There’s a rich history of political redemption in Connecticut. Chris Donovan aims to write another new chapter. At a taping of Dennis House’s Face the State Thursday evening, the House Speaker revealed what he hopes will be a winning strategy: I’m a fighter and the people want me – but I just can’t talk about those things that are making you wonder about my candidacy. Along with the Matt DiRienzo of the JRC and Torrington Register Citizen, I watched from the control room because Speaker Donovan didn’t want journalists to be part of the show while he is in the middle of crafting a comeback story.
It’s got potential — everybody likes a comeback kid who is fighting for the little guy. It’s also got a huge liability: if Chris Donovan is such a fighter — and he did nothing wrong – why isn’t he speaking the truth to the FBI about a probe that almost certainly his him in the crosshairs? If he didn’t know anything about and played no part in the alleged scheme to hide campaign contributions by campaign staff, then what’s the problem with an honest conversation?
Donovan’s plan — dump the staff members responsible, launch an internal probe, rely on the formidable union muscle supporting his campaign and remind folks that nobody has fought for the little guy more than him — may very well take him to a primary victory. The Republicans can’t wait.
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16 Responses to Donovan Strategy: I’m A Fighter, No Questions Please
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Donovan’s strategy seems timid and meek
How can we elect a “man” who’s so weak
Look at him lie
Watch him deny
If you are paying attention his chance seem bleak
Unions and dirty cash go together like peanut butter and jelly
Donovan’s done something that’s foul and smelly
This is not much a leap
Donovan’s a creep
This won’t end well…I feel it in my belly
We need a new poet laureate in CT!
Todd…do apply for the job!
I hate to beat a dead horse and be mean
But when will Chris ever come clean
Bad behavior I take offense
Unions rushing to Chris’ defense
Donovan’s for sale that’s what I’ve seen
All the Dems on the Courant editorial board will spend the summer wringing their hands over Donovan’s “ethical lapses”, but in the end, he’ll still end up with their endorsement in the fall.
It seems to me that “not speaking” is the modus operandi for Donovan. Look no further than his corrupt deal that gave former Speaker Jim “Crusher” Amann a $120,000 / yr no-show job in exchange for Donovan getting the title of Speaker two years earlier than expected.
For the time period in question (16 Jan to 21 Jan 2009), use the google “customize time” option and search for anything related to Donovan and / or Amann. For the most part, Donovan said nothing.
He’s skated for years in “leadership” because his geographically-small district was ok with him. But now he’s running for Congress. And now he needs to answer the questions.
Thing that gets me is why not use a Super PAC? This went down in April / May when everyone knew of the Super PACs. A Super PAC probably could have made this $20k legal. So why not?
Seems to me that the logical concern is this…
Super PACs are supposed to be independent. Perhaps Donovan’s team did not have someone who they considered politically savvy enough to handle the job of:
1) establishing the PAC… probably need a friendly lawyer
2) collecting the money… that would have been simple enough as they demonstrated their ability to do this
3) creating and distributing the promotional material… this could have been the tough & time-consuming part
Lacking the human resources to make all this happen, they may have deemed these contributions to be “low” risk. (After all, the Chief State’s Attorney has no subpoena power. So his investigative abilities are limited… and Donovan knows is aware of this since he failed to return subpoena power for four years as Speaker and four years as Majority Leader.) Furthermore, the $20k boosts everyone’s numbers… not just Donovan, but others who may use those numbers to find jobs elsewhere.
So despite the ability to get this money legally, someone may have concluded the *low* risk and *high* benefit (to the C.V.s of specific individuals other than the candidate) made this avenue worthwhile?
Now I’m wondering… did Donovan ever discuss the creation of a Super PAC? If so, with whom? And when, in relation to these April donations?
I hope the FBI speaks with all CC’s (while under oath) about Super PACs.
The Birthers are all over the Robert Braddock story. Apparently he has quite a past and by birther logic specializes in laundering backgrounds and repairing reputations and so forth.
I found this amusing.
Two recent developments have bolstered a campaign by Larry Sinclair to advance the sensational claim in his 2009 book “Barack Obama & Larry Sinclair: Cocaine, Sex, Lies & Murder” that he and Barack Obama twice engaged in homosexual acts accompanied by cocaine use.
The defamation lawsuit against Amazon and Larry Sinclair was thrown out and Robert Braddock’s video is on the web indicating some form of ‘spin’ over Sinclair’s polygraph results and then there’s claims of $750,000 being paid to debunk Sinclair’s claims.
http://www.larrysinclair.net/2012/01/15/parisi-v-sinclair/
Could the birthers be right on this? Egads.
More birthers on Braddock, his boss Parisi the pornographer, and Obama Campaign Communications Director Axelrod’s $750,000 payment to discredit Sinclairs’ claims about President Obama.
http://theydontfoolme.com/2372/judge-dismisses-dan-parisi-libel-suit-against-larry-sinclair/
All I know is the libel and defamation lawsuits were thrown out of court.
Bad week for Obama now this today
Whispers of our president doing something gay
Nancy Reagan told us to just say no
For some coke look at who Barry used to blow
Drugged up young Barry taking a roll in the hay
Jimmy Carter tells his wife I am no longer worst
Today it’s young Barry who’s career is about to burst
Carter set the bar so low
Barry’s quite the ho
Obama supporters looking for that check that comes on the first
Big cash to scrub Barry’s past all clean
Axelrod stepped up with a ton of the green
Dirtiest president we’ve ever met
See what happens when we don’t vet
Engine breaking down on this corrupt Chicago machine
Obamas, lobbists, unions thugs what a dirty town
Barry Obama our nation’s first clown
The White House Soros did buy
When doesn’t Barry tell us a lie
For some blow young Barry’s always willing to go down
Won the election solely based on his race
His performance has been an utter disgrace
One and done put it to bed
Clearly in over his head
He’s the president but he’s just like Linda Lovelace
What was Donovan thinking in hiring Braddock?
Unlike Linda McMahon, Braddock’s boss, Parisi, was a real porn meister and tried to extort money from the White House for 7 years under Clinton and Bush to purchase whitehouse.com –his porn site. This is beyond dispute. It’s the way Parisi makes a living. He flips domain names and finds way to ‘encourage’ their sale by creating value (or anti-value) for buyers–both willing and unwilling.
Parisi’s war againt Jim Salmon is a fascinating case study in how these net savvy operatives think.
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1023-208811.html
In the end the birther claim is that afer 2004 Parisi was willing to use the whitehouse.org site to do dirty work to neutralize Sinclair (and others) via payoffs from Axelrod’s firm AKR Media.
That the blogosphere is rife with push payments for editorial campaigns is well known. Major new publishers are dealing with this constantly in an age of downsizing as journalist/bloggers accept ‘pay to play’ or ‘pay to smear’ payments under the table or through their non-profit media consultancy firms when working for legitimate news publishers.
What was Donovan thinking in hiring someone with Braddock’s established skills?
Braddock learned from the best.
Axelrod’s “campaign imaging” company AKPD Media.
http://akpdmedia.com/
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