Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Q: I find this line in one of your recent posts : “The political response to Coronavius has returned us to pre-Magna Carta days. Quite suddenly, the three branches of government, once constitutionally separated, have collapsed and been subsumed by chief executives unchallenged by legislatures or quiescent courts.” Would you care to expand on that? A: I’m not sure any expansion of the idea it would matter a bit. The posts found in Connecticut Commentary are columns still sent to a number of Connecticut papers. The columns are not being picked up any longer. Nor, I should point out, are columns written by Chris Powell, a thorn in the side of the state’s unitary media. Elsewhere I’ve said that modern journalism is ten percent thought and ninety percent repetition. Powell is a ten percenter; something in the man does not love nonsense. But, as you might imagine, his ten percent is not often repeated in the state’s media echo chamber. The Register Citizen papers used to run both ...

We appear to be moving from one farce to another -- at warp speed. U.S. Representative John Larson, who holds what may be the safest Congressional seat in Connecticut, organized a 60’s style “sit-in” protest in the House. This followed a filibuster in the Senate by U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, assisted in his endeavor by U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal and other co-conspirators. What are the Democrats doing, and why are they doing it? On the matter of safe seats, it’s a toss-up between 1st District Representative Larson and 3rd District Representative Rosa DeLauro. The Democrats have been trying to get top-billing as moral crusaders from the usual moral epigones, such as the New York Times and the Hartford Courant.

Months ago, budget guru Ben Barnes, asked why he was taxing hospitals, replied “ because that’s where the money is .” It has been left to others to plumb new tax resources. A tax on hospitals would invariably be passed along to the halt, the lame, the blind and the bleeding, and taxing these poor souls might well damage permanently the hard won reputation of the Democratic Party as the champion of the halt, the lame, the blind and the bleeding. But Yale?

On Thursday, December 10, Governor Dannel Malloy announced that he intended to violate, in order of historic appearance, the Magna Carta, the Fifth and Fourteen Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and Sec. 29-28(b) of the Connecticut Statutes. Mr. Malloy said he was prepared -- by gubernatorial fiat -- to order relevant Connecticut authorities to deny gun permits to anyone whose name appears on federal watch lists.

“The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning”-- Adlai Stevenson In her most recent press release, one can almost see state Democratic Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo ticking off the “made in Washington” campaign talking points: Boughton, “war on women,” check. Boughton,” anti-gay,” check. Boughton, “Tea Party,” check. Boughton, “extremist,” check. A busy demagogue, Ms. DiNardo usually is able to mold her mud pies into brief media bites at a moment’s notice. Here is the core of her media release :

Former Department Of Transportation chief Joseph Marie has now lawyered up, as the lawyers sometimes say. It is supposed that he was urged out of his position by Governor Jodi Rell or, as some in the commentariat community may suppose, by her evil twin, chief gubernatorial aide Lisa Moody . On an informal complaint of harassment, Marie was called on the carpet by a lawyer attached to Rell’s office, a pre-written statement was put in front of him, and he was told to sign it -- or else. The statement was a resignation plus: If Marie would agree to resign and whisper not a word concerning his resignation to the media, the state, represented by Rell or demon Moody, as the case may be, would agree to let him go peaceful into that good night and whisper not a word concerning the real reason for his speedy departure, which was this: One of his associates had made an informal complaint alleging sexual harassment against Marie. Here, half a dozen or more questions drum on Marie’s close...

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and the Hoffmans have reached a settlement on the three-year-old case. Blumenthal’s press release following the settlement is written in his usual triumphant mode. The case was a losing proposition for Hoffmans going in, and it is instructive to ask why. The final settlement, reached after years of litigation, demonstrates that the forces arrayed against the Hoffmans – which include, by the way, a compliant media – could not be overcome. Never-the-less, some battles are worth fighting, if only to make a record that would not exist when one chooses simply to lie down in the path of an irresistible force. In the Hoffman case – and more strikingly in the New England Pellet (NEP) case – some of Blumenthal’s questionable methods were closely scrutinized by this blog. The attorney general’s methods are as simple and effective as those employed in 15th century by the Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada, who was inclined to settle matters of religious...

I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male (as a jurist) who hasn’t lived that life -- Judge Sonia Sotomayor, 2001 Some decisions she’s made do raise questions about whether she will decide cases based on the law or her personal outlook and feelings and preconceived notions. We will want to examine that carefully, to make sure she will decide cases based on the law, not on how she feels about them -- Senator Jon Kyl President Obama agrees with Judge Sotomayor’s judicial philosophy. He disagrees with Senator Kyl. He believes personal experience is a way of understanding what the world is like. He has criticized the Warren Supreme Court because it failed to do things for the disadvantaged like redistributing income. He believes the Supreme Court should be doing things for people and not just safeguarding them from negative things. There are disadvantaged classes, and the...