May Means Flowers: June Means Liberation

The merry month of May has come and almost gone. June beckons. Last week, Speaker of the House Jim Amann woke from his bed of pain, got up, shaved and showered, looked in the mirror, snarled and decided that he could not put off any longer harassing Governor Jodi Rell, So, while the sun peaked above the horizon and all was breathlessly still, he conceived a plan. Later he picked up the phone and called his confederate in the senate, President Pro Tem Don Williams. And together the two settled on a strategy: They would encourage their minions in the legislature to over-ride a gubernatorial veto. This was done. The next day, the journalistic world was all a'twitter. How did the two decide to veto this particular piece of legislation? Why did they so decide? Stories were filed; trees were wasted. And still, today, no can provide a convincing answer to these questions. The governor, naturally, was aggrieved. She said the two were bruits and ought not to have done it. Amann said the veto vindicated the constitution, which authorizes the majority party – hereinafter the Dems – to override gubernatorial vetoes. Some obscure professor was cited to the effect that the legislature, under the direction of Amann and Williams, was tinkering with the clockwork constitutional mechanism that separates legislative and executive powers. And then, mercifully, almost as soon as the fracas had begun, it was over; the legislature, the governor, chest thumping leaders at the capital, all went back to their scripts. And still, as May turns the corner towards June, the state is plummeting, relative to other states, in almost every measure of prosperity. Still, young students in Connecticut’s inner cities – the best minds of the future generation, who ought to have gone on to Yale, distinguishing themselves as scholars, doctors and lawyers – are shooting up the hoods. Still, Connecticut is last in the nation in economic growth, though there are signs the patient is not yet dead cold. Still, gas prices are too high. With a wave of their hand, Connecticut’s legislators could easily cut prices at the pump by cutting their take at the pump. Still… Oh, never mind… Let us give thanks, as May disappears and June waves a hearty hello, that the ladies and gents at the LOB have almost finished their work. There are only two slender weeks to go in the legislative session. Spending will not be cut, the money machine at the legislature will continue to suck up and eat out the prosperity of the people. Yet still --it’s almost over.