Friday February 15, 2008
The more things change, the less they don’t. When did Lou DeLuca resign his Senate seat? At the end of November. And yet, he lives on as a leader of the General Assembly for hundreds of daily visitors to the Capitol complex.
Blog-o-rama is talking about the picture of legislative leaders of the House and Senate, taken back during happier times because DeLuca is smiling.
It has to date back to before last June, before Lou resigned his post as Senate minority leader and Sen. John McKinney, R-Fairfield, took over, following DeLuca’s guilty plea to a state misdemeanor conspiracy charge.
You remember the case. DeLuca was concerned that his granddaughter was being abused in a domestic relationship, so he asked James Galante, the Danbury-based garbage hauler with alleged mob ties, to intervene.
Galante associates never did “talk” with DeLuca’s target, but the resulting fallout accumulated to the point where Lou resigned rather than submit FBI tapes and transcripts to a Senate committee investigating the incident.
As you walk from the Legislative Office Building toward the Capitol, the photo is on the right-hand wall as part of a state-history exhibit. Yep, there he is with Speaker of the House Jim Amann, House Majority Leader Chris Donovan, Senate President Pro Tem Don Williams and Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney.
There was apparently a new photo taken, with McKinney playing the Lou Deluca role, when the Legislature opened on February 6. But it still hasn’t replaced the old photo, which I’m viewing as a cautionary tail.