Connecticut’s only state-wide paper – though this
characterization must be amended somewhat, since the Hartford Courant no longer
penetrates every town in the state – has nearly finished endorsing Democrats and
pummeling Republicans on its editorial pages.
The paper’s endorsements themselves read like re-cycled
Democratic campaign posters. All seven members of Connecticut’s all Democratic
U.S. Congressional Delegation have been re-endorsed by the paper. The last time
the Courant endorsed a Republican running for the U.S. Congress was many moons
ago, certainly beyond the ken of any millennial voter.
Perhaps its most shameful past endorsement was that of
Democrat Elizabeth Esty over Republican Andrew Roraback in Connecticut’s 5th
District 2012 race, because Mr. Roraback met all the usual tick-off essentials
cited by the paper in bestowing its endorsements.
Mr. Roraback had more practical experience than Mrs. Esty. He
was fiscally conservative at a time when a little fiscal conservativism might
have helped to prevent a doubling of the national debt from $10 trillion under
President George Bush to $20 trillion under President Barack Obama. His bona
fides on social issues were astonishingly liberal, like those of the Courant’s
editorial board.
Mr. Roraback’s cousin, Catherine Roraback, played a
prominent role in litigating Griswold vs Connecticut, the U.S. Supreme Court
decision that upended opposition to birth control throughout the nation. The
Supreme Court ruled in the case that although the U.S. Constitution mentions no
specific “right to privacy,” various amendments -- the First, Third, Fourth,
and Ninth – create penumbras, or zones, that establish a right to privacy in
marital relations. Since Connecticut statutes regarding contraceptive
regulations conflicted with the ghostly penumbral rights the Court teased out
of the above mentioned amendments, they were deemed unconstitutional.
Mr. Roraback lived up to liberal expectations on social
policy. He was the kind of Republican candidate for the U.S. House whose
election would not have bruised the tender social consciences of any of the
members of the Courant’s Editorial Board. A few piddling objections aside – Mr.
Roaraback did not support Obamacare, now on the verge of collapse, with
sufficient enthusiasm -- any member of
the Courant’s Editorial Board endorsing Mrs. Esty could have pinched their
nostrils and cast their editorial endorsement vote for Mr. Roraback who,
following his loss, was appointed to Connecticut's Superior Court by Governor
Dannel Malloy, no progressive shrinking violet. Had Mr. Roraback been elected,
he would have been the sole Republican thorn within an all-Democratic U.S.
Congressional rose cluster.
At least one barrier to admittance to the all-Democratic
club – that editorial affirmations should go to the most experienced candidate
– is a tautological hurdle that can never be surmounted by ANY Republican
challenger. All the current members of Connecticut’s U.S. Congressional
Delegation are a) Democrats who b) have years of experience as U.S. Congresspersons.
Representative John Larson, for example, is working towards his 9th
term in the House. What Republican challenger could ever hope to match that
experience? Rosa DeLauro’s experience in Congress has been 25 years in the
making. The argument from experience is one that supports a permanent oligarchy
and the death of democracy. Yet, when the paper wished to asperse a lifetime
member of the U.S. Congress with its endorsement – provided he or she is a
Democrat – the editorial board hauls out this rusty, anti-democratic canard to
prop-up some tired old pol who has been pretending for the last five terms in
office that he is running in an honest and balanced campaign for re-election –
when, in fact, he is impatiently awaiting re-coronation.
U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal has ungraciously granted his
Republican challenger, Dan Carter, but one debate.
The soon to be coronated incumbent, has raised $8.5 million during his current campaign,
while Mr. Carter, poor as a church mouse, has amassed a little more than $227,000, according to a listing in Open Secrets.
Mrs. DeLauro is so rich in campaign funds that she has been able for several
terms in office to distribute her excess collections to other Democratic
candidates. Not only is she her own petite party; she is her own PAC committee.
The Courant has never failed to endorse her for re-election. And what paper
would be so bold as to withhold its endorsement on the grounds, say, that no
public office should be an unassailable sinecure?
It used to be the mission of honest journalism to “comfort
the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” according to Finley Peter Dunne’s Mr. Dooley. It would be difficult to find in Connecticut’s political firmament
permanent stars more comfortable and un-afflicted than the Connecticut
Democratic candidates regularly endorsed by major newspapers. To borrow a defiant bumper sticker challenge
from progressive Democrats: this is not who we journalists are; we are better
than this.
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