Category: General
January 18, 2011 at 10:56 pm by Brian Lockhart
How do you fit nine pages of reaction to ”independent Democrat” U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman’s decision not to seek re-election in 2012 into 30 inches of newspaper copy?
You don’t.
So here are a few of the observations from various folks who took the time to talk about the Stamford native and his legacy that were left on the cutting room floor tonight.
Lieberman’s scheduled to make a formal announcement Wednesday in Stamford.
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Scott Bates of Stonington, a member of the state Democratic Central Committee who worked on Lieberman’s successful 1988 campaign for U.S. Senate against Republican incumbent Lowell Weicker of Greenwich: “Joe Lieberman is a man that believes in America and the American dream. It’s a simple as that. He came from a generation that had to work hard and gave he and his family tremendous opportunities.”
Bates reflected on two issues that cost Blumenthal much of his support among Democrats – his unapologetic support of the invasion of Iraq following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and his backing of Republican Senator John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin in the 2008 presidential race.
“It’s pretty clear to me (after 9/11) he saw the world in a very stark way with perhaps not a lot of nuance, in my estimation, but believed the country was in danger and he made decisions he thought were in the best interests of the country every time. That is a legacy I think he is going to be proud of,” Bates said. “Where it falls down … is when he supported the likes of Sarah Palin” whom critics argued was unprepared to lead the nation at a time of war.
Kurt Johnson, a long-time staffer with Connecticut Fund for the Environment: “I think the story overall of Joe Lieberman is that he was a huge environmental advocate … He was one of the first senators to come forward talking really seriously about the need for some kind of global warming or climate change national legislation. He really was on the forefront of pushing that agenda, and that goes back probably eight to ten years ago.”
Johnson said the Fund has noticed Lieberman, “hasn’t been quite as active in Long Island Sound and climate change recently. It’s just been a very, very difficult conversation in Washington, period, (because) the country has become more polarized.”
“Traditionally he’s had a very, very good rating from the League of Conservation Voters nationally.”
Former Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons of Stonington, who unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in 2010, reflected on Lieberman’s losing the Democratic primary in 2006 and running successfully as a third party candidate in that year’s general election: “I know what it felt like for him to be rejected by his own party after many years of service. I’ve been there, too. I know from talking to him at the time it was exceedingly painful.”
Simmons said he had not expected Lieberman to run in 2012.
“He’s supported John McCain for the presidency and taken positions on issues that are, again, not popular with his party. He’s had to serve in Congress as one of two independents. And there’s every reason to believe that the 2012 election will be a tough one. His own party has fallen in the hands of his (more liberal) opponents, the Republican Party here in Connecticut will not be running a weak candidate, and the Democrats are lining up like little barracudas, ready to take his seat. So why prolong the agony? He’s done his duty.”
New Attorney General George Jepsen, a former Democratic state Senator from Stamford now occupying the office Lieberman held in the mid-1980s: “He’s a giant of our times nationally and in the state. And he’s a brilliant politician. You can’t take any of that away from him. (But) his positive accomplishments will in some measure get lost in the unusual politics of the last six years, especially with his tireless and unapologetic advocacy of the war in Iraq, a war I think will go down in history as a terrible, terrible mistake.”
State Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford, worked on Lieberman’s 1988 campaign but was an early and strong supporter of Democrat Barack Obama’s ultimately successful bid for president in 2008: “I think Senator Lieberman has been a great public servant. He’s been great for Connecticut and has served us well and I think it’s a loss … I do know him and I do have tremendous personal regard for Joe Lieberman and I really sincerely honor his service and wish him the very best in whatever he decides to do.”
State Rep. Tom Reynolds, D-Gales Ferry, was a Congressional staffer during Lieberman’s first term: “He in that first term really was able to bridge a divide. He was able to represent the liberal causes that he spent most of his career fighting for but at the same time was able to bring people together from differing backgrounds and views … Because Joe was a brand new senator there was a great deal of excitement among Connecticut Democrats for having toppled a Republican incumbent of national stature. It was for a young person an amazing opportunity that I will never forget.”
Reynolds called Lieberman’s backing of McCain “a real disappointment” but concluded, “the one thing that hasn’t changed is Joe Lieberman is a man of principle. I may disagree with how he chooses to advance those principles, but I will always respect him for acting on his principles, regardless of political consequences.”
Former state Rep. Christel Truglia, D-Stamford, a close family friend of Lieberman and his wife: “He was always there for his constituents. He did so many good things when he was in the state Senate here in Connecticut and of course in Washington. He was always a person of integrity and very, very bright. Someone like that you want in Washington … I thought he had done a great jog for Connecticut over the years. But things have changed and the Democratic Party has not been pleased with him, which of course I understand … I’m sure when you write the history about Joe Lieberman, there are many, many good things he did for our state. That’s the kind of things I’d like to remember.”
Connecticut AFL-CIO President John Olsen, in the past been a staunch ally of Lieberman’s: “As different as Lieberman and Weicker were, there were so many similarities. One (Weicker) was viewed as too liberal for his party, one viewed too conservative.”
Sal Liccione, member of the Working Families Party in lower Fairfield County, who campaigned for Lieberman in 2000 in Pennsylvania when he was the Democratic nominee for vice president.: “I just feel he changed a lot. As a young person, I don’t think he’s good for the state. I think it’s time to get new people.”
Harvey Bellin of Weston attended Yale University with Lieberman and in 2006 helped his friend form the Connecticut for Lieberman Party so he could continue the battle for his Senate seat as a self-described “independent Democrat”: “I think he has a unique role to play for the Democratic Party in terms of being somebody who could actually get votes from the other side of the aisle. And after what happened (with the recent shootings) in Tucson, with all the need for bi-partisanship and less name-calling, nobody exemplifies that better than him.”
State Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, D-New Haven, recalled an exchange he had a few weeks ago with Lieberman that left him with the impression the U.S. Senator was going to retire: “He did say Senator Abraham Ribicoff had given him good advice about not trying to stay too long. Ribicoff told him there were too many doddering people in the Senate beyond their best days in terms of their capacity to serve, sharpness and skill. He said, ‘I always thought that was good advice’. Senator Ribicoff was at the age Senator Lieberman will be in 2012 – 70 – when he decided not to run again in 1980.”
January 18, 2011 at 6:29 pm by Brian Lockhart
“I wasn’t invited,” joked Greenwich Democrat Ned Lamont when I reached him by phone tonight about the press conference his one-time opponent, U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Our Hearst Connecticut Media Group and other state and national news outlets are reporting Lieberman will announce his plans to retire rather than seek re-election in 2012.
So Lamont is on the list of folks I’ve been calling to discuss Lieberman’s legacy since his election in the late 1980s. Lamont successfully challenged Lieberman in their party primary in 2006 but lost the general election to the incumbent, who formed his own third party - Connecticut for Lieberman – to remain on the ballot.
That group is pretty much defunct.
“For me obviously I thought he was wrong on the biggest issue of the 21st Century,” Lamont said, referring to Lieberman’s unwavering support of the invasion of Iraq. “I think it’s cost our country a lot. But I’ve got to say Joe Lieberman sticks to his guns and for that he has a lot of friends.”
Lamont said he believes Lieberman too often played on the national political stage, “but sometimes we didn’t always see him between elections.”
While the 2006 race hurt Lieberman’s standing with his party, many observers believe it was his support of U.S. Sen. John McCain’s, R-Arizona, 2008 presidential bid and some subsequent policy decisions that torched whatever bridges were still standing between Lieberman and Democrats.
Lieberman was welcomed back into his caucus by Democratic President Barack Obama when some more liberal Democrats preferred he be punished, only to subsequently take positions on health care reform efforts that further enraged his base.
But Lieberman was also recently lauded for leading the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy regarding gay servicemen and women.
“I do think he was neither fish nor fowl and neither party quite knew how to deal with him,” Lamont, who unsuccessfully sought the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial nomination, said. “Sometimes that enhanced his influence and sometimes it didn’t. But look, at the end of the day he served our state in a way he felt was consistent with his principles. I don’t think he made a lot of political compromises.”
Lamont also made an observation I found interesting coming from a guy who sought to convince voters Lieberman had been in the Senate for too long back in 2006.
Noting the recent retirement of Connecticut’s other U.S. Senator, Democrat Chris Dodd, Lamont said, “I think we’re losing a lot of seniority and we’re going to have to redouble our efforts if in fact Senator Lieberman steps aside tomorrow.”
January 18, 2011 at 2:31 pm by Brian Lockhart
Responding to our requests for a reaction to today’s decision by Democrat Susan Bysiewicz to launch her 2012 bid for U.S. Senate, incumbent “independent Democrat” Joseph Lieberman of Stamford’s spokesman issued the following: “After many thoughtful conversations with family and friends over the last several months, Senator Lieberman made a decision about his future over the holidays which he plans to announce on Wednesday.”
The time? 12:30 p.m. The location? The Stamford Marriott.
UPDATE:
Lieberman has chosen Salon F to announce his political future. The floor plan below shows it’s the largest room, indicating … well, nothing, really. Either he’s going to be surrounded by family and friends urging him to give politics another shot, or he’s going to be surrounded by family and friends grieving his decision to depart from the Senate.
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January 17, 2011 at 5:54 pm by Brian Lockhart
January 17, 2011 at 4:44 pm by Brian Lockhart
I’ve been going through the bills submitted thus far in the 2011 session by individual state legislators, with a particular interest in what Democratic and Republican leaders have cooking.
Over a dozen members of the GOP have so far joined Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield in sponsoring a proposal requiring the General Assembly adopt sections of the budget appropriating municipal aid by March 1.
It’s common for mayors and selectmen to bemoan the fact they must craft and seek passage of their budgets often before state lawmakers finalize Connecticut’s spending plan and the related levels of funding provided cities and towns.
New Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy has said he will deliver his budget address February 16. But a final document won’t be passed until a few months later as officials spend the winter and spring – heck, maybe even the summer – grappling with how to close a $3.5 billion deficit.
Former Republican Governor M. Jodi Rell and legislative Democrats fought over the current two-year fiscal roadmap into September, 2009.
Ben Barnes, Malloy’s budget czar, told me today he gets the intent of the Republican proposal, even though March 1 strikes him as a bit too aggressive of a deadline.
Barnes worked for Malloy when he was mayor of Stamford, so they have experienced the frustration of having to put together a city budget with a bunch of question marks in the columns related to state aid.
But Barnes argued even if sections of the Connecticut budget relating to municipal aid were adopted so early – and both he and Malloy would love it if their entire Feb. 16 budget document was approved on the spot – “I don’t think it’s meaningful.”
“Say we submit a budget and the General Assembly adopts an appropriations bill for municipal aid on March 1 but all the rest – taxes and spending – is still on the table. The General Assembly could reopen municipal aid as it goes through that process. So as long as the General Assembly has not yet adopted a complete budget for the coming biennium, I’m not sure local governments would have any more assurance,” Barnes said.
But Barnes said the Republican proposal is well-intended and at the least the will encourage budget negotiators “to put substantive discussion of municipal aid early in the process.”
“Even absent some law like that we can make every effort possible to have discussion of and hopefully come to consensus on what should happen to municipal aid early in the process,” Barnes said. “We’re going to be cognizant of the problems faced by local governments were we to go in and say, come June 20, (aid) is not $100, it’s only $70. That puts local governments in an enormous bind (and) a very difficult position of having to find mid-year cuts and curtail services.”
January 14, 2011 at 8:24 pm by Brian Lockhart
After Travis the Chimp mauled his owner’s friend in Stamford back in 2008, state lawmakers sought to ban the importation and possession of wild animals by ordinary residents not affiliated with zoos, circuses, research facilities, etc.
(And yes, that’s a younger Travis below. He was shot dead following the incident and his owner, Sandra Herold, in the sweater, passed away last May.)
The effort proved far more controversial than anticipated and the Travis legislation nearly died. The bill passed in June 2009 wound up focusing solely on large primates and left the really hard work up to the state Department of Enviromental Protection – coming up with a comprehensive list of other creatures great and small to ban/better regulate.
On January 11 the DEP, as required, advertised that the list and related regulations have been drafted, beginning a public comment period that will last until March 1.
A public hearing has also been scheduled for 6 p.m. on February 15 at the DEP’S headquarters in Hartford – the night before the second anniversary of Travis’ rampage.
For more details, including the quite lengthy lists of animals targeted by the proposal, visit this link.
And here’s our report from 2009 detailing the final passage of the legislation that resulted in the DEP’s proposal:
General Assembly passes ownership ban on great apes
By Brian Lockhart
Staff Writer
HARTFORD — A watered-down ban on wild animals that targets only large primates is heading to Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell for her signature.
“All they have done is really add three primates to the list of banned animals out of the many we had proposed,” Dennis Schain, a spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection, said after the vote.
Legislative proponents declared the wild animal ban dead earlier this week because of issues that arose over the bill, which had been proposed after February’s chimpanzee attack in Stamford.
“Obviously we’ve experienced a tragedy in Stamford that no one should have to go through,” state Rep. Gerald Fox, D-Stamford, said after the unanimous vote in the House. “If this legislation can help prevent anyone else from suffering, it’s a good piece of legislation.”
The bill includes a provision to allow the DEP to restrict the ownership of other exotic animals in the future as long as it holds public hearings on the issue.
A ban on wild and exotic animals was initially proposed after Travis, a chimpanzee that lived in Stamford for several years, mauled a family friend of its owner and subsequently was shot to death by police in February.
The state passed a law banning ownership of large cats, wolves and bears in 2004 and at the time instructed the DEP to establish a permitting program for other wild or exotic pets, including primates. But that effort never got off the ground.
And Travis, a local celebrity who lived in Stamford for years, was left alone by lawmakers and the DEP.
This session’s proposed ban, as initially envisioned by the DEP and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, cast a wide net. It made it illegal to own a variety of animals, from hippos to tarantulas, that were not already included on the state’s books.
But in recent weeks, the legislation became what is known in the General Assembly as a “Christmas tree,” loaded down with a variety of amendments.
Some lawmakers argued existing exotic pets owned by constituents should be grandfathered into the bill. They also said the bill did not explain what those owners should do with the creatures if the ban were passed and they were not allowed to keep their pets.
State Rep. Diana Urban, D-North Stonington, who pursued the grandfathering amendment, was concerned owners of pets deemed illegal would hide them, release them or kill them.
The ban also attracted other controversial amendments addressing animal-related concerns, including: preventing Commerford Farm in Goshen, known for housing elephants, from bringing new pachyderms into the state; banning leg-hold animal traps; and allowing bow hunting on Sundays.
“It got carried away,” House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, said Wednesday.
The bill passed Wednesday night added gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans to the 2004 list of prohibited animals in direct response to the Stamford incident.
“Although the policy on exotic pets is incomplete and should have been written to include other exotic animals who are capable of causing harm to people, it is important that a law was enacted to ban keeping great apes as pets,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States. “We look forward to working with the Department of Environmental Protection and state lawmakers to better align Connecticut law with those states that have more comprehensive policies.”
The bill also said that if the DEP wanted to expand the list, it must hold regular hearings associated with changes in state regulations to give the public a say.
“Many of us heard from constituents who had many sorts of animals that may or may not have been included,” state Rep. Clark Chapin, R-New Milford, a ranking Republican on the Environment Committee, told his colleagues before the vote. “Now DEP can take their time and do a more thoughtful vetting of those animals that should or shouldn’t be included.”
State Rep. Craig Miner, R-Litchfield, agreed.
Miner told the House two of his constituents have for years owned a pair of Burmese pythons, “none of whom have hurt anyone.” But he said that if the ban as proposed had passed, those snakes would have been outlawed.
Schain said the DEP was comfortable with the list it had suggested of banned animals.
“We were confident in the list we provided,” he said. “We consulted outside experts and it was a very appropriate list.”
State Rep. Richard Roy, D-Milford, co-chairman of the Environment Committee who had been working all session on a bill, admitted it had been turned into a “vanilla” piece of legislation but said he was satisfied with the compromise.
After “the public outcry after the incident in Stamford with Travis, we had to do something,” Roy said. “This is a very good start.”
Fearful that the bill might not be voted out of the state Senate in the final hours of the session, the state House as an incentive attached a proposal favored by state Sen. Andrew Roraback, R-Goshen, allowing a Christmas Village in his district to import reindeer for the holiday season.
Schain said the DEP was not happy about that decision and is concerned about imported reindeer passing disease along to the state’s native deer population.
“It spreads quickly,” Schain said. “We appreciate (the bill includes) safeguards for reindeer that are imported to be inspected and make sure they’re healthy. But we’re concerned any risk is too much.”
January 14, 2011 at 1:56 pm by Brian Lockhart
A few weeks ago Joan McDonald, commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development, indicated a desire to remain in that post under new Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy.
But today New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, as posted over on CT Capitol Report, announced McDonald will instead be returning to that state to run the Department of Transportation.
Malloy had nice things to say about McDonald in Cuomo’s release, calling her “a talented and hardworking individual, dedicated to helping create new jobs and engaging Connecticut’s business community.”
“I’ve enjoyed my working relationship with her,” continued Malloy, referring to his time as mayor of Stamford. “And we’re sorry to see her go. But I know that her work ethic, her experience and her dedication to the job will be of great service to the people of New York State.”
I recall at the time of her hiring in 2008 by then-Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell critics grumbled McDonald, based on her resume, would instead make an excellent DOT commissioner.
According to her biography, prior to coming to work for Rell, McDonald “held several top positions in New York, including: Senior Vice President for Transportation at the New York City Economic Development Corporation; Deputy Commissioner for Planning and Traffic Operations for New York City DOT; Director, Capital & Long Range Planning at MTA Metro-North Railroad; and Deputy Budget Director for the NYS Assembly Ways and Means Committee.”
Malloy is in the midst of a national search for his own DOT chief.
January 14, 2011 at 11:56 am by Brian Lockhart
Having House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk on my phone as I gazed out the window at the mounds of snow in Bridgeport reminded me of the “ice missile” legislation he got passed last May.
Cafero for a few years had been pushing to penalize drivers who fail to clean snow and ice from the roofs of their vehicles, setting the stage for the frozen pieces to dislodge on the road, endangering fellow motorists.
I became excited at the prospect of finding out whether the new law was enforced during our past few snow storms. But Cafero reminded me that in order to get the bill passed proponents delayed implementation until December, 2013.
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