Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Money
  • Election 2020
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Money
    Election 2020
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

Truth, lies, and government consequences

Rancor in Washington makes Connecticut's week seem, well, normal

  • Other
  • by Paul Stern
  • March 3, 2019
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen being sworn in by the House Oversight Committee.

The Congressional testimony of Michael Cohen riveted the nation last Wednesday as an estimated 16 million people watched him live on television call the President of the United States, his former boss for a decade, a “racist, con man and a cheat.”

It was the most dramatic, but certainly not the only negative news washing over President Donald Trump and the White House last week as the Democratically controlled U.S House began to pry into every aspect of his administration, business and political life.

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, one of the president’s least favorite Democrats, was among those watching, of course, and afterward said he expects Cohen’s testimony will lead to other inquiries and a “Pandora’s box” of other potential witnesses  — and pursuit of Trump’s tax returns.

At the time of Cohen’s testimony, Trump was in Vietnam trying – without result — to cut a denuclearization deal with dictator Kim Jong-Un. Trump dismissed all of his former “fixer’s” testimony as lies except one part where he said he knows of no collusion between Trump and Russia to influence the U.S. election of 2016.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro led last week’s hearing on unaccompanied immigrant children.

The turmoil in Washington, D.C., overshadowed other business being pursued by various members of Connecticut’s delegation, including the passage in the House of the first new gun-control legislation in 25 years.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, new head of the House Appropriations Committee, began an investigation of the administration’s treatment of unaccompanied immigrant children.

The fate of a proposed tribal casino in East Windsor also popped back into the news with a report that a grand jury is investigating whether former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke broke any laws when he derailed it two years ago.

New State Attorney General William Tong also added his weight to a lawsuit challenging the legality of a Trump mandate cutting off federal funds to health care groups like Planned Parenthood that offer abortion referrals.

By comparison to the goings-on in the nation’s capital, Gov. Ned Lamont’s efforts to right Connecticut’s financial ship of state seemed, well, normal, as the legislature began grinding the political sausage of his budget proposals. Lamont’s ideas on taxes don’t necessarily mesh with theirs.

The governor’s push for highway tolls on the entire state highway network is carving some new territory with federal officials and his effort to make improvements to the state’s transportation network generally are also bumping up against his needs to reduce the state deficit.  (That’s maybe why he is trying to make a little money from a ban on single-use plastic grocery bags through a 10-cent per bag tax.)

Melissa McCaw, Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget director, testified Wednesday before the legislature’s Finance Committee.

State Republicans may have benefited from Lamont’s post-election struggles. Of the five legislative vacancies created by the governor’s appointments, two went to Republicans in the subsequent special elections.

The Republicans also put new budget director Melissa McCaw in the hot seat by asking her to reconcile Lamont’s cancellation of nearly $270 million in vehicle sales tax receipts pledged to the transportation program with the voters’ approval of a “lock box” amendment preventing diversion of transportation funds.

A little pressure from a legislator is nothing compared to hundreds of irritated voters, however, and that’s what lawmakers and the governor are getting from their proposal to force small school districts to regionalize into larger ones.

There was considerably less voter reaction to a proposal to give residents a way, through the state, to reduce their prescription drug expenses.

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul Stern Paul is the part-time assistant editor and the primary handler of the Mirror's Viewpoints commentaries. He has more than 40 years of reporting and editing experience at newspapers in New Jersey, Florida and Connecticut. He worked 22 years at the Hartford Courant in various editing roles including as deputy state editor, assistant editor of Northeast Magazine, and as an associate editor at Courant.com.

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
Best of 2019: Key Dems press bill to increase minority recruitment at Coast Guard Academy
by Ana Radelat

The bill is a response to allegations of discrimination and a racially hostile environment at the school.

Navy cuts number of EB Virginia-class subs in new contract
by Ana Radelat

Electric Boat wanted the Navy to include 10 subs, and possibly 11, in the so-called "Block 5" contract. But the Navy agreed to only nine.

Electric Boat facing mounting challenges as sub work ramps up
by Ana Radelat

There continue to be concerns about EB’s ability to build the new Columbia-class submarine alongside its smaller Virginia-class attack subs.

Talk of gun violence, little else
by Paul Stern

In national politics last week there was talk of little else than gun violence, white nationalism and gun control following the fatal shootings of 31 people in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas. There was little more than talk, too.

Politics and the ‘dark psychic force of collectivized hatred’
by Paul Stern

President Donald Trump insists he is not a racist, but 51 percent of Americans believe he is, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released last week. Certainly his “send her back” comments about Somalia-born U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and last week’s jabs at U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Baltimore did nothing to dispel that […]

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion Not just environmental problem; Killingly plant is a great target
by Joel Gordes

In 1990, I was one of five legislators to introduce the first climate change legislation that became PA 90-219, An Act Considering Climate Change, the most popular bill of that session. Back then I considered climate change a national security issue… and I still do.

Opinion Last votes of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others
by Gary A. Franks

Finally, the election season is over. The historic elections we saw in this cycle were intriguing. The runoff elections for the U.S. Senate in Georgia put a cap on the campaign season. For many people this could be described as a COVID-19 election. I would argue that this was an election influenced by a pandemic but determined by the killing of unarmed Black people with no adequate justice for the Black community.

Opinion The revolution will proceed reclining: the Capitol mob, their past, and the future of democracy
by Chris Doyle

Looking at pictures of Richard “Bigo” Barnett in the U.S. Capitol last week, grinning, his foot resting on a staffer’s desk in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and his arms extended, I recognized a jarringly familiar if initially hard to place tableau. Barnett appeared to be acting, according to Saul Loeb, the Agence France Press photographer who snapped the picture, “just sort of like he owned the place.” Where had I seen this before?

Opinion Death? Taxes? Or a new political party?
by Eric Goodman

Connecticut faces a deadly threat from climate change, the local results of a global capitalist crisis, and an epidemic of inequality made worse by racial oppression. The means exist to solve these problems and build a better world, but not within the capitalist system.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO