The 2012 Democratic convention started off with a bang for CT delegates Tuesday morning as they breakfasted with much of the state’s congressional delegation, and a couple of other luminaries named Malloy and Dodd.
First, Gov. Dan Malloy, fresh from making Obama’s case on Morning Joe (Are we better off than we were four years ago? “Hell yeah!”), Malloy stopped by at the CT Delegation breakfast. It was part of a whirlwind convention for Malloy — “They’ve got me scheduled like a dentist” — but he spent some time basking in the glow of a Conecticut delegation much more hospitable than Malloy’s current favorability numbers in the state as a whole would suggest.
Looking TV-ready in grey suit and vibrant blue tie, Malloy showed he was in fighting form as an Obama ninja, attacking the Republicans at every turn.
He stopped by at the Wyoming delegation, sharing the Doubletree Hotel with the Connecticut crowd, and fired up the Cowboy State’s Democrats, teeing off on the Paul Ryan medicare plan and various other GOP positions. “That wasn’t the Republican Party (in Tampa), it was the Tea Party,” Malloy said.
“I know things are tough in Wyoming (for Democrats), but you’ve got to take the message home that the only thing the Republicans care about is winning the election, and as Democrats we care about communities, and making families’ lives better.”
But he saved his strongest words for his home-state crew.
He called the Republicans’ platform a secret document that the GOP is trying to hide.
“Read the platform,” he said. “Understand that they would take away a woman’s right to choose, even in a situation where she’s been raped. Understand that we thought we had settled that issue 40 or 50 years ago. Understand that we led that change in Connecticut with the Griswold case. Understand that they don’t care.”
He called the Tampa convention “The Tea Party’s frontal assault on the middle class and those aspiring to be in the middle class.”
Malloy said the convention was “battery-charging time for the Party.”
Connecticut delegates also heard from former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd, now a movie-industry lobbyist. Dodd clearly loved the adulation from his home delegation, many of whom were instrumental in engineering his 30-year career in the Senate.
“People ask me if I miss Congress. I do, but not this Congress,” Dodd cracked.
Dodd talked about taking his children to tour the Senate, and seeing his old desk — the one his father has before him — now occupied by Dick Blumenthal.
He said, “Linda McMahon has spent $70 million so far trying to get a Senate seat from Connecticut. We need to show her that they are not for sale.”
The delegation also heard from Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who spoke for five minutes, delivering her typically high-energy exhortation to get out and work to elect Democrats; U.S. Rep. John Larson; and a NARAL spokeswoman.
U.S. Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Chris Murphy were greeted enthusiastically. Murphy, running against McMahon for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Joe Lieberman, was on his way to his own breakfast event in downtown Charlotte. DeLauro talked about her turn on the big stage Tuesday night, as one of several women of the House who will speak on issues of particular concern to worn. DeLauro will speak on the issue of pay equity shortly after 7 p.m.
