It seems that every time disgraced former Governor John Rowland shows up somewhere, it’s a story.
Mr. Rowland was in Torrington for a Rotary Club function being introduced by Congressman Chris Murphy. Then he was in Bridgeport for a Community Life Seminar. These events have some, including the New York Post, wondering if the former Governor is on the comeback trail.
So is it a comeback or merely a continued fascination with the fall of Icarus?
The evidence at this point heavily seems to support the latter rather than the former.
But it is a curious point. The skills that built John Rowland into what he was, it seems clear from the recent articles, are still there in spades. Many argue that the ego which destroyed him isn’t far under the surface, either.
At the same time, the lingering budget crisis, a departing Governor, and turmoil in a Washington D.C. with too many Democrats evokes shades of 1994. And Nutmeggers could be forgiven for wishing for the Rowland magic of earlier days.
Will Rowland ever come back to elective politics? Hard to imagine it, at this point. He squandered the public trust in a very public way, and that is not easily overlooked. I’ve often wondered why he doesn’t pack up and head west for a new start in a new place. But the question remains interesting nonetheless.
27 responses so far ↓
If this was Louisiana he’d be running now. Edwards made a career of getting arrested for corruption then getting re-elected as the best of many bad alternatives.
Did Rowland face some ban from politics?
One word: Exile.
A curious case of déjà vu:
Ross Garber, the gubernatorial legal counsel who in 2004 represented then-Gov. John G. Rowland in legislative pre-impeachment hearings, now is representing South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford in a lurid impeachment case that exploded in the national news when Sanford disappeared for five days last June to secretly meet his lover in Argentina.
http://www.courant.com/news/breaking/hc-garber-deja-vu-1129.artnov29,0,5723660.column
Heard that Mr. Fedele is making a rare stop in CT to announce for governor on Wednesday. True or false?
Connecticut has been factually documented to be among the most corrupt states in the country.The political felon list encompasses both parties.Only here can a ex felon Governor receive any legitimacy with a blog post questioning whether Rowland will run for something or not.It appears that the moral and ethical compass of the political elite…elected officials…and yes even bloggers would continue to be be askew if Rowland gets a pass or if there are posts favoring a run for something after being judged a felon.
Part of the problem is that certain folks in both parties see no problem in relaxed ethics and morals….all they want to do is have their candidate WIN….at a cost of our political soul…
He can win if he changes his party affiliation to Democrat. That way the press would focus on his great comback rather than his past ethical issues.
Pufnstuf…your attempt to imply that my party is friendlier to criminal felons and moral and ethical lapses is disgusting.When you state that ” he can win if he changes his party affiliation to Democrat” is a disgusting attempt to smear the Democratic Party, when you should realize that both parties have nothing to be proud of in the ethical,moral and criminal area.It is post’s like yours that give me pause whether we in connecticut can ever hope to understand that both parties are culpable and whether or not we can even begin to clean up both parties.
Bruce, why don’t you read my comments again. I believe my hit was directed at the media.
>>your attempt to imply that my party is friendlier to criminal felons and moral and ethical lapses is disgusting…
Hey, Crisco and Perez are your guys not ours; so is federal inmate 16316-014 known better as `Lincoln was a Democrat’ Ernest Newton.
If “friendlier” is defined as a kiss on the cheek, your party treats most of these dolts at least more like a tongue half way down the throat.
The fact is, thanks in part to a constantly friendly press, Democrats just don’t get treated as badly by their allies who buy ink by the barrel.
Take Kennedy Driving Award winner James O’Rourke for example.
By the time the press got done shoving the killing under the rug, thanks to some of the most creative writing in decades; O`Rourke was being made out to be some sort of victim himself.
Besides, no one’s smearing your party; your own members show far greater promise in that arena themselves than most of ours do.
How many pro-labor Democrats do you know driving non-union cars?
How many pro-gun control Democrats do you know with carry permits?
Face it, the hypocrisy is over-whelming.
He was smearing the press for being so “understanding” when a Democrat gets caught being an idiot.
No question we have our own morons, but ours seem to wind up off the field lots faster than yours.
Further, while I tend to avoid those that attack our own, plenty of ours did in fact attack Rowland.
I don’t recall any Democrats going after Crisco, and considering he admitted to forgery the least they could do is treat him half as well as they did Johnny.
It will take more than a notice on a blog site to re-valuate Rowland, which is not to say that he is irredeemable. The late Sen. Edward Kennedy drowned a girl without suffering fatal political ramifications. If we apply Rowland’s corruption to that standard, the former governor falls far short of the mark. Rowland probably should not be permitted — by public watchdogs; member of the media, etc. — to run again for political office, even though there may be no legal bar to his running. Bruce is probably better informed on this than the rest of us. Is there a provision in Connecticut law that does not permit convicted felons from running for office?
All that said, there is no reason why a remorseful Rowland should not be able to contribute to the betterment of his state in some appropriate manner.
Bruce – I take issue with your comment. I noted the uptick in press activity around the former Governor and posited an answer to whether the moves represent a comeback attempt. I hardly think any article with phrases like “squandering the public trust” could be construed as a positive for Mr. Rowland.
In any fair calculation, we should not forget William DiBella. He did the same thing, at the same time and with the same persons as former Republican candidate for state Treasurer Ben Andrews, who has been cooling his heels in the clinker for awhile. DiBella ought to have been called on the carpet by Andrew’s prosecutors long ago.
DiBella is in trouble with the SEC. Lender and Mahoney had it last week.
When talking Dems, we oughtn’t forget Gaffey, either, and the major ramifications he never suffered.
As for political perps running again, Billy Rado served six non-consecutive terms in the Naugatuck mayor’s office, interrupted by stints in prison. People still love him in the Valley.
>>People still love him in the Valley.
They’d elect him again even now except he’s dead.
The only question that matters is if Rowland’s the best option we have.
I think he’d win.
Rowland’s administration proposed some innovative stuff like outsourcing DOIT. In the 2002 recession he basically took a knife to the budgets when met with agency heads that could not think of any possible way to reform their agencies and deliver services more efficiently.
Someone has to confront the unions and their slotted lifetime jobs and all too static job descriptions that create perpetually inefficient structures. I’m pro-union BTW. I’m not in favor of entrenched union bureaucracies .
Anyone that knows state accounting for grants and legislative initiatives and the CORE system of accounting knows the other half of the internal agency problems. Accounting buckets become micro-managers.
Find me someone that will talk about those types of item seriously and Rowland will fall of the list. Until then the party system is much like the mafia. Which party capo will get the job based on closed primaries and realignments like the recent GOP musical chairs? The richest one or the one with name recognition and in all cases the one that appeases SEBAC.
ACR I like you personally but stop being a Republican shill and admit that both parties here in Ct have bad apples, probably fairly equally.Each party operative cries that the other parties felons gets better treatment, when in fact we do have a problem here in Connecticut,among the political elite.
Don…I do think that Rowland could best make a contribution in some other manner then elected office….
PufnStuff…ok…i get your point….
Goatboy…this attitude of yours in which you praise Rowland as winnable and his administration is percisely why we have a problem among both parties with crime and lack of morality and ethics.Accepting a felon back into elected office…of EITHER party… is just wrong…no matter what party…..
Bruce -
>>…stop being a Republican shill and admit that both parties here in Ct have bad apples
What part of this doesn’t admit that?
No question we have our own morons, but ours seem to wind up off the field lots faster than yours.
However – of you could please direct me to a quote where a Democrat has even admitted that Crisco has a problem I’d be delighted.
Well Bruce, the problem follows another line of reasoning too.
Is the union worker that just sits there and is still pushing paper, never learning to use a computer or trying to automate their jobs, never looking for ways to measure and improve productivity and outcomes, are they and their brother and sister solitary players in the State House all that much more moral?
I simply don’t buy the “state government is better because it’s not Rowland” logic. Show me better state government first. Until then the crook is our gold standard.
This is exactly why we need more outsiders/business people to run for public office. and why anyone being in one office for more than a decade or so is usually not a good thing. Retreads and career politicans are too suseptable to corruption. Almost anyone can become corrupt if they are tempted long enough.
ACR…Ive said that he has a problem……and I say it again…..and the fact is….both parties have an equal number of “crisco’s…
Goatboy….the union person isnt a crook….Rowland was…as was Giordano…and as was some on my party also….therein is the difference.
Roger….you might have a point there….the criminals of both parties seem to have been in office awhile.I suppose they must be in office awhile where they learn how to be a criminal.
>>…and the fact is….both parties have an equal number of “crisco’s…
But Bruce, our’s are gone and usually quickly too.
Crisco’s still there without even any pending action whatsoever.
There’s no excuse.
>>Rowland was…as was Giordano…
Such a remark is beneath you Bruce.
Please – there’s no comparison there at all & you know it.
Come off it with the cheap shots, you’re not some uneducated schmuck and you know better.
Giordano is a sick sick sick man who should never be allowed to roam free again.
Further, his party affiliation had nothing to do with the fact that the guy is one sick puppy.
Rowland went on plane rides with lobbyists and wound up in jail for it.
Go figure; we both know that congress-critters rarely miss a chance to hop down to Barbados “with friends” for a quick weekend on their pals jet.
Those that don’t are probably the anomaly; and I’m not so sure either of us wouldn’t appreciate a couple of days in paradise (and away from the American Press) in the middle of the winter too.
I would concur that it would depend on who’s jet; and for any CT based members, whose engines power that particular jet. (IE they better be P&W)
ACR i meant no cheap shot but merely to point out that criminals and scoundrals aboud,probably very equally, in both parties…..and yes I am sure my party has its own Giordano’s…..one thinks of the dem state rep who didled his step son…
If your criminals go quicker..I dont know why…that might be a blessing though given the media scrutiny that lurid headlines bring.
>>media scrutiny
????
Give me a break.
Crisco never made the front page even after admitting forgery.
O`Rourke makes like he was somehow victimized himself.
Ken,
DiBella is in trouble with the SEC. Lender and Mahoney had it last week.
I know. And better late than never. But that does not dispose of my point. Why wasn’t he prosecuted along with Andrews? He made the same deal with the singing canary of the Rowland regime that Andrews did. The same people were involved.
It’s a fact that Dems are routinely given second chances, GOPers not so much. Eliot Spitzer spent state $ on a hooker, and he’s already lecturing at Harvard ON ETHICS (!!!) and contemplating a run for NY AG again.
Meanwhile, Rowland took some free kitchen cabinets from a cheap hood and he’s supposed to live in exile for the rest of his days. (And I’m not excusing his actions — I was an early GOPer calling for him to resign, when everyone assured me he’d never go.)
The money Spitzer used were his own private funds, not from the state. Spitzer got on the FBI’s radar through the IRS by transferring large amounts from his accounts to some really shady offshore operations. They initially thought he was being blackmailed the amounts were so large, with possible corruption involved. That turned out not to be the case. I don’t think any criminal charges were ever laid against Spitzer himself.
Ive said my piece and tried to be objective about corruption.Where a politician is charged…no matter what party…justice should be swift,sure and balanced with no favoritism because of party affliation or political connections.
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