Radiofree West Hartford - A DIFFERENT KIND OF GOVERNOR by Tim Siggia

A DIFFERENT KIND OF GOVERNOR

By Tim Siggia

October 18, 2005

On Saturday, October 15, Governor M. Jodi Rell made her official announcement that she will run for governor next year, which for most of us was about as much of a surprise as the presence of vehicles on the road during rush hour. With an 84-percent approval rating, the surprise would have been if she had decided not to run. What is truly bewildering is the idea that anyone was seriously asking, "Will she or won't she?" She is a politician, after all.

Right now, it seems just about all of Connecticut, with a few notable exceptions, is madly in love with Jodi Rell. She is, after all, just the kind of Republican that Liberal Connecticut has always adored: namely, a Republican who neither thinks nor acts like one -- in other words, a RINO (Republican In Name Only). Not just a RINO, mind you, but one who is openly hostile to her own party's national policies and agenda. Governor Rell professes to be, "a different kind of governor." Different from what? Oh yes, I nearly forgot! Different from her predecessor, John G. Rowland, the three-term Republican governor who got caught with his hand in the till, was forced to resign his office, and has been crucified, drawn, quartered, and chopped into mincemeat by the Connecticut news media and their Democratic allies ever since. Too bad for him. If he'd just been a Democrat named Bill Clinton, he'd still be in office today, with approval ratings of 90 percent from the electorate and 100 percent from the news media.

To be fair to Governor Rell, she has gotten a few things right. Michael Ross, for instance, deserved to die, and even he himself said so. The action taken against American Crushing & Recycling, one of whose trucks was the cause of a horrendous accident at the foot of Avon Mountain, was prudent. Both of these were no-brainers, however; just about any competent governor would have done likewise. Some of her other actions, however, are most disturbing to those few Republicans in Connecticut who are not merely Democrats by another name.

For instance:

Thanks to Jodi Rell, Connecticut is now one of the very few states which sanctions and performs same-sex civil unions. By prematurely announcing that she would sign such a bill, Rell sent a clear message to the state legislature, whose members reacted instantaneously by railroading that bill through. And she did sign that bill, over the objections of clergy and family advocacy groups from all over the state. She stopped short of advocating gay marriage, however, and the bill that reached her desk did have a provision which defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman. It was a hollow concession, however, for civil unions are, for all practical purposes, marriages in everything but name. It is a good start for the disciples of State Representative Michael Lawlor, however. We may all rest assured that Lawlor, Love Makes A Family and the Hartford Courant, now emboldened by this significant first step, will continue to push for gay marriage in Connecticut, and, no matter who is elected governor next year, their dream will most certainly be realized.

Jodi Rell also gave the green light for embryonic stem cell research in violation of the moral and religious dictates of many, if not most, of Connecticut's residents. It should be noted here that absolutely nothing has been demonstrated to this point with regard to the superiority of embryonic stem cell research over similar research on adult stem cells, to which even the Roman Catholic Church has no objection. It doesn't make sense until it is viewed not from the standpoint of the research itself, but from a more political standpoint: that the supposed necessity for embryonic rather than adult stem cell research provides a justification argument for abortion -- which is what it's really all about. Nothing warms the cockles of a liberal heart more than the increased carnage of unborn infants.

Jodi Rell was smart enough to learn from the negative example of George H. W. Bush about making, "Read My Lips" pronouncements. Like any good liberal, she raised taxes help balance the budget, though not as much, she will argue, as a Democrat would have. Gee, but that makes me feel so much better knowing that! Her original rhetoric did sound good: balance the budget by reducing spending, not raising taxes. My word, but didn't she sound just like a genuine Republican when she said that? But then, of course, that age-old political ingredient of compromise entered the picture, and Rell finally settled for a combination of tax hikes and reduced spending to achieve the desired result. Welcome back to the Connecticut we have all come to know only too well.

Now, in the wake of recent flooding throughout the state, and the specter of inflated fuel prices looming in the future, Governor Rell once again does what most good liberals do: she turns to the Fed. It will be most interesting to see how well President Bush receives these pleas for help from the same Republican governor who's taking his administration to court over provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Despite all this, Jodi Rell insists that she is not a liberal. Well, of course not. After all, she is a Republican (and somehow we must keep reminding ourselves of that), and when Republicans are liberal, they're not liberal, they're "moderate". Just as Lowell Weicker was "moderate". Remember Liberal Lowell? Excuse me, I mean Moderate Lowell, the former Connecticut governor and U. S. senator who, if he leaned any further to the left than he did, would have come crashing down in a 300-pound "Timmm-berrrr!" And how about our neighbor in Rhode Island, Republican senator and long-time citizen of Leftyland, Lincoln Chafee? He's "moderate" also. So was Jim Jeffords. If you're a Republican and you really want to transcend the moderate label, you apparently have to call for things like the violent overthrow of the United States Government. Then, and only then, you might be considered liberal.

So it is that conservatives in Connecticut, the few that we are, are once again placed in an all-too-familiar mid-term quandary: for whom do we vote? Certainly not for RINO Rell, and any Democrat is guaranteed to be just as bad if not worse. We can hope for the emergence of a third-party candidate who will come closer to espousing our needs and desires than either of the two major-party candidates. Or we can write in a vote for whomever we think might prove a rallying point for conservatives. State Senator Miriam Masullo is certainly a possibility here. Though not a true conservative, she's about as close to that as you're ever going to get in Liberal Connecticut. How about Tom Scott? Is he even still around? Would either of these two even want the job were it offered to them?

Conventional wisdom says it is throwing your vote away to vote for a candidate you know stands no chance of winning. Well, in this writer's opinion, conventional wisdom is wrong in this instance. It is not throwing your vote away to vote for one who cannot win, but rather, to vote for one who in all likelihood will win, but does not share your values or beliefs, and will eventually end up betraying you.