Meanwhile, on Planet Weicker…
May 14th, 2014 by Peter
Former Governor Lowell Weicker says the Connecticut GOP is “irrelevant.”
No one disputes that the CT GOP has been in an exceedingly weak position for decades, a legislative superminority at certain points in the Rell years and even less influential in the Malloy era, with the Democrats now in control of the Governor’s office as well as both chambers of our General Assembly, every other constitutional office and all seven seats of our Washington delegation.
How did it come to this? Here’s Weicker’s explanation:
On WNPR’s Where We Live, Weicker said the GOP needs ideas that are focused on Connecticut, and not just on following the national party’s playbook. “A southern strategy does not work in the state of Connecticut,” Weicker said. “We’re not a religious right state…”
Someone please tell me, when did the CT GOP ever do the things Weicker complains of? When did it ever pursue a Connecticut-as-religious-right-state strategy?
Was it when Jodi Rell signed gay civil unions into law? How about when Rob Simmons voted to keep partial-birth abortion legal? Maybe it was when Nancy Johnson voted AGAINST the Born Alive Infants Protection Act? Was that it?
When was this mythical time when the CT GOP supposedly employed this strategy? Because we here at Family Institute of Connecticut are still waiting for our “irrelevant” CT GOP to at least give it a try.
No one did more to make the state GOP irrelevant, by undermining real leaders and preaching ‘moderation.’ Neither the state nor the party have recovered from this bloated public nuisance.