The Rule Of Rell: When Leadership Lacks, Delegate Blame by Doug Wrenn

The Rule Of Rell: When Leadership Lacks, Delegate Blame

By Doug Wrenn

May 12, 2008

For the sake of full disclosure, I am a reader, as well as a contributor of Radio Free West Hartford. (Note to editor: I now expect compensation for that endorsement!) I was already toying with an idea for a column before I read that hideous press release on the site from Gov. Rell. I should know better. What I did is akin to going grocery shopping while hungry. The other idea will have to wait. This rant cannot.

Gov. Rell now has an ad nauseum established history of fretting over small stuff, ignoring the more profound and impactful issues, going into histrionic emotions and overreacting to situations as they occur, and delegating authority to various commissions when she dreads making a decision, a staple task of any chief executive that is far above her limited ability. I have said it before and I say it again: this woman is utterly incompetent as a Governor and is grossly over her head and out of her league, to our detriment.

She's at it again. In her written testimony to the US Senate, Her Histrionic Highness recommends lifting an import tariff on ethanol to encourage increased importation of sugar based ethanol from Brazil as opposed to the corn based variety to address the problem of skyrocketing food costs. I see. Now the US Senate is at fault. I'm not saying it isn't, but this Governor shares ample blame, which she conveniently does not acknowledge.

Governor Rell is such a big fan of ethanol it is being used in the state motor pool fleet. Some states are already looking at banning ethanol. Jodi likely won't do that unless her mentor and hero, "Ahnold," out in California, gives her the thumbs up.

Jodi believes this so-called solution will also address "spiraling" gasoline prices. So will reducing the tax, an idea she ahs already flatly rejected, even though she is clueless as to what the gas tax even is, as revealed recently on Brad Davis's radio show.

Rell also believes that ethanol demand will rise. That theory is questionable, given the ramifications of this debacle as it plays out over time, but clearly, she is contributing to that demand.

The Guv is supposedly on board to sign into law the ominous global warming bill recently passed in the legislature, which will translate into more, not less, oppressive expenditures on a fairy tale that is being contradicted by more and more scientists. But "Schwarzzy" likes it, so his lead east coast cheerleader must follow.

Ethanol cannot be shipped through a pipeline, it ruins engines, gets lousy gas mileage, cannot be suppressed by modern firefighting technology, and will soon be on a popularity par with MTBE, President Bush and the Congress.

We are burning up our food supply in our gas tanks. That is why there is a food shortage, food riots, and more destruction of rain forests, which when burned up, produce millions of mega tons of hydrocarbons and release them into the air at far greater levels than we are currently creating. As green as our blue state is trying to be, it should instead be red, but blushing first requires knowledge, and then shame.

It's bad enough that we have a governor who is a die in the wool liberal who espouses no semblance of Republican values or ideology, but she also is naïve, ill informed and is totally bereft of leadership ability. She can't name a commission, so she blames the feds. In short, she cannot or will not once again do her job, so it's somebody else's responsibility to do it for her. Kathleen Blanco and Ray Nagin would be proud.

If this governor would at least try to suppress her schoolgirl crush and listen to her muscle bound idol from "Calleyfornya" less, and did her homework more, we would all be better off. For starters, we would already have the $10 million needed for the crime bill if we stopped spending money on the $100 million dollar proven sham of embryonic stem cell research, the doling out of which is overseen by representatives of institutions benefiting from the appropriations of that money. (Go ahead, Jodi, tell me all about "ethics.") And if this Democrat in Republican clothing did espouse and support Republican principles, the global warming bill would encounter at least a speed bump, if not a veto, taxes and spending would go down, as would energy costs, and with less or preferably no use of ethanol, maybe at least a modicum of relief would be seen in food costs as well. Our state desperately needs a leader behind the bully pulpit. Instead, we're stuck with a Pollyanna in a wooly sweater.

The Governor, who waved her magic wand of ineptitude and reduced our surplus to a deficit practically overnight, now has sage fiscal advice for the feds: "Give us a second stimulus package." Being as mathematically challenged as Jodi is, I know this is over her dizzy head, but rebates should only come from surpluses, not deficits. The feds should not have even issued the first stimulus package. And yes, the first one will go to consumers paying down debt instead of buying more goods and services to stimulate the economy, and a second stimulus package will accomplish the same thing, while the digging of an already deep hole continues.

In the spirit of the adage, "Lead, follow, or shut up and get out of the way," Governor Rell never seems to find a terminus to publicly humiliating herself. Now, to add "gas" onto the fire, she also wishes to equally humiliate our entire state as well. Poor timing, Governor. Few of us have much a sense of humor right now. So please, just do what you do best.

Hug a kid, pet a puppy, form a commission, throw a hissy fit, and knock down a billboard on a whim.

And then, please, shut up and get out of the way.

The adults down in Washington have a country to run in time of crisis, and given their abysmal record so far they don't need any further distractions from clueless amateur hecklers in the cheap seats, who were erroneously elevated to personified illustrations of "The Peter Principle."

As a matter of fact, do us all a favor: take a vacation to California for a while. Give our regards to the other useless and misguided RINO, the big has-been weightlifter with the funny accent and a covert Kennedy with a Dick Tracy chin for a wife, who pulls his strings from behind the scenes whenever urgent liberal marching orders come in from the Cape Cod Kremlin at the Hyannisport compound.

Hasta la vista, Jodi.

Doug Wrenn

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Please call or write Governor Rell today and tell her "the sky isn't falling! "

Veto the ominous global warming bill recently passed in the state legislature.

Governor's Office: (860) 566-4840 or (800) 406-1527

E-mail: Governor.Rell@po.state.ct.us

(For more information including Global Warming talking points please download energy08.pdf.)