Hell hath no fury, to vary a well-worn phrase, like a Weicker scorned.
Vile and ingrate! too late thou shalt repent
The base Injustice thou hast done my Love:
Yes, thou shalt know, spite of thy past Distress,
And all those Ills which thou so long hast mourn'd;
Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.
William Congreve, in The Mourning Bride, 1697
Once again – a
bad habit in former Senator and Governor Lowell Weicker’s case – Mr. Weicker
has brought his hobnail boot down upon yet another Republican and former friend, according to a piece in
CageSideSeats (CSS) , “Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. sticks the boots to former friend Linda McMahon.”
“Now that he's
lost his cushy WWE part time job, which earned him about $150,000 in his last
year on the board, the gloves are well and truly off. Yesterday, Weicker Jr.announced that he was backing McMahon's Democrat rival Chris Murphy
in the 2012 Connecticut election. This time he gave a no holds barred burial of
Linda's greed and political ignorance, rather than just a couple of sarcastic
one-off digs at her expense.”
For the greater
part of his career in the U.S. Senate, and in his brief afterlife as an
Independent governor of the state, Maverick “Republican” Wicker has guarded with
a jealous, almost feline regard his legacy as the longest serving Republican
office holder in recent memory.
The Republican
Party in Connecticut, continually lashed by then Senator Weicker, finally
turned on him in 1989 and gave him the boot. In a senatorial contest with then
Attorney General Joe Lieberman, a moderate Democrat, Weicker lost the
preponderance of Democratic votes that came his way whenever he stuck a sharp stick in the eye of Republicans challenging
Democrats, as happened when gentleman farmer Roger Eddy threw his gauntlet at
the feet of senator Chris Dodd, whose father Weicker had defeated in an
acrimonious three way race involving Tom Dodd, anti-Vietnam war candidate Joe
Duffy, the Democratic Party nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1970, and Mr.
Weicker. Mr. Weicker promised Mr. Eddy he would support him
100% and threw his support to Mr. Dodd on the eve of the election.
Senator Tom Dodd
had been censured by the Senate for misuse of campaign funds, an account of
which may be found in “The Senator from Central Casting,” by David Koskoff, reviewedby Don Pesci on his site “Connecticut Commentary." Deprived of the nomination of his party,
Senator Dodd ran as an independent, losing to Mr. Weicker, who said Joe Duffy’s
opposition to the Vietnam War should earn him some time in the clinker. Mr.
Weicker did not scruple to ride the patriotic anti-anti-Vietnam war fervor into
office.
Once in the
Senate, Mr. Weicker found it prudent – since Democrats in his state outnumbered
Republicans by a two to one majority – to use his party as a foil for
re-election; at one point, Tom D’Amore, Mr. Weicker’s major domo handpicked by
the senator as chairmen of the state Republican Party, proposed to open
Republican nominating conventions to non-Republicans, the better to assure the
unopposed nomination of his boss. Republicans balked and sent Mr. D’Amore
packing. And later, when Mr. Lieberman challenged Mr. Weicker, the often
flogged state Republican Party jumped the fence. Democrats, given a fair choice
between an anti-Republican Republican and a moderate Democrat, deserted Mr.
Weicker, but his loss by only one percent of the vote could not have happened
without significant Republican defections.
Mr. Weicker’s
head is plastered over, like a strike-anywhere match, with an incendiary
substance. Bang it once and it bursts into flame.
Mr. Weicker, a
Greenwich nurtured millionaire, served the state in one office or another for
28 years; former Senator Chris Dodd, now a Hollywood mogul and the longest
serving Connecticut politician, was politically active only two years longer.
Mr. Weicker is without question the destructor-elect of the Republican Party, and his support of free spending
Democrats should come as no surprise to anyone.
Mr. Weicker is condemned to
support politicians and policies that mirror his own past experience. He rose to the defense of Governor Dannel
Malloy’s tax hike, the largest in state history, because Mr. Malloy’s solution
to chronic deficits patterned his efforts more than 20 years ago when, having
pledged in a campaign to forgo an income tax, he imposed the tax once in
office. Ultimately, as now seems
obvious, the Weicker income tax led to an explosion in spending and reduced
Connecticut’s competitive edge as measured in states that confronted deficits
by reducing job killing taxes and regulations. But then, anyone who resembles
Mr. Weicker is sure to gain his approval. Conscientious and -- God and the state’s
left of center media forbid! –populist conservative and libertarian Republicans
will always merit Mr. Weicker’s treacherous disapproval. But that is the way of
all solipsistic personalities.
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