Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

“ Do I have a right to make prudential judgments? Yes, I do that ” -- Rosa DeLauro US Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s faith, Catholicism, is brought to center stage in today’s Hartford Courant front page story , “Rosa’s Faith.” Some Catholics may quarrel with some points in the story. Their quarrel may begin with its title, “Rosa’s Faith.” In so far as Rosa’s faith differs from the faith of her church on matters of Christian doctrine, it is not, and cannot be, Catholic faith. Prudence, valued by DeLauro, and conscience do not always march together hand in hand. Catholics must take care to conform themselves to their faith; it cannot be the other way around. The Catholic struggle is to understand the faith and to conform one’s conscience, in one’s daily life, to Catholic teaching. When one trims the faith to make it fit one’s comfortable notions, one has stepped outside the Catholic universe. This temptation is one that Catholic politician are especially prone to. It must be an informed conscience...

Remarking on the guilty verdict in the recently concluded trial of former radio talk show host John Rowland, Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney noted , "It's very sad to see.” Mr. Rowland’s fall from grace was due “at least in part” to arrogance, but it was also related to the fact Mr. Rowland “never learned to find alternative ways of earning a living other than through political influence." Mr. Rowland may or may not be arrogant, an attribute usually associated with politicians; what is the difference, for example, between arrogance and self-assurance, and is it possible for politicians who lack self-assurance to be effective in office? It is undoubtedly true that Mr. Rowland was inept in earning a living when he was a politician.  Other politicians are far smoother in the gentle art of making politics pay.

The New Haven Register reports that 3 rd District U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, up for re-election this year, has begun her campaign against hunger in Connecticut: “Rosa DeLauro took aim Monday at the recently passed $3.6 trillion House Republican budget that would impose sweeping cuts in domestic programs, including food stamps, but block new taxes on millionaires. “’The budget that was passed last week... would decimate food stamps and the rest of our federal anti-hunger programs,’ DeLauro said at a press conference in the CFB warehouse, ‘while preserving oil company subsidies and tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans...’” Mrs. DeLauro is a millionaire and one of the richest legislators in the Congress, where she has plied her trade since 1991. Mrs. DeLauro, who purports to be a Roman Catholic, is perhaps best known for her fulsome support of abortion and her resistance to any measure designed to regulate it . The New Haven Register report is accompanied b...

You’re a rich girl, and you’ve gone too far Cause you know it don’t matter anyway You can rely on the old man’s money You can rely on the old man’s money -- Hall and Oats Song Human Events is preparing a story that may involve self-dealing on the part of 3rd District congresswoman Rosa Delauro and her husband Stanley Greenberg, whose firm, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, has done business with powerful beltway politicians. Mr. Greenberg, the CEO of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, boasts that his firm “is one of the world's premier research and strategic consulting firms. Beyond data, we provide the strategic insight necessary to develop the right messages to achieve our clients' goals. Smarter, faster and committed to our clients' interests: we work harder and think deeper than the rest.” A list of Greenberg's political clients includes such  shakers and movers within the Democratic Party as President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Vice President Walter Mondale and ...

The decision on whether U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner will remain in the congress should be made, former Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said, by Mr. Weiner and his New York constituents. But over the weekend the lady changed her mind. Declining to call for Mr. Weiner’s resignation, Mrs. Pelosi had instead asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate whether Weiner misused any government resources. Connecticut U.S. Reps John Larson and Rosa DeLauro concurred. A recent poll of registered voters in Weiner's district showed 56 percent of those surveyed saying Mr. Weiner should remain in office, while 33 percent said he should be dumped. Mr. Weiner, a seven term Democrat who admitted to sending over the internet sexually explicit photos to half a dozen women over the past three years, declined to resign. Mr. Weiner received additional support from Rep. Charles Rangel, recently censured by the House last year for ethics violations. Mr. Rangel pointed out that other mem...

Blumenthal and DeLauro To impeach or not to impeach? That is the question? Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has said no. And US Representative Rosa DeLauro, congresswoman for life in the impregnable 3rd District in New Haven County, last held by a Republican 36 years ago, has seconded the motion. DeLauro has occupied her seat, unruffled by Republican challengers, for 28 years. DeLauro is married to Stan Greenberg, a pollster and consultant whose opinions on things Democrat are held in high esteem by Democrats DeLauro invites to their plush digs in Washington DC. Who says you can’t enrich yourself supping at the public trough?

Some people – the Kennedys are among them – consider rules and regulations merely as obstacles to be surmounted on the path to political glory. It is a well-worn path often trodden by the great and near great. In Connecticut, the path offers special immunities from criticism for incumbent Democrats. Gore Vidal , who left us more than two years ago, memorably described the Kennedy clan descending on Washington D.C. after John Kennedy had been sworn into office as president. He said it was like watching the Mafia descend on a small, northern Italian town, and his was a friendly voice. First Lady Jackie Kennedy and Mr. Vidal shared a stepfather, the stockbroker Hugh Auchincloss.

So-called psychoanalysis is the occupation of lustful rationalists who trace everything in the world to sexual causes - with the exception of their occupation -- Karl Kraus U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro has invited professor Bandy Lee of Yale to address “a gathering of fellow Democrats” at her lavish digs in Washington DC. The subject of the gathering will be President Donald Trump’s mental imbalance. As do many Democrats, Dr. Lee thinks Trump is batty, according to an item in CTMirror : Recently Lee and two professors from Columbia – a university named, unfortunately, after Columbus – released a statement signed by 100 psychiatrists that said, “We believe that (Trump) is now further unraveling in ways that contribute to his belligerent nuclear threat.” The Trump threat was a twitter taunt in response to a statement from batty North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un that said, in effect, my nuclear weapons are bigger than yours. Sigmund Freud is reported to have sai...

“ What’s wrong with allowing people to buy into Medicare at the age of 50 or 55? Besides the fact that it is going bankrupt, is inefficient and can barely sustain its current population?” – “the chief,” a commentator on the blog site Connecticut Local Politics “The chief” may or may not be a citizen represented in the U.S. House of representatives by John Larson, a Democratic Rep. from the impregnable 1st District or Rosa DeLauro of the 3rd District or embattled Sen. Chris Dodd, all of whom are frustrated by Sen. Joe Lieberman’s opposition to a public option in the health care bill and a provision that would extend Medicare benefits to beneficiaries who are 55 years of age and up. It hardly matters at all what district “the chief” resides in; he is represented in the U.S. Congress by a delegation in both the House and the Senate that is wholly Democratic. And that delegation is marching in lockstep with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who wants both a public option, leading do...

In politics, there are two kinds of riches: personal riches – Democrat Dick Blumenthal, weighing in at $67 million, is among the eight richest Senators in Congress – and campaign riches . Democrat U.S Senator Chris Murphy, who complains often enough that hustling campaign dollars wastes time he might otherwise more profitably spend demonizing the NRA – which recently signaled its support of a bill championed by Murphy and fellow NRA demonizer Blumenthal, the “Fix NICS Act of 2017”, that would reinforce requirements that federal agencies report all infractions to  the National Instant Criminal Background Check System -- currently has about $6 million in his campaign kitty . Most people could not name Murphy’s likely Republican challenger. None of them have yet hit the $60,000 mark.

The Republican plan to abolish and replace Obamacare has now collapsed. After much huffing and puffing, Republicans pulled their replacement plan, such as it was, shook the dirt of medical care reform from their feet, and vowed to move on to the next big issue -- tax reform. One imagines U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, who made some frantically intemperate remarks in the House before the Republican replacement plane crashed and burned, was delighted. U. S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, move over: Mrs. DeLauro has now become the chief progressive maenad of the U.S. Congress. She brought to her performance suitable demagogic props, a large sign that said “Get Old People,” the words arranged horizontally and the first letter of each word – G-O-P – in fierce bold script. C-Span captured the historic moment here. Mrs. DeLauro was not wearing her pussy hat at the time; so the members of the House were spared that indignity.

Roll Call is reporting that former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro Ashley Turton was found dead in her car Monday morning. “Ashley Turton, former chief of staff to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and wife of White House liaison to the House of Representatives Dan Turton, was found dead in her car Monday morning, according to a source... "Metropolitan Police Lt. Nicholas Breul said there is a joint investigation into the cause of the accident. Homicide detectives have been called to the scene. “'This could be just a tragic freak accident,' Breul said. 'And that’s why we’re crossing our i’s and dotting our t’s because it is a little freaky, and we need to figure out why. But there is no indication now that there was any crime.'”  Update : MPD has issued a statement saying the death is being investigated as an accident: "On Monday, January 10, 2011, at approximately, 4:45 a.m., the driver of a 2008 BMW X-5 crashed into the interior of a garage of a r...

DeLauro -- churchmilitant.com There is one simple and effective way to cut excessive spending, the primary cause of debt, when expenditures overflow budget borders and that is to reduce spending. Reductions in spending would also help to mitigate the disastrous effects of inflation. Both these revelations have come as a great affront to state and national Democrats. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have proposed to enforce a current debt limit – sort of – and reduce expenditures over the long run so that Republicans and Democrats in Congress will in future years not be on the same political stump barking at each other. The national and state debt ceilings, presumed obstacles to unlimited spending, have not prevented the kind of raging inflation that is nibbling at middle class prosperity. Taxpayers tend to be responsible because they know that, unlike the federal government, they cannot print inflated funny money to cover their debts. Still less are they able to bor...

  The New Haven Independent tells us, “’Working Americans are facing sticker shock’ while ​‘companies like Shell doubled their profits and [diverted] billions in stock buy backs’ while jacking up gas prices, [U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut’s 3rd District] stated. “She accused oil companies of ‘padding the pockets of their executives and shareholders’ while ‘artificially keeping prices high.’ She noted that the top 25 oil and gas companies reaped a record $237 billion in profits in 2021 and are in line for even more in 2022; the top five have recorded 200 percent jumps in profits in the first quarter of 2022. “The average price of a gallon of diesel stood at $5.924 Wednesday compared to $3.688 a year ago, according to AAA.” Two years ago, during the reign of the much demonized yellow-haired-demon, ex-president Donald Trump, the price of gas was considerably less, partly because the United States was teasing from the...

Pelosi and DeLauro U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, bosom pals with Speaker of the U.S. House Nancy Pelosi, is hankering to become the next chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, and just in time too. Connecticut, among the most wealthy states in the nation and in the top tier of high spending, high taxed states, is broke, the result of years pushing the spending envelope. Among the bluest of Northeast states, members of the state’s all-Democrat U.S. Congressional Delegation will be sending DeLauro back to Washington D.C. with a tin cup in her hand. The very mention of permanent, long-term spending cuts is a third rail, highly charged and rarely touched,   among Democrats who control by nearly veto proof margins the state’s General Assembly and the governor’s office,. Even the state’s left of center media, which consistently during the past 40 years has winked at spending and tax increases, is loathed to mention the words “employee union driven debt.” Governor Ne...

U.S. Reps Rosa DeLauro and John Larson, both from safe Democratic districts, voted against censuring disgraced U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel before they voted for censuring him, according to a story in the New Haven Register . Rangel was head of the powerful House tax writing committee before he decided to cheat on his taxes. This is what Rangel did: • He paid discount rates for his three rent controlled apartments in New York when, legally, he was eligible only for a single unit. • He failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets on congressional disclosure forms. • He failed to pay taxes on rental income from a home in the Dominican Republican. • He saved a tax loophole worth many millions of dollars for an oil drilling company that donated to a school to be named for Rangel at City College of New York. • He violated ethics rules by soliciting for the school on congressional stationery and using taxpayer money to mail his fund-raising requests. The paper co...

It looks as if Republicans, once again, did not bring home the bacon in Connecticut. Campaign analysts are asking why. This is an easy one. Republicans are outnumbered in the state roughly by a ratio of two to one, a very steep hill to climb. And, considering the historic nature of journalism in Connecticut, they cannot expect a leg up from the state’s left of center media. The Hartford Courant’s election eve endorsement editorial for instance looked as if it had been dictated to the paper’s publisher and editorial board by David Axelrod, and the paper’s endorsement of Democrat Elizabeth Esty over moderate Republican Andrew Roraback was particularly self-serving .

U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro began her epistle in the New York Post with the following howler: “As both a committed Catholic and a strong advocate of women’s health, I want to applaud the recently released guidelines for preventive health coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” The guidelines Mrs. DeLauro approved have since been redrafted. Mrs. DeLauro approves birth control, she said, because “We know that improved access to birth control is directly linked to declines in maternal and infant mortality and helps to reduce unintended pregnancies.” No kidding. The kind of “birth control” commended by Mrs. DeLauro and Planned Parenthood would, of course, include contraceptives, abortion and other means of fetal destruction in the Planned Parenthood medicine cabinet. Birth preventatives prevent births, and the decline in birth rates leads to reductions in “unintended pregnancies’ and “infant mortality.” If you employ means that cause pre-birth mortality, yo...

In a commentary over at Connecticut Local Politics , a popular liberal blog site, Ghengis Conn remarks, “Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-3rd District) is trying to find middle ground on what has been the stickiest and most controversial issue in American politics for a generation: abortion. Her approach, which she is undertaking with pro-life Democrat Tim Ryan of Ohio, is to reduce the need for abortions.” “Got a problem with that?” DeLauroites are now asking. DeLauro is a liberal Catholic who, like virtually every other Catholic US congressperson in Connecticut, disagrees with her church and her Pope on the matter of abortion. So, there’s a tiny red flag flapping wildly in the stormy debate. Then too, in discussing “needs,” we should bear in mind George Will’s priceless definition of a need: To the modern sensibility, a need is “a want that is more than 24 hours old.” Some non-ideologues in the great pro-life, pro-choice debate have supposed that if a woman’s life were in danger during her preg...

Not only does every regulation impose additional costs on businesses, excessive regulation also unwittingly embraces unintended consequences that may be fatal to the best laid plans of those who oppose urban sprawl, the movement of business operations from urban areas to the suburban frontier. This “Big Bang” movement has been occurring ever since the protective walls of castles disappeared centuries ago. For anti-sprawlists in Connecticut, many of whom are environmentalists, local farms are essential to a movement that seeks to nudge businesses back into cities; the more farms there are in the hinterlands, the less land will be available for “exploitation” by businesses and home construction companies. Environmentalists do not generally object heatedly to “urban sprawl.”