Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of the People’s Republic of Vermont -- the nation’s first socialist presidential candidate since Eugene Debs (1855-1926), five times candidate for president and Norman Thomas, a presidential candidate six times from 1928-1948 -- has a hearty dislike, people will have noticed, for “greedy” companies larger than a mom-and-pop-deli. “Greed” is the mud-ball leftist extremists throw at business enterprises that are successful. There are two kinds of businesses: successful ones that make a profit and unsuccessful ones that go out of business. “Greed” is excessive profit-taking, the “excess” to be determined by socialists and progressives who historically have been much in the habit of transferring funds from obscenely greedy “haves” to the importunate and much more numerous “have-nots.” A Hartford newspaper  made Connecticut history when it called unions “greedy” in an editorial. Stubborn union leaders, the editorial pronounced, were perversely refu...

First there was the inaugural parade, very sparsely attended, to judge by a Chris Keating video. This was the people’s chance to congratulate Governor Dannel Malloy on his re-election to office. They stayed home. It was bitterly cold outside. And, then too, people have often seen the governor marching in parades. The usual union attendees stayed home too – bitterly cold. The inaugural ball was a much better attended affair. This was the politician’s party, held as usual inside the state armory, a stone’s throw from the Legislative Office Building, which is a stone’s throw from the State Capitol building, both playgrounds of politicians, lobbyists and political staff. The armory was brimming with warm bodies and smiling faces. If you are a politician, it is always better to be in than out.

President Pro Tem of the State Senate Don Williams said he was “strongly against” a move by Governor Jodi Rell to overturn an arbiter’s award to unionized prison guards that would provide them with a 3% wage increase. The increase for some workers could mount to 6.5% owing to annual increments and lump sum payments. Williams believes union concessions may be needed in the future to close an expected budget deficit of $6 billion. Apparently, asking for contractual givebacks, according to Williams, would make the unions less amenable to concessions as Connecticut’s economy continues to tank. William’s counterpart in the House, Speaker Chris Donovan, who has long labored in union vineyards, refused to say whether the House would debate the issue. “The unions didn’t create the problem,” Donovan told a reporter. Maybe yes, maybe no. Donovan’s assertion is debatable. Deficits are caused by overspending, and in this regard Donovan is more responsible for them than the unions. What the Speake...

Breathing heavily, the Hartford Courant noted in a Friday editorial that state Rep. Chris Caruso, “ once (emphasis mine) the leading voice on revoking the pensions of corrupt government employees,” has inserted yet another “poison pill” into proposed ethics legislation. The legislature wisely excised Caruso's first "poison pill" -- the unconstitutional retroactive revocation of pensions -- from the legislation and permitted it to float into obscurity as a stand alone bill, wherefore Caruso, the Inspector Javert of ethics in the House, now has offered his second "poison pill," a provision that offers an escape hatch to unionized corrupt public officials. On Tuesday, Democrat House members "exempted union members from pension revocation," the Courant fumed. Under the provision backed by Caruso and the unions, "judges could reduce the pensions of unionized employees — but only (emphasis mine) to repay stolen money and pay fines, court expenses and ...