Talking a bit off page to a reporter for The Day, Democrat Rep. Ted Moukawsher of Groton blurted out the truth.
“The tax package,” he said, “… sort of just appeared, and I don't think we were invested in it. It was like budgeting by press conference. It was whatever someone decided was a counter to the governor's (latest) press conference and whatever sort of proposal she had. The leaders didn't really consult with membership at the Senate or the House level, and then when it didn't work out the way they expected it to, they never came back to us and said, 'Well, how about this?' It was really kind of weird. They never consulted us and then they abandoned us afterward. We went from being this mighty majority to being this feeble, fractured, kind-of disorganized group.”
The blustery Speaker of the House Jim Amann of course was singing a different tune. “They must be ... brain-dead,” Amann said concerning disgruntled members of his party in an interview with Ted Mann, who noted that the Speaker punctuated “the middle of that sentence with a qualifier that can't be printed here.”
According to Amann, who apparently was oblivious to the various feints and moves of the Republicans, the budget passed by the Democrat dominated legislature was the neatest thing since the invention of baloney.
Sure, the Democrats failed to pass, over Governor Rell’s veto, a much touted progressive income tax, but never mind that stuff. “Just look over here,” says the magician when he wants to beguile his audience and pull a rabbit out of a hat.
“The tax package,” he said, “… sort of just appeared, and I don't think we were invested in it. It was like budgeting by press conference. It was whatever someone decided was a counter to the governor's (latest) press conference and whatever sort of proposal she had. The leaders didn't really consult with membership at the Senate or the House level, and then when it didn't work out the way they expected it to, they never came back to us and said, 'Well, how about this?' It was really kind of weird. They never consulted us and then they abandoned us afterward. We went from being this mighty majority to being this feeble, fractured, kind-of disorganized group.”
The blustery Speaker of the House Jim Amann of course was singing a different tune. “They must be ... brain-dead,” Amann said concerning disgruntled members of his party in an interview with Ted Mann, who noted that the Speaker punctuated “the middle of that sentence with a qualifier that can't be printed here.”
According to Amann, who apparently was oblivious to the various feints and moves of the Republicans, the budget passed by the Democrat dominated legislature was the neatest thing since the invention of baloney.
Sure, the Democrats failed to pass, over Governor Rell’s veto, a much touted progressive income tax, but never mind that stuff. “Just look over here,” says the magician when he wants to beguile his audience and pull a rabbit out of a hat.
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