Skip to main content

Where Do Republicans Go From Here?

Former senator and governor Lowell Weicker – maverick Republican (i.e. closet Democrat) – once said about his party, “It’s so small. Why doesn’t somebody take it over?”

Weicker, assisted by his aide Tom D’Amore, once did attempt to take over the party. Weicker, then a senator, eased D’Amore into the chairmanship of his party and, before you could say Benito Mussolini, the two were conspiring to “open” the party’s nominating conventions to unaffiliated voters.

Party central simply refused to decompose on cue and politely rebuffed Weicker. Both Weicker and D’Amore eventually shook the dust of their old, small, inconsequential party from their feet, Weicker to run as governor on a synthetic party ticket. D’Amore drifted off the party reservation, was seen canoodling with Jesse Ventura, and later re-entered Connecticut’s political orbit as an advisor to Ned Lamont, who tried and failed to unhorse Weicker’s old bete noir, Sen. Joe Lieberman.

The best that can be said about Connecticut’s moderate, lackadaisical state Republican Party is that it survived Weicker.

Will it survive Gov. Jodi Rell?

The party is still small – very small. There are only 12 Republicans in the state’s Senate, as against 24 Democrats, who have a majority in both houses large enough to override Rell’s rarely used veto.

The state is facing a huge $9 billion deficit, a per capita hole in the boat larger than bankrupted California’s.

In the face of that deficit, Rell this year put up a show of resistance and then caved in to the status quo. It has become much too easy for Republican governors, surrounded on all sides by heavily armed Democrats, to hoist the white flag and wave a cheerful farewell to their troops. “Government,” George Washington said, “is force.” It will always be easy to capitulate to force majeure. Washington, to be sure, didn’t; but he was made of different mettle.

Here and there, one sees hopeful signs, indications there is a life after near-death for Republicans.

The party itself is no longer tied to the governor’s apron strings. Following a decision to capitulate to Democrats and allow a tax swollen budget to pass without her signature, leading Republicans did not swallow their tongues and retreat with their tails between their legs, as was common, except in sometimes raucous closed Republican caucuses, in the administration of former governor John Rowland.

Republicans are now refusing to dip their handkerchiefs in suicidal budgets. There is little outward or internal assent among Republicans to the Democratic Party’s spendfest.

Following its passage, GOP leader in the senate John McKinney of Fairfield said, “I agree with the governor's criticism of the budget, but I'm disappointed that she didn't veto the bill. At no time did the Democratic majority ever show a willingness to consider serious reductions in spending. It was quite clear that they were never going to reduce spending. The Democrats have the budget they want.''

And House Republican leader Lawrence Cafero said, “I don't see any reason why she would sign this unless she just wanted it over with - and that's not a good enough reason.”

Parties form around persons or ideas. The Democrats have just implemented their last idea, a progressive income tax. Facing barren years ahead, it is as if they had reached for the very last jar of peanut butter in the panty, eyes turned inward, downing it with gusto.

Silence in law signifies consent. Cut loose from a governor who has assented by her silence to a ruinous budget, what will be the principle of organization of the Republican Party in Connecticut? Is there in the party a person around whom the Republicans can unite to mobilize for action? Are there ideas among Republicans worth fighting for? What is their program? How will that program be presented in campaigns, and by whom?

An anxious public awaits reasonable answers to these important questions. The politics of upcoming campaigns will be local. The state looks forward to a barren future. Salvation will not come from a confused and central government in Washington sunk in fantasy and debt.

And the pantry is empty.

Comments

Bob Swick said…
Don
The Republican party at all levels of government is being handed a golden opportunity to actually state what it stands for; which should be lower taxes, smaller government, more free markets and less laws. Governor Rell lost a golden opportunity and as such I feel as a life long conservative change is needed for the party at the top for the next election. Governor Rell has lost my vote through this debacle. It also shows the inability of the state Democratic party to lead in any way shape or form.
Don Pesci said…
True. At least here in Connecticut, one would hope that Republicans have learned from their exhile in the wilderness.
mccommas said…
My opinion of Jodi Rell after this… And frankly before this?

I keep thinking of the same thing when I have to ponder the fortitude of this accidental governor.

I keep thinking of what the character played by the late great British actress Isabel Mary 'Mollie' Sugden of “Are You Being Served?" would say.

Mrs. Slocombe would sum up Rell this way: Weak As Water!

Popular posts from this blog

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."

Powell, the JI, And Economic literacy

Powell, Pesci Substack The Journal Inquirer (JI), one of the last independent newspapers in Connecticut, is now a part of the Hearst Media chain. Hearst has been growing by leaps and bounds in the state during the last decade. At the same time, many newspapers in Connecticut have shrunk in size, the result, some people seem to think, of ad revenue smaller newspapers have lost to internet sites and a declining newspaper reading public. Surviving papers are now seeking to recover the lost revenue by erecting “pay walls.” Like most besieged businesses, newspapers also are attempting to recoup lost revenue through staff reductions, reductions in the size of the product – both candy bars and newspapers are much smaller than they had been in the past – and sell-offs to larger chains that operate according to the social Darwinian principles of monopolistic “red in tooth and claw” giant corporations. The first principle of the successful mega-firm is: Buy out your predator before he swallows

Down The Rabbit Hole, A Book Review

Down the Rabbit Hole How the Culture of Corrections Encourages Crime by Brent McCall & Michael Liebowitz Available at Amazon Price: $12.95/softcover, 337 pages   “ Down the Rabbit Hole: How the Culture of Corrections Encourages Crime ,” a penological eye-opener, is written by two Connecticut prisoners, Brent McCall and Michael Liebowitz. Their book is an analytical work, not merely a page-turner prison drama, and it provides serious answers to the question: Why is reoffending a more likely outcome than rehabilitation in the wake of a prison sentence? The multiple answers to this central question are not at all obvious. Before picking up the book, the reader would be well advised to shed his preconceptions and also slough off the highly misleading claims of prison officials concerning the efficacy of programs developed by dusty old experts who have never had an honest discussion with a real convict. Some of the experts are more convincing cons than the cons, p