Save the Witch! Screw the Voter.

Demonstrating a willingness to tackle the really important issues that truly matter to Connecticut voters, Rep. Michael Lawlor (D-East Haven), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has indicated he may tackle the issue of pardoning eleven people convicted of witchcraft in Connecticut. It’s a bit late… they were hanged about 350 years ago.

Randall Beach, a sappy columnist for the New Haven Register who can be counted on to write pieces with the emotional superficiality of a twelve-year-old girl, has made a fascinating contribution yesterday. He details the pursuit of justice by Anthony Griego, a retired New Haven policeman and admitted devotee of a “pagan” faith, to obtain pardons for the eleven convicted witches in Connecticut who were executed between 1647 and 1662.

Connecticut’s Blue Laws evidently had a passage that made a capital offense of “any man or woman to be a witch,” and those who were “shall be put to death.” That’s right. In 1647 Edith Prague would have gone to the gallows instead of the State Senate. But I digress…

The plight of Griego and his delightful band of wiccans has caught the attention of Rep. Lawlor, who, according to Beach, has expressed a desire to meet with them, and discuss their desire to have him introduce legislation to pardon those executed as witches. That’s an interesting legislative priority.

Connecticut has soaring electric rates that have been allowed to spiral out of control. Lawlor sent a mailer to his constituents last February saying how outraged he was at the rate increase, and how in the first week of session the legislature would work to prevent the increases from taking effect. That’s right… by the time his mailer arrived in mailboxes, the promise in it had already been broken. It remains so today… there is no energy bill. In fact, there has been nothing done this year on a whole host of major issues… soaring gas prices, eminent domain… you name it, the talk has been big, and the action has been nil.

But now Michael Lawlor is interested in re-examining witch trial documents in the Judiciary Committee and obtaining justice for people who died in the 17th century? What about some economic justice for the people still alive in his district?

Right now I’m quite favorably disposed toward witches. The only way we have any chance of getting a tax cut, reduced energy rates, or lower gas prices is for some practitioner of witchcraft to wave a wand, throw some magic dust, or rattle some chicken bones and cast a spell. Absurd? Perhaps. But you’ll get old and green like a witch waiting for your Democratic legislature to do anything about it.