Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal’s awkward false claim, made or intimated several times , that he had served as a marine in Vietnam rose out of the newspaper morgues recently after former New York Times political writer Ray Hernandez joined a Washington D.C. PR firm. The story in the Hartford Courant, “ NY Times Reporter Who Was Fed Blumenthal Vietnam Scoop Will Join DC Firm Led By One Time McMahon Adviser ”, actually is a story about a story, a story twice removed.

Michele Jacklin , former chief political writer for the Hartford Courant, is running for a spot on the Glastonbury Town Council. In an introductory biography, Jacklin notes that her son, a second year law student at the University of Maryland, is a Peace Corp volunteer in Nicaragua. The present president of Nicaragua is Daniel Ortega, once a Sandinista, now an ardent supporter of the heavy-breathing, anti-American president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. Both countries, Nicaragua and Venezuela are unstable and destabilizing, not the best place for a Yanqui Peace Corp. law student. Jacklin’s chief concern in wanting to serve on the town council is “to maintain Glastonbury's excellent quality of life, while ensuring the town's affordability so that people of all socioeconomic, racial and ethnic backgrounds can make their homes here.” Michele Jacklin: I have lived in Glastonbury for 26 years with my husband, James Estrada. We have two children: Emily, a second-year law student at t...

The one question reporters and commentators seem not to want to touch – for pretty much the same reason most of us stay clear of downed power lines – is this: When the chief political writer for a prominent newspaper leaves the paper and is hired for pay by a politician either in office or running for office, is the person’s future contributions to the paper tainted in any way by small-“c” corruption? After all, the returning scrivener is in a perfect position to provide journalistic favors for favored political parties, the downed power line. The question hangs over the head of Michele Jacklin, who has written a Democrat paint by the numbers opinion piece for the Hartford Courant , “Rell Evokes Regan, But Counting on Obamabucks.” In a Manichean world in which the universe is divided between the forces of good and evil, there are good ideas, those proposed by President Barack Obama, and bad ideas, the operative ideas of the Reagan era: small government, manageable taxes and a vigorous ...