Until recently, the closest thing Connecticut experienced to an overturning of the political order, at least in modern times, was the revolt over a state income tax in the early 1990s. So incensed were the voters then that they replaced their moderate governor, the former longtime senator Lowell Weicker, with a more conservative career politician, a three-term congressman named John Rowland. Take that, status quo!
That, however, was before Rowland and a small cadre of other Connecticut officeholders were hauled away to prison on corruption charges; before Democrats ousted Joe Lieberman from the party only six years after they nominated him for the vice presidency; before the politicians in Hartford blew a hole the size of Long Island Sound in the state budget. As I watched McMahon’s hopeful supporters file out of the ballroom clutching their tote bags, I found myself wondering: when, exactly, did genteel Connecticut become Louisiana? And if politics could get this weird here, then what did that mean for the rest of the country?
Louisiana is a class of its own in terms of the politically weird and corrupt! However, Matt Bai’s NYT story on Connecticut’s first lady of wrestling and aspiring Senator, Linda McMahon, indicates the state wants to be a contender. Nonetheless, as long as it’s weird for a candidate to have “ponytailed, R.V.-size son-in-law”, Connecticut will remain a wannabe Louisiana. Bai, I gather, didn’t follow news on the BP Gulf Oil disaster. Otherwise, he would know that Louisiana has R.V.-size politicians holding public office – but I digress and Bai’s story is a great read: Continue reading “Connecticut-County-Club crackup doesn’t compare to the Louisiana crackup”