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Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy and Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy all reacted with irritation at Senate Republicans’ action this week to block President Barack Obama’s nomination of Gina McCarthy to head the EPA.

McCarthy, currently EPA’s Asstant Administrator for the office of Air and Radiation, is widely thought to have excellent credentials for the post. Those creds include her stint as the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of  Environmental Protection.

“This obstructionism by Republican senators is paralyzing partisanship at its worst,” a clearly nettled Blumenthal said Friday. “I have worked with her closely — under a Republican governor whom she served with tremendous fidelity to both environmental and economic values.”

“It’s outrageous that the Senate Republicans are again blocking the nomination of an extremely qualified candidate,” Murphy said. “Over the course of her distinguished career in both Connecticut and Massachusetts, Gina McCarthy built a reputation for working with Republicans and Democrats alike … the work of the EPA is too important to be hamstrung by a handful of senators playing political games.”

Thursday,  all eight Republicans on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works boycotted a scheduled vote on McCarthy’s confirmation, saying they were “completely unsatisfied” with her answers on some topics — after the eight asked her more than 1,000 questions.

Murphy pointed out that McCarthy served then-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as an adviser on environmental policy. “If he had won the presidency and picked her to run the EPA, would the GOP block her nomination? Of course not,” he said in a statement.

“Republicans in the Senate need to stop looking at every vote as an opportunity to score political points against the President,” Malloy said bluntly. “The election is long over. It’s time for them to do their jobs.”

Recognizing that even if the angered Democrats are somehow able to move the nomination out of committee, it would doubtless need a filibuster-proof 60-vote margin to succeed, some are using the case as a prime example of why the filibuster rules need to be changed, at least for the approval of presidential appointments.

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The exterior of the George W. Bush Presidential Center is seen Friday, April, 5, 2013, in Dallas. The roughly 227,000-square-foot center built on the campus of Southern Methodist University houses Bush’s presidential library, a museum and a policy institute. The dedication of the center will be on April 25. (AP Photo/Kim Johnson Flodin) Photo: Kim Johnson Flodin, Associated Press

There is an afterlife for Bush Pioneers and Rangers, the monikers given to the top bundlers of campaign contributions for George W. Bush.

It can be found on 5.2 acres of Dallas real estate on the campus of Southern Methodist University, home of the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

A library, museum and think tank, the homage to the 43rd president will be dedicated Thursday, April 25, marking a Texas-sized reunion for Bush loyalists and political patronage appointees.

It coincides with a bipartisan push in Congress — backed by watchdog groups such as the Sunlight Foundation — to require presidential libraries to disclose donor information.

The Bush Center is pledging to release the names of most, but not all, of its donors. The kicker is they won’t be available online.

Many of them are Pioneers and Rangers, meaning they bundled $100,000+ and $200,000+ for Bush’s election and re-election campaigns, respectively.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

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Asa Hutchinson explains the NRA’s plan at Tuesday’s press conference. (AP)

WASHINGTON _ A National Rifle Association task force on Tuesday recommended a training program to help arm school personnel as a way of preventing a repeat of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that took 26 lives in Newtown, Conn.

“This is probably the one item that catches everybody’s attention,’’ said Asa Hutchinson, former Arkansas lawmaker and DEA administrator whom the NRA contracted to come up with school safety recommendations after Newtown.

“This is not talking about all teachers; teachers should teach,’’ Hutchinson said at a packed news conference called to roll out the NRA National School Shield Program’s eight recommendations for improved school safety.

“But if (a teacher or other school employee) has good experience and has an interest in it, and is willing to go through (40 to 60 hours of) training, then that is an appropriate resource that a school should be able to utilize.’’

Hutchinson spoke as the Senate gears up to consider a package of gun-control proposals that the NRA adamantly opposes, including universal background checks and stiffer penalties for “straw purchasers’’ who buy guns on behalf of criminals and others not qualified to own them.

Hutchinson generally sidestepped questions on the politically charged issue of gun control vs. gun rights, telling reporters he was focused on school safety _ an area, he said, where all sides of the gun debate can find “common ground.’’

Mark Mattioli, father of a Sandy Hook victim, attended the press conference and praised the NRA-sponsored school shield program as “comprehensive.’’

“I think politics needs to be sort of set aside here, and I hope this doesn’t lead to name-calling,’’ he said. He called the task force recommendations “real solutions that will make our kids safer, and that’s what we need.’’

Hutchinson’s task force of 12 included former Secret Service officials, a former Air Force colonel and security experts with government and private sector experience.

The report and presentation at times seemed to parallel dry recommendations of a private security service for improved home or office protection, with an emphasis on more secure doors, windows and locks, better monitoring of visitors and improved “perimeter fencing.’’

Among the recommendations apart from arming school personnel and revisions of state laws to permit it:

_ An online security self-assessment school to help school officials identify weak spots.

_ Designation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where Hutchinson worked as an official during the presidency of George W. Bush, as the lead agency to direct federal efforts aimed at school security.

_ Agreements between schools and police departments for “school resource officers,’’ police officers assigned to individual schools for security purposes as well as educating school staff and watching out for potential juvenile crime problems. There are about 10,000 such officers working schools nationwide, according to the National Association of School Resource Officers.

Hutchinson called Connecticut’s legislative agreement on gun control, which includes an assault weapons ban, “totally inadequate.’’

An assault weapons ban “doesn’t stop someone bringing in a .45 caliber firearm in the school,’’ Hutchinson said. “If you’re going to protect children, you have to do something about school safety and enhancing our safety measures in schools. It can be done.’’

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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker gestures as he speaks at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., Saturday, March 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

No, the C in CPAC doesn’t stand for Connecticut.

But don’t tell that to Republicans in the state.

They have booked a tea party favorite who is persona non grata among organized labor to be their keynote speaker at the upcoming Prescott Bush Awards Dinner, eschewing a middle-of-the-road Republican in favor of a bold and perhaps controversial selection.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will headline the May 20 event at the Hilton Stamford Hotel, according to a party insider who has seen the official program.

Named after the Prescott Bush, the late U.S. senator from Greenwich and Bush family patriarch, the dinner is the state GOP’s biggest fundraiser of the year. Tickets start at $250.

Fresh off an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference just outside of Washington, Walker has seen his stock rise in Republican circles.

State GOP Chairman Jerry Labriola Jr. confirmed Walker’s appearance in a media advisory several hours after Hearst broke the story.

“Governor Walker is a bold reformer who has righted the fiscal ship of state in Wisconsin without raising taxes,” Labriola said. “As governor,his efforts have saved Wisconsin taxpayers more than $1 billion, leading to property taxes in Wisconsin declining for the first time in 12 years.”

Labriola sought to contrast Walker with Connecticut Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

“There is a lesson in Governor Walker’s leadership for Governor Malloy and the Democrats in the Connecticut General Assembly,” Labriola said. “Can you wipe out a massive state deficit without layoffs and without increasing taxes? Yes, you can – Governor Walker did it, and I believe his accomplishments in Wisconsin reflect the kind of changes we need in Connecticut.”

Democrats immediately panned the choice of Walker.

“Scott Walker is a rabid, anti-labor Governor whose stated goal is to destroy unions,” Jonathan Harris, the state party’s executive director, said in a statement. “By inviting him to headline their fundraising dinner, Connecticut Republicans have sent a clear message to every union member, and to everyone who cares about the right we have as Americans to organize: “we care more about money than we do about you, and you have no place in our party.”

Elected in 2010, Walker crafted a law stripping public sector employee unions of most of their collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin. The controversial law requires state employees to pay more towards their health care and pensions, which Walker has said is justified to help rein in expenses. General wage increases are capped at the rate of inflation, unless otherwise stipulated by a public referendum.

In 2012, Walker survived a recall election in Wisconsin, giving Republicans false hope that Mitt Romney would win the presidential election later in the year.

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George P. Bush, left, talks to guests prior to making the opening statements at the Texas Business Leadership Council, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

What Hyannis Port is to the Kennedys, Greenwich is to the Bushes.

And now the fourth-generation flag-bearer for one of the nation’s most powerful political families is about to make his debut in the fertile stomping grounds of his grandfather and great-grandfather.

George P. Bush, who this week filed paperwork to run for land commissioner in his home state of Texas, often used as a steppingstone for higher office, has chosen Greenwich for one of his first major fundraisers, Hearst Connecticut Newspapers has learned.

For $1,000 per person, you can get a roundtable audience April 11 with the eldest son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at the Dairy Road home of Chris and Carina Crain. There’s also a $250 per person general reception option afterward.

If the Crain name sounds familiar, that’s because it is: he is a vice president and group publisher at his family’s Crain Communications, which puts out Crain’s New York Business and a host of other publications.

The P. in George P. Bush stands for Prescott, the first name of Bush family patriarch and the candidate’s great-grandfather, Prescott Bush, the late U.S. senator from Connecticut.

The land commissioner hopeful is also the grandson of former President George H.W. Bush, who grew up on Grove Lane a mere four miles from where the fundraiser is being held.

An attorney and real state investor, the family’s next great hope for political office is a member of the U.S. Navy reserve and was deployed to Afghanistan. His mother was born in Mexico and is a naturalized U.S. citizen, a narrative that Republicans believe will play well among the growing Latino electorate.

The host committee of the fundraiser reads likes a Who’s Who of fundraisers for former President George W. Bush.

There’s Tom Foley, the former U.S. ambassador to Ireland under Bush 43 and two-time candidate for governor.

There’s also state Sen. L. Scott Frantz, R-36th District, a prolific bundler for the GOP who has hosted Bush 43 at his home several times.

And keeping it all in the family, the hosts include Craig and Debbie Walker Stapleton, Bush cousins. He served as ambassador to the Czech Republic and then France under George W. Bush, with whom he was a partner in the ownership group of the Texas Rangers baseball team in the early 1990s.