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.
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
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?
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.