Paul Stern

The battle between President Donald Trump and several Congressional committees intensified last week when Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee voted to hold U.S. Attorney General William Barr in contempt and the Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenaed the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr. At the Connecticut Capitol, debate intensified over highway tolls; a radical new tax scheme and; in a marathon session, approval of the $15 minimum wage.

Congressional Democrats and President Donald Trump set out last week to see whose branch of government is the more co-equal; showing, if not literally at least figuratively, their contempt for each other’s authority.

The issue of tolls on Connecticut’s highways is shaping up to be a defining one for Connecticut legislators, Gov. Ned Lamont and two competing plans to improve the state’s transportation network.

The redacted Mueller report hit Washington like a political sonic boom  last week, making a huge noise but apparently changing few minds in Connecticut or elsewhere about Donald Trump’s fitness to be president — or the propriety of his conduct.

It was musical chairs in Connecticut politics last week, and when the music stopped, long-time University of Connecticut Trustee Denis J. Nayden had no where to sit. Neither did the board Chairman Thomas E. Kruger.

Political events challenged reality last week when the president claimed his father was born in Germany and former mayor and convicted felon Eddie Perez asked his city to forgive his corruption and return him to public office.

It was government by name calling and sound-bite rhetoric last week on two hot issues: the president’s ties to Russia and, in Connecticut, highway tolls.

The nation is on edge today waiting to find out what it will learn from the release of some or all of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections. In Connecticut the legislative sausage factory grinds on.

The monstrous slaughter of 49 Muslim worshipers in New Zealand by a single gunman spread alarm throughout the world last week. Mosques in the United States went on high alert against similar attacks; and the online world attempted to cope with the implications of the terrorist’s live video stream of his hateful work.

Connecticut’s ship of state was tossed left and right last week as the governor, lawmakers and members of the public tried to navigate through the strong economic headwinds caused by huge multi-year budget deficits.

Politics in Connecticut last week seemed normal compared to the Congressional testimony of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former attorney.

Last week was Gov. Ned Lamont’s big budget reveal, when he attempted to satisfy hundreds of competing interests with billions of dollars the government doesn’t have.

Connecticut’s all-Democratic congressional delegation was uniformly outraged Friday when President Donald Trump declared a national emergency so he could use billions of dollars Congress declined to give him to build a southern border wall.

It was a very presidential week, but not necessarily in a good way. President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union Address on Tuesday to a divided Congress that reacted as a divided Congress would: Republicans applauded the call for national unity and a firm approach to immigration – including construction of a border wall. Democrats dismissed Trump’s appeal for comity as an insincere pitch out of character with his regular use of insulting tweets and personal attacks.

It is hard to say which idea is more popular in Connecticut – a tax on groceries or building a wall. Both concepts caused plenty of aggita last week in their respective political circles.