Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

In Shakespeare’s King Lear, a dethroned but wiser king, about to be dragged off to prison, says to his only faithful daughter, Cordelia, “Come on, let’s go to prison. The two of us together will sing like birds in a cage. We will be good to each other. When you ask for my blessing, I’ll get down on my knees and ask you to forgive me. That’s how we’ll live—we’ll pray, we’ll sing, we’ll tell old stories, we’ll laugh at pretentious courtiers, we’ll listen to nasty court gossip, we’ll find out who’s losing and who’s winning, who’s in and who’s out. We’ll think about the mysteries of the universe as if we were God’s spies. In prison we’ll outlast hordes of rulers that will come and go as their fortunes change.” The reporter might easily have opened his piece on State Senator Joe Markley – “ Tea Partier Or Constitutional Conservative: Lt. Gov. Candidate Owns GOP Right Flank ” – by noting, very incidentally, that Markley is one of the few, if not the only, state legislator with whom o...