Skip to main content

The Last Word

Gov. Jodi Rell attempted to line item veto certain earmarks in the Democrat’s budget, at which point she bumped into Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, a student of the state Constitution.

Blumenthal gave it as his official opinion that the state Constitution prohibited the governor from using her line item veto without having signed the bill. Rell had permitted the budget to pass into law without her signature.

Blumenthal’s correct constitutional reading provoked the following remark from House Republican leader Larry Cafaro: “Game over. Fight done. Lay down your arms. It's over. They won. The Democrats won. The people of the state of Connecticut lost - unless you're the Westbrook YMCA or the Manchester food pantry. This is the equivalent of Robert Duran - 'no mas' - against Sugar Ray Leonard.”

Cafero’s outburst was correct. It is also constitutional.

And so ends the budget battle 0f 2009, with a whimper rather than a revolutionary bang.

God help the state of Connecticut. No one else will.

Comments

Dave Moelling said…
I don't know much about this, but I've read that the Vermont state auditor has just switched parties to be a Republican. Speculation is that he may run for Governor.

What little I know about VT politices is that the Progressives have run wild, and the state's budget is as bad as Connecticuts.

Are there any CT Dems who might decide they need to get on the side of the adults for at least a while?
Don Pesci said…
Dave,

None of that would surprise me. The whole of the Northeast is ripe for real change if, to borrow a phrase from Rham Emanuel, the resistance does not let the crisis go to waste.

Popular posts from this blog

Obamagod!

My guess is that Barack Obama is a bit too modest to consider himself a Christ figure , but artist will be artists. And over at “ To Wit ,” a blog run by professional blogger, journalist, radio commentator and ex-Hartford Courant religious writer Colin McEnroe, chocolateers will be chocolateers. Nice to have all this attention paid to Christ so near to Easter.

The Blumenthal Burisma Connection

Steve Hilton , a Fox News commentator who over the weekend had connected some Burisma corruption dots, had this to say about Connecticut U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal’s association with the tangled knot of corruption in Ukraine: “We cross-referenced the Senate co-sponsors of Ed Markey's Ukraine gas bill with the list of Democrats whom Burisma lobbyist, David Leiter, routinely gave money to and found another one -- one of the most sanctimonious of them all, actually -- Sen. Richard Blumenthal."

Did Chris Murphy Engage in Private Diplomacy?

Murphy after Zarif blowup -- Getty Images Connecticut U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, up for reelection this year, had “a secret meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during the Munich Security Conference” in February 2020, according to a posting written by Mollie Hemingway , the Editor-in-Chief of The Federalist. Was Murphy commissioned by proper authorities to participate in the meeting, or was he freelancing? If the former, there is no problem. If the latter, Murphy was courting political disaster. “Such a meeting,” Hemingway wrote at the time, “would mean Murphy had done the type of secret coordination with foreign leaders to potentially undermine the U.S. government that he accused Trump officials of doing as they prepared for Trump’s administration. In February 2017, Murphy demanded investigations of National Security Advisor Mike Flynn because he had a phone call with his counterpart-to-be in Russia. “’Any effort to undermine our nation’s foreign policy – e