Moe Lane

Via AoSHQ Headlines: turns out that Connecticut’s new governor Dannel Malloy (D) is not exactly the swiftest in the pack when it comes to first-response to natural disaster.  As you probably remember, the Northeast was hit by a freak snowstorm on the weekend of October 29th: depending on which report you read, somewhere between 116,000 and 300,000 Connecticut residents remain without power, ten days later.  But, fortunately, they’ve got a governor who’s there to… well, read.

The person who has taken the brunt of the public scorn is [Connecticut Light & Power's] president and chief operating officer, Jeffrey D. Butler. He has been appearing with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy at daily news briefings, but he was left to face a grilling by the media on his own Thursday night when the governor left the room after criticizing the slow pace of power restoration.

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(via Ace of Spades Headlines) Executive summary of Malloy Incident: blogger wiserbud of The Hostages went to CT town hall to give Governor Malloy a piece of his mind over Malloy’s proposal to allow non-citizen children of illegal immigrants* the ability to attend college at in-state tuition rates.  Due to a bit of luck, wiserbud was able to give Malloy said piece of mind.  Malloy, flustered, tried the Look At This Cute Kid, You Evil Person defense twice, leading to this bit:

I interrupt and say “So, your response is that you feel that spending our tax dollars on illegal immigrants is a priority for you in the midst of the fiscal crisis, correct? Thank you for your honesty, sir.” and I turned and walked away from the microphone, as he sputters to answer.

All in all: hilarity, as they say, ensued.

My one technical critique of this moment of speaking truth to power by wiserbud is: he needed to have his own camera on hand to record the event.  Particularly if you suspect, like wiserbud did, that there’s no way that the regular media will cover it.  Get a camera.  What’s that?  Video cameras are banned at the event?  You mean, like former Representative Baron Hill did?  Well… I do not recommend breaking actual laws, of course – but if you’re just dealing with a mere officious staffer with delusions of omnipotence?  (more…)

The death penalty has been an issue in the recent Connecticut gubernatorial election, and it seems to have spilled over into the Senatorial election, too – mostly because Dick Blumenthal can’t be bothered to remember if he started loving the death penalty in 1990, or in 2005. Then again, knowing Blumenthal… he probably decided that he could claim both and get away with it. It’s a habit with the man.

Below is a sort of timeline, sort of collected quotes that will demonstrate that… well, that Dick Blumenthal lies through his teeth. It’s pretty straightforward, but here’s the executive summary: Blumenthal claimed that he’s been for the death penalty since he first ran for Attorney General, the historical record contradicts that assertation handily, and it’s plausible to assume that Blumenthal’s conversion on the issue had to do with the political benefits from executing a notorious Connecticut serial killer. That last part’s speculative, which is why I write ‘plausible.’

Last note: some of these quotes and excerpts were made available to me. I’ve provided online sources where I could.

Part I: Blumenthal’s shifting narrative.

• CT-SEN Debate, 10/04/2010: “There are crimes that are so horrible and heinous that they merit it. And in my view, not speaking as a juror or a prosecutor, I believe that Mr. Hayes deserves the death penalty.”
• The CT Mirror, 10/04/2010: “Blumenthal opposed capital punishment as a legislator, but he said he has consistently been a supporter since his first race for attorney general in 1990.” Bolding mine.
• New York Post, 10/13/2010: “Dick has supported the death penalty for 20 years.”
• National Review Online, 10/14/2010: “On the death penalty, voters will find that his record as a lawmaker doesn’t square with his rhetoric on the campaign trail. Whereas candidate Blumenthal claims to support the death penalty for sadistic murderer Steven Hayes — who was convicted last week in the Cheshire home-invasion rape and murder of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Hayley and Michaela — legislator Blumenthal played a substantial role in thwarting the creation of a workable death-penalty law in Connecticut in 1990.”

1990 is, obviously, twenty years ago. But let’s keep going with this: (more…)

Ace looks upon this video, and declares it the raw material for Linda’s next campaign ad:

…and I heartily agree. For those without video access, it’s from a primary debate between Dick Blumenthal and Merrik Alpert. Alpert pointed out, in so many words, that under Dick’s tenure as Attorney General Connecticut was one of two states* to have a net loss of jobs. And then Alpert proceeded to ask Dick how many jobs his lawsuits created. Dick’s response was that his lawsuits created jobs because businesses love competition.

No, really, that’s what he said. Presumably, Dick’s argument is if he hadn’t done all those lawsuits then Connecticut would have lost even more jobs. Or that it was only through Dick’s regular sacrifices of marmosets to the Great Pumpkin every Roodmass that Connecticut has so far not been swept out to sea by a vengeful tsunami.

Look, it makes just as much sense as Dick’s actual answer, OK?

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Linda McMahon for Senate.

*Hi, Governor Jennifer Granholm! Thanks for giving us Michigan! Rick Snyder for Governor!

If you missed Dick Blumenthal’s incredibly clueless answer to Linda McMahon’s simple question “How do you create a job?” at the last debate, don’t worry: the McMahon campaign has had boiled it down to a television ad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovIBLQyl7HE&feature=player_embedded

And in the process they managed to do what was I would have thought would be the impossible; they managed to cram two minutes of idiocy into a thirty second clip. Including Blumenthal’s rictus grin; as God is my witness, when I watched that originally I fully expected Dick to end his ‘response’ with the happy declaration that he had just done a Number Two in his pants. (more…)

Not quite inside MoE, but we’ve got a month to go.  Rasmussen gives the numbers as being 50/45 Blumenthal/McMahon: as a look at the polls over the last few months show , this race has been steadily tightening since Linda McMahon was nominated.  Which is probably why Bill Clinton had to stump for Blumenthal ; the DSCC was and is not prepared to spend large sums of money on this race, and it shows.  They’re also pretty clearly not prepared to handle the specter of an actual contest in Connecticut, and that also shows.  You know, you hear a lot of criticism directed at the NRSC’s recruitment policy, and some of those criticism is justified, and some of it is not.  But what you don’t hear is much criticism of the DSCC’s recruitment policy… and, frankly, they’ve been awful this cycle, even though they have the advantage of playing largely a defensive game.  Blumenthal represents one of their better gets, and he’s been hemorrhaging support all summer.

Well, maybe Quinnipiac’s poll tomorrow will give the Democrats better news.  Then again, maybe it won’t.

Moe Lane (Crosspost)

PS: There’s a debate scheduled for October 4th between Linda and Blumenthal; at this rate, the latter may be wishing that he had agreed to an earlier one…

Lying, in fact, is the best-case scenario. What happened is that Dick Blumenthal, when asked point-blank whether he supported cap-and-trade, told a constituent ‘no.’ Surprisingly unambiguously, as the video below shows:

Note the ‘cap-and-trade is dead’ bit: it’ll be important later. (more…)

I don’t pretend to be familiar with Connecticut newspapers, but judging from this article the J-I must be a Democratic-leaning one: there’s a palpable sense of angry disbelief that… that… that Linda McMahon could possibly be wrecking Dick Blumenthal’s smooth ascension to Countrywide Dodd’s Senate seat.  I mean, the author’s saying stuff about Blumenthal that I might hesitate to write, given that he’s – for now – still leading outside the margin of error:

Blumenthal is an even weaker candidate… gives an impression of total obsequiousness as a candidate… A politician who has no respect for himself… A politician who runs away from his party, his president, and his own record…  caught in an embarrassing fairy tale about his combat service in Vietnam… this performance was an award winner for political malpractice and tone-deafness…some sort of independent… The man is so afraid of losing that he is headed for a self-fulfilling prophecy par excellence…  Democrats in Washington and Chicago, calculating ways to hold the Senate should send their money to Delaware or Pennsylvania or Colorado… Unless Blumenthal gets a guts transplant, this race is gone; this candidate is hopeless, doomed, toast.

Bolding mine.  I never thought that I would see a Democrat in Connecticut say that about a Democratic candidate for Senate in 2010 not named Dodd.  At least, not before Labor Day. (more…)

Linda, of course, is running against CT AG Dick Blumenthal, who rather famously lied about his war record a few months back. We talked earlier today about the steadily-tightening race in Connecticut:

Linda has sites here and here; the latter is her MyLinda2010 site, and is geared towards activism.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

A funny thing happened in Connecticut lately: the Senate race started tightening.

This Reuters article about the likely McMahon/Blumenthal match-up contains at least one major howler – to the best of my knowledge, Linda McMahon has never been an actual professional wrestler* – but the major point seems valid: McMahon has made up considerable ground in the last few months.  Of particular note is the latest Quinnipiac poll, which shows Blumenthal/McMahon at 50/40, and with McMahon actually edging out Blumenthal among independents.  Reuters suggests that this may be due to McMahon’s targeting of female voters:

[Sacred Heart University Professor Gary] Rose said McMahon’s commercials have effectively targeted middle- and upper middle-class women. Her current TV ads depict two well-dressed women driving in a black SUV and debating the merits of McMahon vs Blumenthal, noting she has not taken any money from special interest groups while Blumenthal went back on a vow not to accept such cash.

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This is the district held by Democratic freshman Jim Himes, and is listed as being in play by Cook (Likely Democrat). The primary’s coming up, but Rob took the time to talk to us:

Rob’s site is here.

Crossposted to RedState.

It’s enough to make you wonder whether the White House wants the Democrats to keep Dodd’s seat:

Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday took an unexpected dig at Connecticut Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal (D) for misstating his military service record.

While speaking at a barbecue for wounded soldiers, he commented about veterans coming home from the Vietnam War. Biden, who has a penchant for being loquacious, veered into the Connecticut Senate race.

“I didn’t serve in Vietnam. I don’t want to make a Blumenthal mistake here,” he said according to a pool report.

First off: ‘loquacious’ is not exactly the word that I’d use, as it does not have the same connotations for disaster and embarrassment that, say, ‘going off half-cocked’ does.  Second: Dick Blumenthal didn’t ‘misstate:’ he lied.  Third: any guesses on Biden’s intent, here?  It’s usually safe to assume that he didn’t mean to throw another log on the Blumenthal pyre; but it’s also possible that somebody told him that it was important to push the ‘misstatement’ meme, and this is just Joe Biden’s way of trying to help. (more…)