Don't Do It Joan!!

You may wonder why the Democratic supermajority in the Connecticut General Assembly won't override the veto of Governor M. Jodi Rell of the Democrats' $3.1 billion bond package. After all, they have the numerical votes... or do they?

A veto override by the supermajority requires a two-thirds vote of the membership. In the State House of Representatives Democrats have 107 members out of 151. They have the votes with six members to spare. But in the State Senate they have 24 out of 36. That means they need every single Democrat to fall in line. And it appears that one of them won't.

Word is that Senator Joan V. Hartley (D-15) of Waterbury is the holdout, as noted over at Capitol Watch. There is tremendous pressure on her to cave to her leadership. Senator Hartley, don't back down!

In the meantime, Senate Democrats issued a lame press release calling on the Governor to reveal where she would cut the bonding package. It's a yawner... and a red herring. The Democrats advanced over $600 million more in bonding than the Governor proposed earlier this year. She doesn't need to explain what she'd cut. They need to explain why they are adding so much more.

The Democrats holding out for their extra largesse to spread out over their districts has now become a real problem for municipalities who are depending on funds in that package for school construction. They rejected the Governor's call to come back in and at least pass the construction piece.

Connecticut is right near the top in our accumulated debt of $13.9 billion. If they pass this package you and I will pay roughly $70 million more in additional debt service payments in the next fiscal year alone.

This says a number of things about the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate, and voters should pay attention. First, it says that Democrats care more about slathering their districts in fat than they do about getting schools built. Second, it says Democrats will apparently never get a conscience when it comes to spending more and more of our money, and increasing the debt that you and I have to pay for.

The last and perhaps most interesting thing it tells us about them is that no matter how many members they have, no matter how much power they accumulate, they are completely inept at the endgame, and can't politick their way through a rice-paper diaper.