MORE ON MCDONALD
May 17th, 2006 by Peter
Since Monday’s post, a few of you have e-mailed us about Kevin Rennie’s April 30 Courant column regarding Sen. Andrew McDonald. Here is the relevant section:
The other chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, initiated some unsettling contact with [chief state’s attorney] Christopher Morano. In 2005, Morano’s office began an investigation into an allegation of bid-rigging in exchange for work done at Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy’s home near Long Island Sound. Word of the investigation – which turned up no wrongdoing – stopped Malloy’s gubernatorial campaign for several crucial months.
Malloy made an effective show of cooperating with Morano. Imagine the chief state’s attorney’s surprise, then, when he received a call from McDonald, a Malloy protege and supporter, telling him how damaging the investigation was to fundraising and asking when the investigation was likely to be completed. (Through a spokesman, McDonald said he did not recall speaking to Morano about the Malloy investigation.)
McDonald was not Malloy’s lawyer. Indeed, Malloy ballyhooed the fact that he retained no lawyer to represent him. Just Dan and his documents would be enough. Not quite.
It never hurts to have a powerful state legislator making calls to a law enforcement official. But it should.
The Courant later retracted another section of this column relating to Rep. Michael Lawlor—but not the comments about McDonald.
Promoting a better business environment, health care and transportation will all be issues in Rick’s campaign for Sen. McDonald’s seat. McDonald—if history is any guide—will simply try to smear his pro-family opponent as “intolerant.”
But the hypocrisy of the self-professed “tolerant” is nothing new. It was on display as recently as last month’s Catholic Concerns Day, as this story from the May Catholic Transcript reports:
Not everyone in attendance was in agreement with the Church. Two men marched silently in front of the cathedral wearing sandwich boards that stated that the Church tells lies relating to homosexuals.
During the march from the cathedral to the Capitol, a man who was in clear disagreement with the Church stood on the front steps of his Capitol Avenue apartment house screaming obscenities, his words punctuated by an obscene gesture. Two Hartford police officers who were escorting the marchers intervened and warned the man to voice his opinions in a more civilized manner.
We will likely face more attempts to silence and intimidate pro-family voices as Election Day approaches. But others are braving those attempts to stand up for what is right—and they deserve our support.
