Is This The Best GOP Can Do?

It appears the deck has been cleared for former controversial state Sen. William Aniskovich, 48, to become the next chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party. His emergence, as the front runner to succeed Chris Healy - the election for new chair is later this month - has set off a firestorm.

Nancy DiNardo, chairwoman of the state Democrat Party, sent out a release, Wednesday, reminding everyone of Anikovich's ties to the corrupt Rowland administration. Then, Hartford Courant columnist and former state Sen. Kevin Rennie blew the lid off the story, writing what many people have known for years, that Aniskovich made Rep. Anthony Weiner look like a choir boy, when he served in the state senate. Aniskovich admitted to Rennie that he cheated on his wife, Jennifer, who received a plum job from then Gov. John Rowland to head the state tourism department. Meanwhile, DiNardo was reminding everyone about the numerous fines Aniskovich's senate campaign had received, in addition to his relationship to the corrupt Rowland.

However, it's Aniskovich's sexual peccadilloes and sweetheart deals his business received from then Gov. Rowland, that has Democrats salivating over his possible election. Aniskovich's mental health and substance abuse clinic in Stonington, received numerous state contracts, while Rowland was governor.

Aniskovich claims his playboy days are over, his wife has forgiven him and he now has a strong marriage. He also told Rennie his clinic no longer does business with the state, but the ever persistent Rennie did some research and discovered his Stonington Institute still holds two contracts with the state.

Meanwhile, I am told former congressman and defeated U.S. Senate candidate Rob Simmons and former GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley have emerged as kingmakers, pushing the Aniskovich candidacy, by cutting deals with several candidates, who have "suddenly" dropped out of the race. Simmons told the Courant, "It's really too bad we have to go back seven, eight, nine 10 years to make a judgement about somebody..." A laughable comment, when you consider Simmons was willing to reach back longer than that, when sabotaging Linda McMahon's senate candidacy.

Supporters say Aniskovich has the talent to "articulate Republican principles." Apparently family values aren't among them. Rather than unite the Republican Party, the choice of Aniskovich will serve to split it even more. And the argument that "we have all made mistakes" doesn't cut it. Yes, only Aniskovich and his wife know what their marriage is, but life's hard lessons, do exclude a person's past from certain occupations. An Aniskovich chairmanship would serve as a reminder of a Republican Party's corrupt past, under the felonious and polarizing Rowland.

Say what you want about Healy, but the party did make some inroads under his leadership in state and municipal elections. The GOP has come too far to be rearranging chairs on the deck of the Titantic.

WELCOME TO THE PORTA POTTY STATE

Now Dannel 88 has really gone and done it. He's taken away our rest areas, and it even has some Democrats, crossing their legs in disgust. It seems the Democrats, who voted for the Governor's budget to see what was in it, are now finding out that among the Governor's "cuts" in a budget that increases spending by $1B, is the closing of rest areas not operated by commercial enterprises. The first to go will be the Willington rest areas on both sides of I-84, closing July 1st. The measure will save the state a whopping $400,000. Have to replenish those EBT cards to preserve the safety net, you know.

Even Rep. Antonio Guerrera, D-Rocky Hill, is in a snit. The co-chair of the General Assembly's Transportation committee says the proposal was never put to his panel by the governor's people. Apparently he was one of those who voted "yes" on the budget bill, before reading it.

Michael Riley, the head of the Motor Transport Association, a group representing truckers, is also befuddled, saying the governor can spend millions on a Hartford-New Britain busway that very few people will use, but is willing to shutdown a rest area on I-84 at which 50,000 motor vehicles will stop, during the July 4th weekend.

Borrowing on Republican Sen. Michael McLachlen's idea that Connecticut needs to change it's moniker from the "Constitution State," because Democrats have steered the state so far to the left, Dannel 88's rest area crackdown has now set up numerous name-change possibilities. Perhaps we can become the "Porta Potty State." Obviously we will need one, while driving that stretch of I-84 on our way to "freedom" in Massachusetts. Or maybe the "Constipation State" might work. It will be a fitting condition in which to be, while traversing I-84.

I suspect, Dannel 88 will mysteriously find the money and keep the rest areas open, allowing he and his fellow liberals to appear as if they have "heard the public." Meanwhile, they will have hoodwinked us into the largest tax hike in Connecticut history, come July 1st.

For now, however, the rest area closures have given new meaning to "hold it, until the pike," or "are we there yet."

Did Malloy Bet On The Wrong Horse?

Governor Dannel P. Malloy's handpicked choice to run the state Department of Environmental Protection, Daniel Esty, is at it again. You remember our environmentally conscience commissioner, who was apparently for higher gasoline prices, before he was against them?

The commissioner, who told Talk of Connecticut legendary talk show host Brad Davis, he never advocated for higher gasoline prices, even though he wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times and was quoted in a New Haven Register story as telling high students prices should be higher, "Let's make people pay for the harm they cause," in the same interview touted natural gas as the way to go. "The big opportunity we have, that has emerged in the last couple of years, is increased natural gas; huge new supplies of natural gas, which I think people are going after. It's one of the reasons we are going to see electric rates coming down in the state of Connecticut. We're going to buy more of this cheap natural gas, which is the major source of electricity, beyond nuclear power in this state.

"So you should expect to see electric rates coming down over the course of this year, in part because of access to these new American natural gas supplies."

So confident was the commissioner in his belief, he repeated the comment to Davis.

Now comes word in the latest edition of the Hartford Business Journal, electricity prices in Connecticut will skyrocket this summer. The reason? The price spike in natural gas. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission predicts a 22 percent increase in our electricity rates in New England, with Connecticut's likely to be higher. Worse, other costs that drive electricity price spikes have not gone up. FERC blames the exorbitant hike in our rates solely on the increase in natural gas prices, the same "cheap" natural gas Commissioner Esty predicts will lower our prices.

One can only hope Esty doesn't make a pick in next week's Belmont Stakes. What has become patently obvious is that Dannel 88 has bet on the wrong horse to lead our DEP.