Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Will former Governor John Rowland’s upcoming court trial tar Connecticut’s GOP? The answer to the question will depend on who is wielding the tar brush. There is some indication that left of center media outlets are disposed to take seriously the state Democratic Party’s absurd attempt to tar brush the GOP. In point of fact, an unbridgeable breach between the GOP and Mr. Rowland occurred more than a decade ago when Mr. Rowland was nearly impeached. The impeachment panel included prominent Republicans who today would most vehemently dispute state Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo’s characterization of the current connection between the state Republican Party and Mr. Rowland. Ms. DiNardo told a Register Citizen reporter “The CT GOP bringing back John Rowland’s close friend, Jeb Bush, on the eve of more expected felony indictments for Rowland only reinforces the fact that the Connecticut Republican Party is still influenced by Rowland.”

  State Party operations with oodles of cash on hand -- read, Democrats – can well afford to hire a few hessian troops who hide themselves in the political woodwork and snipe at the opposition. One of them is James Hallinan, 31-years-old, a for-hire political operative who travels the campaign trail of Republicans in this or that state and supplies Democrats with chewy media releases. Hartford columnist Colin McEnroe reviewed in a recent column some specimens of  Mr. Hallinan’s handiwork and was unimpressed.

Republicans this year asked Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, much maligned by union folk, to give the keynote address at the Prescott Bush Awards dinner in Stamford. Mr. Walker is a grown-up, so his address was low key, interspersed with amusing vignettes. There was very little coverage of Mr. Walker’s remarks in Connecticut’s media. Most of the media accounts went for the color and passed over the discomforting   substance.