Wee, sleeket, cowran,
tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in
thy breastie! – “To A Mouse,” Robert Burns
Democrats, it should be obvious from the numbers, have been
losing their grip for a while. The State Senate is now split evenly between
Democrats and Republicans, 18-18; in the State House, Republicans now are four
seats away from a tie. It was the lack of an edge in the Senate that provided a
crack through which Republicans were able to pass their budget through the
chamber, three moderate Democrats – Paul Doyle of Wethersfield, Gayle
Slossberg of Milford and Joan Hartley of Waterbury – voting with Republicans
against a status quo Democratic getting and spending plan. The Democrats, in
their own plan, got too much, spent too much, as always, and were inattentive
to the signs of the times.
When Republican Leader in the House Themis Klarides said
that the Republican budget would pass if it had a fair hearing in the General
Assembly, she was right. Of course, Democrat temple guards – Speaker of the
House Joe Aresimowicz, and President Pro Tem of the Senate Martin Looney – were
determined to let the Republican budget die in a General Assembly hallway
without a fair hearing.
By mid-September, months after Democrats were supposed to
have presented a budget to their fellow Democrats in the Democrat dominated
General Assembly, the state employee union controlled Speaker of the House, Joe
Aresimowicz, was found huffing and puffing in an op-ed, trying, as best
he could, to sell a much taxed, overpriced clunker to his caucus.
On September 16th, the Senate voted for the
Republican budget package; hours later, the House followed suit.
Asked whether his vote in favor of the Republican budget
plan might cost him his seat in the State Senate, Doyle responded that the vote
was the most difficult of his career: “Yes, I may be risking my political
career. My party may not be happy with me. But to be honest, I don’t care. I’ve
been up here for many years. I believe I’ve always been a man of my word. … I
have to vote what my conscience tells me. … I’m prepared to risk it all.’’ In
the east atrium of the Capitol building, state hero Nathan Hale, who regretted
he had but one life to give for his country, breathed a quiet assent.
When the House at 3:00 in the morning also voted 77-73 in
favor of the Republican budget, an eerie silence descended on the chamber, General
Assembly members no doubt listening for the whisper in the whirlwind. A Facebook
wag wrote – here was proof God was a Republican. Lobbyists were gob smacked.
Malloy promised a veto. Among other reasons, Malloy vowed he would veto the General
Assembly vote because the Republican plan required UConn employees earning more
than $100,000 to pay more for fringe benefits, required full time professors to
teach an additional course, and eliminated tuition waivers for UConn employees.
Malloy’s far more onerous executive order would have zeroed out state education
funding for dozens of municipalities, but then the executive order was always
intended to be, as it appeared in the Aresimowicz op-ed, a police baton with which
to beat backsliding Democrats in the General Assembly.
Democratic moderates in the House and Senate simply tied
their courage to the hitching post and did the right thing, infuriating Dannel “The
Hammer” Malloy who, Samson-like, is now prepared to use his veto power to pull
the roof down upon the heads of the Philistines, i.e. anyone who disagrees with
the best laid plans of Democratic Party leaders.
Whether the roof will or will not rain down on Democrats during
the upcoming elections may depend on whether a contingent of moderate Democrats
can summon the courage to overcome the veto of a governor about to pass into
history.
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