There are sound reasons to suppose the chatter around the
water cooler at the paper is not favorable to Herbst.
A recent headline blares, “Temperamental? Thin-Skinned? Republican Tim
Herbst Says He's 'Authentic'.
Reporter Daniela Altimari writes about Herbst, “his
message is a bleak one.” Along with out-of-state publications such as Fortune
Magazine, Bloomberg and others, Herbst believes Connecticut has been severely damaged
by the Malloy administration.
Herbst’s “amiable
image, Altimari continues, “stands in sharp contrast to the politics he has
practiced … critics describe him as thinned skinned, relentless, embroiled in a
protracted lawsuit with his brother-in-law “… and so on, for nearly a dozen bruising
paragraphs. Spare compliments, one from a former football teammate – “He really
understood the core essence of a person, not just on the field, but in life”
--- are noticed, after which critical comments resume.
“As he pursues a
high stakes run for governor,” Altimari writes, “Herbst evokes an unlikely
comparison: Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy who is not seeking re-election
after two terms. The two men have sharply different views on the role of
government – Malloy is reliably liberal on most issues while Herbst has
consistently supported a strong conservative agenda, including tax cuts for
high earners, support for looser restrictions on gun ownership and a get-tough
approach to crime.
“But they [Herbst
and Malloy] share a zealous work ethic and an appetite for confrontation.
Indeed, there are
telling differences. General George Patton and Erwin Rommel, who served as
field marshal in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II, had much in
common both in status and temperament. But their objectives were miles apart,
and it is their differences, rather than similarities, that are decisive.
“’Sometimes I have
sharp elbows,’ Herbst says. “But one thing that’s different from myself and
Governor Malloy is, I never let sharp elbows create barriers.”
Boughton reappears
in the 11th graph to take issue with Herbst. “’You’ve got to pick
your battles and pick them wisely. We don’t need a Republican Dan Malloy.’”
Democrats, of
course, believe Herbst has more in common with their presumptive target during
the upcoming off-year elections, President Donald Trump.
“Democrats say the
more apt comparison,” Altimeri continues, “is with the nation’s volatile
commander-in-chief. ‘Tim Herbst attacking an opponent is straight out of the
Trump playbook,’ said party spokeswoman Christina Polizzi. ‘From costing taxpayers money to settle his
legal battles, to threatening to put a cigar out in an opponent’s eye, Herbst
is just one candidate from the Republican field who is offering Trump hysterics
instead of actual leadership.’”
Now then, nothing in
Altimari’s report is fake news. Herbst may be described as “aggressive”, though
he rejects that term as unnecessarily harsh and misleading, preferring
“competitive” to “aggressive.” Herbst did spend taxpayers’ money when he was
First Selectman of Trumbull while defending himself from a suit brought against him by his brother-in-law, who charged that Herbst had unfairly fired
him from a temporary post as Trumbull’s chief administrator because he had been
dating Herbst’s sister. Herbst claimed he fired the man because he wished to
avoid a conflict of interest in having his sister's boyfriend work in his
administration. Herbst's mother later sued “her daughter, son-in-law and their
lawyer, alleging in her suit that all three conspired to take confidential
information off her iPhone,” according to a report in CTPost. All sides involved in both suits are
currently working towards a settlement, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyer.
Most of these important details
are missing from the Courant’s recent Herbst profile.
Political squabbles,
particularly when lawyers are involved, do tend to be messy, but the Herbst muddle
falls far short of other notorious political tangles. Even now one has only to
mention President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky to bring a blush to the
cheeks of some morally upright Democrats.
Here in Connecticut,
easily outraged Democrats, in high dungeon with the corruption of former
Governor John Rowland, and rightly so, winked forgivingly when Joe Ganim,
reputed to be friendly with Herbst, ran for Mayor of Bridgeport soon after he
had served seven years of a nine year sentence in the hoosegow for political
corruption. The Bridgeport Mayor is now running for governor against
millionaire Ned Lamont in a Democrat primary, and his candidacy has not yet
given Democrat Party spokespersons a bout of the vapors.
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