Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

In true blue Connecticut, the left of center media acts like a semi permeable membrane: Conservatives are filtered out at the beginning of post nominating convention campaigns, so that the general election contest between candidates will not be cluttered with inconvenient right of center messages and principles. Conservative corpses are carried out the back door, in the dead of night, and quietly laid to rest. John Zakarian, the longest serving editorial page manager ( 1977– 2004, 27 years) at the Hartford Courant , Connecticut’s only state-wide newspaper, at one point boasted that conservative political writers would be hired by thepaper only over his dead body , and though Mr. Zakarien left the paper some time ago, the tradition gamely marches on. Because conservatives are strangled in the nursery bed – though lately a few weeds have cropped up – Republican candidates who survive to a general election fall to the center or slightly left of center on the political spectrum...

Whenever liberals in Connecticut get in trouble – not often – they like to drape the “moderate” mantel around their shoulders and strut and preen, Chanticleer-like, before Connecticut’s largely liberal press. Just look at me! This cocky imposture puts me in mind of a story told by Bill Buckley, I think at a gathering at his house in Stamford. Traveling in Ireland visiting pubs, Buckley noticed that no matter where a conversation began, it ultimately was steered in the direction of religion. Someone had mentioned a prominent local atheist, and Buckley, taken aback, remarked, “You mean to say there are atheists in Ireland!!!” Oh yes, he was told – “But you have to understand: There are Catholic atheists and Protestant atheists.” In Connecticut, there are liberal moderates, many of whom write for newspapers, and conservative moderates. But really – wink, wink – the whole lot is programmatically liberal. Colin McEnroe, a talk show gabber, is instinctively liberal, as is his sometime gues...

Don’t Mess With Gombossy In Sunday’s edition, The Hartford Courant’s new Consumer Watchdog, George Gombossy , brings the president of Connecticut Light & Power, Raymond Necci, to heel – with a little help from the paper’s friends. CL&P has been unable to shed it’s arrogance as Connecticut’s former state supported energy monopoly. It could not be brought to admit that its meters might possibly malfunction and overcharge its customers. When several consumers complained to Gombossy that their meters appeared not to be working properly, Gombossy produced a front page story on the issue, the paper enlisted the help of Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, and before you could say “You’re gonna get sued,” the president of CL&P was on his knees, begging for mercy. In yet another front page consumer column in Sunday’s edition, Gombossy pulls no punches. “CL&P and its parent company, Northeast Utilities,” he writes, “are under pressure from the state attorney general's office...