’s only a matter of time before the comedy is picked up by faux news shows and late night comedians.

The psychology lying behind Blumenthal’s messy affair is puzzling. Why dance so merrily on the edge of the volcano?

Why do they do it? Had the press been a little more vigilant, catching Blumenthal’s misspeakings, the attorney general might have had a more peaceful night’s rest on Tuesday – two days before the opening of the Democratic nominating convention.

Blumie Takes A hit

Here is Kevin Rennie’s response to a stunning disclosure made by the New York Times, on the front page no less, concerning Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s non-service in Vietnam:

“Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s campaign for the United States Senate has been holed below the waterline by a devastating New York Times expose of Blumenthal’s false claims to have served in Vietnam. The piece, fed to the paper by the Linda McMahon Seante campaign, is accompanied by a chilling 2008 video of Blumenthal blithely making the false claim. The ‘brilliant’ Blumenthal provides a stunningly inadequate response, with the universal weasel word ‘misspoken’ appearing in the piece. It’s followed by a non-sequitur quote: ‘My intention has always been to be completely clear and accurate and straightforward, out of respect to the veterans who served in Vietnam,’ he said.”

And the story arrives on the equivalent of today’s breakfast table, a packed e-mail cache, with a video showing the U.S. Senate wannabe declaiming on his service in Vietnam.

Rennie’s blog is accompanied with a photo showing the Titanic – or is it the Andrea Doria? – slipping below the waves, swallowed up in a tragic black night, light a’beaming, party goers, one supposes, deprived by the sinking of the ship of their revelry, their hour of joy.

Vietnam – or more precisely, the false claim to have served in Vietnam – is still claiming its casualties.

The man Blumenthal hopes to replace in the senate, Chris Dodd, spent his Vietnam years serving in the Peace Corp in the Dominican Republic, a few miles from Fidel Castro’s festive paradise; but Dodd never claimed to served in Vietnam, while Blumenthal indisputably did.

President Clinton, who clearly avoided the draft, after sticking his toe in the anti-war movement and then wraping himself in a Rhode’s scholarship in England where, safe from whizzing bullets, he protested the war, never claimed to have served in Vietnam, while Blumenthal indisputably did.

Other on this route have found the door opening to a bright political future tightly shut against them.

Blumenthal plans later today to hold a news conference with veterans serving as a patriotic and decorative backdrop. His most recent claim the New York Times story is an outrageous distortion is itself 1) outrageous and 2) a distortion.

MSNBC’s Morning Joe discusses the issue here.

Famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward weighs in here.

The question that hangs like a Damoclean sword over Blumenthal’s head this morning is: Will Blumenthal have a future in the US senate? Has the fat lady sung?

Ken Flatto To Run For Comptroller

On Monday, May 17, 2010 at 1 pm in front of the Old Town Hall at 611 Old Post Road in Fairfield, my good friend, First Selectman Ken Flatto, Democrat, will announce his candidacy for State Comptroller.

With encouragement from various leaders and officials from around the State, First Selectman Flatto will seek this important state position which he sees as a “natural fit” and especially crucial at a time when the State faces economic stress and budget deficits.

Flatto, the only candidate with a career CPA, along with Comptroller and CFO/CEO background, brings over 20 years of financial experience in the private and public sectors plus his 11 years as Town leader. As a five term First Selectman, Ken has served Fairfield as the second longest serving town chief executive officer in its history, overseeing one of the State’s larger municipal budgets of approximately one-quarter billion dollars, the First Selectman has managed Fairfield's triple AAA financial rating and Fairfield's top "quality of life" ranking. During his tenure as Fairfield First Selectman, Fairfield has been ranked best town in Connecticut by Connecticut Magazine and achieved a top ten "best place to live in the nation" from CNN/Money Magazine. Flatto was co-featured as a model municipal executive with a fiscally strong management skill in a GASB magazine article in 2007. Flatto is married, with four children ages 17 to 23.

Ken is a stand out among challengers in his career breadth and governmental accounting knowledge. In addition to his service to Fairfield, Flatto served as Comptroller and CFO for Orangetown, New York and Deputy Controller and interim Controller for Yonkers, New York in the 1990's, in addition to service as staff for a State Financial Control Board. Mr. Flatto also served as the Controller for the renowned Natural Resources Defense Council in the 1980's, a national environmental organization, and Ken began his career at Touche Ross & Company CPAs. Flatto attained an MBA from Cornell University and graduated from Lehigh University undergraduate.

Ken Flatto states, “Our State needs a ready-to-go Comptroller with strong fiscal skills and background, with absolute integrity, to help Connecticut residents and communities overcome these tough economic times and I know I fit this mold perfectly. I love my job here in Fairfield and am honored to serve as First Selectman and feel that I could utilize all my experience balancing budgets and managing finances at the State level to help all of Connecticut the way I am helping Fairfield thrive.”

Dick Morris - Totally Out of Touch.

Friday, political consultant and author Dick Morris said, he considers the whole political  convention process to be "ridiculous."

Morris went on to say; "Candidates spend a great deal of time and resources romancing party people who have no connection to the electorate."

Who does he think makes up the town committees and thus the overwhelming majority of delegates? 


Little League coaches, Chamber of Commerce members, Firefighters, and some independent business owners.
Pretty much the same involved folks we've gotten used to seeing step up to the plate for various charity drives and every good cause that often requires a lot of work (and little thanks) since the birth of the nation.


'Out of touch'??
Hardly, regardless of political stripe these are the same people upon whom society as whole has come to rely to do what we tend to take for granted; most are the literal pillars of their respective communities. As such they tend to be centers of influence, and most are active in multiple non-political roles as well.
Those chosen to represent their community's interest don't tend to be picked at random, quite the contrary.  More often than not they're selected because others trust them to put in the time and effort so as to make what is hoped to be  intelligent and informed choices.
(Oh I know, there are indeed glaring exceptions and anomalies - consider the total delegations of either major party in their respective entirety instead.)    

Open primaries on the other hand make the entire race about who can afford the slickest marketing guru's and  buy the most television time.
Fine if one is seeking the best Madison Avenue has to offer, but lousy should we desire a government run by our fellow normal citizens.

Alpert Stiffed By Democrats

The Day thinks Merrick Alpert, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s worst Democratic Party nightmare, might get stiffed at the upcoming Democratic nominating convention.

David Collins thinks Alpert will not be permitted to address the convention.

Alpert has consistently been turned away by town committee chairman who do not want him to interfere with the coronation of King Dick.

The final decision on speakers rests with the elected delegates of the rules committee, which won't meet until the eve of the convention.

According to Brian Lockhart’s blog, Alpert has supplied a list of the Democratic Town Committees that shut the door in his face, a who’s who of anti-democratic Democrats.

Lady Bysiewicz’s Ambition

It has been rumored that Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz, very likely the Democratic nominee for attorney general, really has her eyes on a different prize. Some say she would treat the attorney general office as a jumping off place for a senatorial run against Sen. Joe Lieberman at the expiration of his term.

In the video clip below, Bysiewicz is given ample opportunity to answer this charge by a patient reporter who asks her three times whether she intends to serve out her term as attorney general, should the citizens of the state vote her into office.

Her answer:



This is dissembling at its best. But the question is sure to be popped at her again --- and again, and again, and again… by all and sundry.

At some point, she may answer it.

A plain “Yes” to the question – “Yes, I do plan to serve out my term as attorney general, understanding that my answer precludes me from leaving the office prematurely to run for U.S. Senator – may be inconvenient to Bysiewicz’s ambition; and, so far, nothing survivable has got between the lady and her ambition.

Lady Macbeth understands her husband’s vaulting ambition well because she is blood of his blood and bone of his bone:

I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on th'other…

Blumenthal And The Gentle Art Of Prosecution

"Here we are 90 days later, and Dick Blumenthal has issued 64 press releases but still no answer on Susan Bysiewicz's intelligence files. Three months is more than enough time to find out whether Bysiewicz illegally used state resources for political purposes. … He's got 200 lawyers over there, and he can't get to the bottom of this very serious allegation?"

So said Republican Party Chairman Chris Healy concerning Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s slow boil investigation of Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz.

When it was revealed that Bysiewicz may have lacked the requisite experience to run for Blumenthal’s position as attorney general, the attorney general punted the problem to the Superior Court Judge Michael Sheldon, who promised – and delivered -- an expedited decision.

The question concerning possible misuse of a data base assembled by Bysiewicz’s office arose at the same time. The problematic data base containing 36,000 names, the existence of which became known in February, included persons who had contacted the secretary of state’s office on matters of business. Appended to the names were notes that, some believe, would undoubtedly prove useful to Bysiewicz in her campaigns. The notorious list, for instance, included 2,500 people who in the past had been selected as Democratic nominating convention delegates. Bysiewicz’s campaign committee in 2009 had obtained a copy of the database through a legal Freedom of Information Act request.

"She worked on his [Blumenthal’s] campaign,” Healy pointed out. “They're fellow Democrats, fellow constitutional officers and fellow statewide office-seekers. He hasn't said anything about the progress of that investigation. Has she been interviewed? Have any files been examined? What's the timeline for action?"

Indicating the case involves possible potential violations of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act provisions as well as charges that Bysiewicz may have used her office to accommodate her campaign needs, an exasperated Healy said, “If it was a Republican secretary of the state, they'd be boiling a 50-gallon drum of oil right now."

Blumenthal promised a thorough, presumably non-expedited, investigation that very likely will run well beyond the upcoming Democratic nomination convention on May 12-22.

In the matter of timely investigations and prosecutions, Mr. Blumenthal is an artist of rare accomplishments. A recent Waterbury Republican American editorial noted that Blumenthal’s office had backlog of an astonishing 36,495 cases pending at the end of 2008-09, a 40 percent increase over 1995-96.

And, of course, one of the joys of the office is that the attorney general decides who he will investigate and when the subsequent prosecution will end.

Blumenthal is an old hand in selective prosecution.

In what Blumenthal described as a “virtually unprecedented” action, the attorney general and State Treasurer Denise Nappier sued investment firm Forstmann Little in Feb., 2002 for losing more than $125 million in state worker pension funds. What made the case unprecedented was that seven of Forstmann Little’s general partners – with one notable exception -- were separately named as individual defendants. The sloppy seven were thus put personally on the hook for any resulting liability for making lousy investments that tanked.

The missing exception, according to Joel Mowbray, writing in National Review at the time, was Erskine Bowles, “the multimillionaire former chief of staff for Bill Clinton and current Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat now held by the retiring Sen. Jesse Helms (R., N.C.)”

Blumenthal’s suit was well founded, since Connecticut had stipulated that it did not intend its investment to be involved in high risk ventures, but the exclusion of Bowles was highly irregular:

“Connecticut alleges a bait-and-switch: that it signed on for the old, stodgy strategy, but that it got the new, risky plan without its knowledge or permission. Connecticut's suit primarily charges that Forstmann Little and its partners violated the investment contract and significantly misrepresented the worth and type of investments made in XO and McLeod… Given his [Bowles'] status as a general partner during most of the relevant time covered by the Connecticut lawsuit — he arrived in January 1999, and departed in October 2001 — Bowles' exclusion from the list of named defendants is curious, to say the least. He joined Forstmann Little eight months before the McLeod investment, and was a partner for almost the entire XO disaster, exiting only one month before Connecticut's stake in XO was completely wiped out…”

“State treasurer Denise Nappier has said that Bowles was on the original list of defendants, but his name was dropped by the outside counsel working with her office because of a lack of direct involvement in wrongdoing. But Bowles clearly had more involvement in McLeod than the five partners who are named defendants, but did not sit on the telecom's board of directors. And named defendants Klinsky and Holmes were not even partners when the investments were made, yet Bowles was.

“His luck, of course, is pure politics. Neither Klinsky nor Holmes had the good sense to run for statewide office as Democrats this year. They have both been dragged into the lawsuit, despite having far less involvement in the ill-fated investments than Bowles. Who needs Lady Luck when you have fellow Democrats calling the shots?”

Unlike Caesars wife, the highly partisan Blumenthal is not, in matters of political opportunism, above suspicion.

Oddly, the selective prosecution in the Forstmann Little case was raised as a campaign issue in 2002 by then Republican Party candidate for attorney general Martha Dean, a Republican presently running for the same office but, as sometimes happens in campaigns, Blumenthal managed to survive the issue.

So did Erskine Bowles, appointed in 2010 to co-chair President Barack Obama's fiscal commission with Alan K. Simpson.

Democrats, especially in Connecticut, have a way of overcoming such calamities.

Dan Malloy and The Also-Rans

What: Candidates for Governor of Connecticut will participate in a candidate forum. The event, centered on the theme of “Prospering Communities, Thriving Families,” is sponsored by several statewide nonprofit organizations. It will explore the candidates’ views on a range of issues relating to family economic security, including the state budget, jobs, economic development, health, and education. It is free and open to the public. John Dankosky, News Director and Host of Where We Live on WNPR FM, will moderate the forum.

The event is co-sponsored by several statewide nonprofit organizations: Connecticut Association for Human Services, Connecticut Voices for Children, Connecticut Association for Community Action, Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund, Connecticut Council of Family Service Agencies, End Hunger Connecticut!, Connecticut Nonprofit Human Services Cabinet, and Legal Assistance Resource Center of Connecticut.

When: Monday, May 10 at 6:30 pm.

Where: SBM Charitable Foundation Auditorium, Manchester Community College, 161 Hillstown Road, Manchester CT. Parking in Lot C; directions

Who: Candidates who have confirmed their attendance at the forum are Democrats Juan Figueroa, Dan Malloy, Rudy Marconi, and Republicans C. Duffy Acevedo and Oz Griebel, and Independent Tom Marsh. However, Juan Figueroa has dropped out of the race. It seems likely that all the others except Dan Malloy and Tom Marsh will do so as well (although this announcement makes the Wizard of Oz a little more viable.). But, hey,

I admire their courage and willingness to run,
and they each deserve their moment in the sun:

Juan Figueroa




Rudy Marconi



C. Duffy Acevedo



Oz Griebel



Tom Marsh

The Budget Reviews Are In

Courant: Bad Deal

The Hartford Courant turned up its collective nose at Connecticut’s budget, a compromise deal hammered out between the dominant veto proof Democratic legislature and Gov. Jodi Rell, a lame duck Republican.

Once the state’s tax and spend plan had been inked, Democratic legislative leaders labeled it a “bi-partisan” budget, seemingly unaware that one robin doth not a summer make. The Republicans, minus Rell, firmly denounced the budget for all the right reasons and then took a very visible hike.

The short legislative session was “a big letdown,” said the Courant:

“The pact, however, avoids most of the tough choices that would put the state on sounder financial footing as it braces for a budget shortfall projected at $3.8 billion in fiscal 2012, which starts in just 14 months.

“The budget agreement reached this week would cover half the fiscal 2011 deficit with federal stimulus funds — which won't be there this time next year.

“The state would also raid funds for energy conservation and other worthy causes — and borrow $955 million, to be paid off by extending part of a surcharge on monthly electric bills that was to expire soon. Connecticut's electric rates are already among the highest in the nation. Businesses, particularly manufacturers, will take note.”

The paper closed its editorial with a wistful glace back at balmier days: “Connecticut needed at least one strong leader to make tough and unpopular choices — someone with the backbone of former Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. That leader was missing this session.”

Weicker, it will be recalled, gave us the income tax, which produced repeated budget surpluses, aggravated spending and made Connecticut’s government too big to fail. It failed anyway, and now those responsible for the failure are looking for bailouts from wealthy millionaires like the guy with the backbone.

Journal Inquirer: Same Deal

Chris Powell is the Managing Editor of the Journal Inquirer and the paper’s chief political columnist.

Unlike some in Connecticut’s migratory press, Powell has been with the paper for many years. A thoughtful commentator, over a period of time he has worked out for himself several state saving measures, chief among them ending binding arbitration for state employees, a notion that operates on the collective unconscious of union owned legislators the way water affected the Wicked Witch Of The West in the Wizard Of Oz.

Torpedoes away:

“Maybe what's most remarkable about the new state budget is that it took so long, three months, to put together so little. The budget spends a bit more than the last budget, makes no serious changes in spending policy, and covers the awful decline in state revenue by borrowing more than 5 percent of expenditures, raiding the state pension fund again, emptying dedicated funds, taxing electricity, and covering hundreds of millions of dollars of recurring costs with one-time federal "stimulus" funds.

“The budget is thus a colossal abdication, something any drug addict could have accomplished in 10 minutes before shooting up and nodding off…

“The failure to try to economize by questioning a few premises amid a near-depression is the responsibility of everyone at the Capitol, but it is mostly the governor's responsibility. Rather than agreeing with the Democrats to borrow 5 percent of spending and to take budget gimmickry to new lows, the governor could have used her veto to insist that the legislature face reality and require some sacrifice from the government class so that things might get better. Instead they now are certain to get worse.

“Since it would take a long time for the legislature's Democratic majority, in thrall to special interests, to begin to perceive a public interest, the governor would have had to be ready to govern indefinitely by executive order without a budget. That would have been work. Instead she joined the Democrats in default, leaving her successor a legacy of disaster.”

Waterbury Republican American: Raw Deal

The Waterbury Republican American is a small but far reaching epicenter of conservative thought and opinion in a state that warmly embraces Jacob Javitts Republicans like Weicker while strangling promising conservative babes in their cribs.

No fair deal, the paper intoned:

“Ignoring the coming catastrophe, they produced a "balanced budget" for 2011 that wishes, pretty-please, for $366 million more from the federal "stimulus" and $270 million in revenue growth; relies on a quarter-billion in unspecified spending reductions; loots $100 million from the dangerously underfunded pension fund; runs through this year's bogus $140 million "surplus"; and deficit-spends nearly $1 billion more. They even purloined $6 million from programs for the mentally retarded so they could show a $4.9 million "surplus."

“If you ran your household this way, you'd be bankrupt. If you ran a business this way, you'd be imprisoned.”

If there are any Fair Deal editorials out there praising the highly partisan Democrats and the governor for their courage, sagacity and economic acumen, we have not been able to locate them.

More on Arlen Spector

Neither ACR nor I like him:




For more (bizarre) political videos from California go here:

Lamont Way Ahead

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state finds businessman Ned Lamont now earning 42% support against GOP frontrunner Thomas Foley’s 35%. Eleven percent (11%) prefer some other candidate, and 13% are undecided.

Lamont picks up 48% of the vote when matched against Republican Lieutenant Governor Michael Fedele. The Republican gets 28% support, with 15% undecided. Nine percent (9%) like another candidate.

Ex-Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy, who is battling Lamont for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, posts a modest 38% to 35% lead over Foley. Eleven percent (11%) favor some other candidate, while 16% remain undecided.

Malloy picks up 44% support to Fedele’s 27%, with 10% looking to another candidate. Given that match-up, one-in-five Connecticut voters (20%) are undecided.

The survey of 500 Likely Voters in Connecticut was conducted on May 4, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/-4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Both parties are hoping to nominate a candidate at their May 21-22 state conventions, although the races could go to an August primary.

In Connecticut’s U.S. Senate race, Democratic hopeful Richard Blumenthal continues to pull in over 50% of the vote and hold a double-digit lead no matter which Republican he’s matched against.

Arlen Specter....Looking Out For Arlen Specter

While there may be a need for some of the reforms in the behemoth financial services reform bill, Restoring American Financial Stability Act S 3217, being debated this month in Washington, one amendment offers our friends in the trial bar an opportunity to resume their attempt to overturn an important TWO Supreme Court cases to increase their ability to bring frivolous class action law suits - because clearly, we don't have enough frivolous actions already.

But who would offer such an amendment?...You guessed it one-time Republican Senator Arlen Specter (D..err R...err, D-PA) would overturn TWO US Supreme Court opinions and provide a private right of action for aiding and abetting securities fraud. The amendment essentially mirrors the Liability for Aiding and Abetting Securities Violations Act, S. 1551, introduced by Sen. Specter in 2009. The amendment (SA 3776) would legislatively overrule two decisions of the Supreme Court’’, namely the 1994 Central Bank of Denver v. First Interstate Bank ruling and the 2008 ruling in Stoneridge Investment Partners, LLC v. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.

Those decisions reined in “scheme liability”—a theory of liability used by trial attorneys to circumvent securities laws. If adopted, it would have had dire consequences for investors and the economy. Appropriately named, “Scheme liability” would invite nearly any business that had a commercial relationship with any other company alleged to have engaged in fraud straight into Specter's new wheel house of trial lawyers; regardless of their knowledge of said fraud. In these perilous economic times, (soon to be former) Senator Specter has proven he is more than willing to expose a sizable portion of the economy to expanded liability in securities class actions that will hurt companies, their employees and injure investors - in the interest of satisfying his (new liberal) base.

The SEC already has the power to bring an action against companies that help to perpetrate a fraud, and they are aggressive in their prosecution of these types of cases. Congress should leave well enough alone and not hand the trial bar another tool to force legitimate law abiding businesses into multi-million dollar settlements.

But who knows...maybe Arlen will change his mind again....

New Haven Leaders Endorse Lamont-Glassman

Ω
DeStefano Praises Lamont's Ideas and Experience

Ned Lamont accepted the endorsement of New Haven Mayor John DeStefano and the New Haven Democratic Town Committee (DTC) at a news conference at the John C. Daniels School. New Haven DTC Chair Susan Voigt joined DeStefano in praising Lamont and Glassman's leadership and vision for Connecticut.



"Ned and Mary are the right choice to work with Connecticut's cities and towns to create jobs and improve education," said DeStefano. "They have the ideas and the experience to bring new energy to cities like New Haven and get our state moving in the right direction."



"Ned Lamont has the best plan to grow our economy and get Connecticut moving forward again," said Voigt. "He and Mary are the strong, principled leaders we need to shake up Hartford and get results for the people of Connecticut."

"For too long, our state government has been kicking the can down the road, and our cities have paid the price," said Lamont. "New Haven needs an advocate in Hartford, not an adversary. As governor I will work directly with municipal leaders like Mayor DeStefano to make sure Connecticut's cities and towns have the tools they need to create jobs, give our kids a quality education and make government work better for Connecticut families."

"As the leader of a small town, I know how difficult it can be for our cities and towns to work with Hartford," said Glassman. "I look forward to working with Ned and local leaders like Mayor DeStefano to improve public education, create jobs statewide and move Connecticut forward."

A wonderful piece about Mary Glassman in the Connecticut Mirror (read the whole article!):

Glassman, 51, is the environmental lawyer who unexpectedly became the first selectwoman of Simsbury, a suburb of 24,000 nestled in the Farmington Valley.

"I've always been an accidental candidate," Glassman said. "I've always been an accidental candidate from the day I entered public service."

That would be shortly after Labor Day weekend in 1991, when Simsbury's tiny Democratic Party was stunned to learn that its candidate for first selectman had quit the race.

Glassman's husband, Andy, attended the hastily-called Democratic Town Committee meeting to settle on a replacement.

"He came home and said, 'We found a candidate for first selectman,'" she recalled. "And he said, 'It's you.'"

It seemed a joke. Between them, they had two legal careers and two young children. And Mary, then 33, was pregnant with their third.

"I said, 'There's no way.' He said, 'Don't worry, you'll never win,'" she said.

Simsbury hadn't elected a Democratic first selectman since long before Glassman was born. And Glassman, who grew up in New Britain, hadn't been long in town.

She won. It was a fluke -- one that repeated itself in 1993, 1995 and 1997. After a voluntary break for a career at the State Capitol, she was elected again in 2007 and 2009.

and a video of the running mates:

Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here

All budgets are plans for the future. The budget worked out between Gov. Jodi Rell and the leaders of the dominant Democratic Party in Connecticut’s state legislature, principally Speaker of the House Chris Donovan and President Pro Tem of the Senate Don Williams, will go to press a little more than two weeks before the Democratic and Republican nominating conventions to be held in Hartford on May 21-22.

There are no surprises in the budget, which patterns, with almost ridged precision, the template of past budgets in which gapping holes were filled with chewing gum and hopeful views of the future.

Democrats, heedless of the warning signs everywhere apparent, are convinced that a rising tide will in the near future lift all the boats, Connecticut’s little bark among them. Collectively, the Democratic legislative caucus is Pangloss, drawing hope from the future rather than the past.

Pangloss was a character developed by Voltaire in Candide who, despite the horrors inflicted upon him by cruel fate, continued to believe that the world in which he lived was “the best of all possible worlds.” Earthquakes, revolutions, mass executions were unable to detach Pangloss, Candide’s philosophical tutor, from his inviolable optimism. The loss of his beloved to bandits who raped and mutilated her finally convinced a weary Candide that his philosophical tutor was a bit too optimistic for Candide’s own good.

Operating on the Panglossian notion that tomorrow will be the best of all possible worlds, state Democrats and Rell have now put forth a budget that optimistically looks past what some more worldly Republicans and a handful on unblinkered Democratic legislators regard as the coming train wreck.

Almost half of Connecticut’s budget crater is to be filled by contributions from an administration in Washington that has, in the two years it has been in office, tripled the national debt. The real cost of the new programs initiated by the president and the dominant Democratic congress have not yet registered on the national economic seismograph. Public debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product has increased fourfold during the current administration.

Tin cup in hand, Connecticut has now become a beggar state. It is not alone.

And it is only a matter of time before cash poor Washington begins to treat beggar states in the same way large beggar corporations have been treated., Uncle Sam, himself indebted to foreign states from which he is borrowing heavily to meet his own obligations, surely would not be willing to give alms to wealthy states like Connecticut in the absence of budgetary proof that the state has instituted cost saving measures. New Jersey’s legislature, prodded by a cost conscious governor, has offered some proof that it is serious about controlling future spending.

Connecticut has not

There are no serious costs saving measures in Connecticut’s new budget. It is a budget that will satisfy pressure groups that control powerful legislative leaders in the House and Senate. It is a budget that answers the unstated question roiling in the minds of wealth producing entrepreneurs who, following others gone before them, will vote with their feet by either leaving the state or refusing to come here.

Even New Jersey will offer greener pastures to wealth generators than Connecticut.

In addition to providing a view to the future, Connecticut’s most recent budget is a reliable measure of the cowardice of politicians.

Nice ad from Mike Fedele

Must be the OTHER Mike Fedele, not the one who has been Rell's Lt. Governor for the past 4 years:

Lamont and Glassman Form Great Ticket

Democrats Ned Lamont and Mary Glassman announced today that they will run for governor and lieutenant governor together on a Democratic ticket. I think it's a great move by Ned, and will help him at the convention, in the primary, and in the general election.

Lamont and Glassman, the First Selectman of Simsbury and a former Democratic staffer in the Connecticut legislature, appeared together at Trinity-on-Main in downtown New Britain and pledged to work together to create jobs, improve education and reform state government.

Picture courtesy of Spazeboy at spazeboy.net.



"I come from the business world, where people are judged by the results they get, not the promises they make. Mary gets results," said Lamont. "And together Mary and I will work our hearts out to make sure that every child has the same opportunity- a great education and the chance to start a family, start a career, and start a business right here in their home state of Connecticut."

"I am proud to be here today as Ned Lamont's running mate because although we come from different parts of our state, with different experiences - we share the same vision," said Glassman. "We will create a partnership that will bring bold and creative changes to government - with a focus on helping businesses grow and creating jobs, supporting towns and cities in educating the next generation of children and helping everyone achieve their piece of the American dream."

Lamont and Glassman made their announcement in New Britain, Glassman's childhood home and the location of Connecticut Central State University, where Lamont serves as a professor.

Here's Mary with Ned earlier in the campaign:

Bellweather Republican Elction

In Fairfield, the endorsement of Republican candidates occurs at an open caucus of all registered Republican. This has caused considerable controversy. In most cases if there is a contest, it is followed up by a second election, a primary, with exactly the same candidates and eligible voters.

The election this year is particularly interesting because the Republican establishment has unanimously endorsed one of the candidates, Brenda Kupchik, while the other, Chris DeSanctis, seems to be the darling of the tea-party wing.

Odd Oz

The Republicans are enjoying what Joe Markley calls, "an embarassment of riches" as it regards our numerous gubernatorial candidates.

Not all however are what we would consider good Republicans.

A perfect case in point would be R. Nelson "Oz" Grieble, who on Thursday April 29th speaking before the Bristol Chamber of Commerce said:
"Whatever anyone might think of Dodd, the longtime senator has been a very effective, powerful voice for the state in Washington."

Griebel, who is taking a leave from his job as president and chief executive officer of the Metro Hartford Alliance has put his money where his mouth is too, having contributed 1000's to Dodd over the years and to several others as well.

While supporting those we agree with is an honorable action, Republicans should be aware of just who it is Grieble does agree and thus support; and it's not a good picture for a Republican candidate for the state's highest office.