The Courant reports this morning that Jodi Rell’s chief of staff and BFF Lisa Moody was responsible for passing along the list of arts and tourism leaders from the governor’s office to the campaign.
“The campaign received this list through Lisa Moody. The lists were provided on a computer disc. … I believe all of the individuals on the list were mailed a letter,” Kevin M. Deneen, the lawyer from Windsor who managed Rell’s successful election effort last year, wrote in a letter faxed Wednesday to two Democratic state legislative leaders who had asked questions about the campaign solicitations.
[…]
Rell press secretary Christopher Cooper said Wednesday night that Moody and other staffers did nothing wrong. “The governor has reviewed this matter with appropriate staff, including legal counsel, and has answered the questions posed by [the Democratic leaders]. Again, we reaffirm that this was and is, a public list used for official purposes and thus available to all members of the public.” (Lender)
Okay. So why didn’t they say that in the first place? That very much seems like an explanation created far after the fact. Also, the list was gathered by the governor’s office during working hours, and then passed to the campaign by Moody. Tell me that isn’t improper, at the very least.
No, there’s too much of a pattern here. Lisa Moody stretches the limits of her power. Sometimes she crosses the line. Sometimes she stays just this side of it. Either way, she makes the governor’s office look shady.
One thing Moody does is act as a firewall between Rell and scandal–and in that she has been very effective. Rell remains untouched by the various ethics scandals in her administration, because Moody soaks up all the blame. Everything is fine as long as Lisa looks bad and Jodi looks good. That means that even if there’s something to these allegations, and it looks like there is, all that will happen to Moody is that she won’t get a Happy Meal tonight (and maybe tomorrow).
Is it even worth calling for her to be fired anymore? Probably not, although she really should be. I would like to see what kind of governor Jodi Rell can be without Lisa Moody constantly hovering nearby. I probably won’t ever know.
Source
Lender, Jon. “Moody’s Doorstep.” Hartford Courant 3 May, 2007.
24 responses so far ↓
1 ctkeith // May 3, 2007 at 9:38 am ·
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GC,
You endorsed and voted for Rell knowing EXACTLY this was the case and what you were getting. Did you expect anything different? If so,WHY?
2 Genghis Conn // May 3, 2007 at 10:18 am ·
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Keith,
I voted for her for a lot of reasons. She promised fiscal discipline (a reason I am less fond of her now), and I approved of her actions on campaign finance reform and ethics.
Also, I couldn’t picture John DeStefano as governor. His numbers didn’t add up. Sorry. If Dan Malloy had been the nominee, it would have been a different story. But he wasn’t.
3 theeble // May 3, 2007 at 10:19 am ·
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BFF. hah. funny.
4 potusmike6453 // May 3, 2007 at 10:25 am ·
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Moody should be fired, plain and simple.
5 ken krayeske // May 3, 2007 at 10:27 am ·
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Yeah, I’m pretty much on board with what Keith said.
And that applies to other 600,000 people who voted for Rell and now are sitting there wondering why and what for.
We have known about this all along. I keep saying to myself “They did all this stuff to hold onto power, but they’re not doing anything with their power that’s obvious or apparent.” So I wonder why they want to stay there so desperately? Don’t know what else to do? Finishing college doesn’t pack the same thrill of Machiavellian operations? Grandmothering just lacks the kick of suppressing civil rights?
What are we going to learn in a few years? What is waiting to be discovered? Are there more I-84s? Mustangs in the garage? Custom built pine cabinets for the lake house?
When we stand in the middle of the road in front of an oncoming Mack truck, it’s disingenuous to say, “But I didn’t see it” after we’ve been smooshed like bugs.
6 ken krayeske // May 3, 2007 at 10:32 am ·
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Genghis -
Ethics?
How do we equate what Rell does with ethics?
I’ve already mentioned the Mustang in the garage? The Marco Polo fundraiser? A long time ago I made a list on this board, and this just adds to it.
Spare us the “but she seemed like such a nice woman.”
The problems have been apparent. How do we deal with them in a way that is reasonable, when the illusion of electoral democracy has failed to produce legitimate executive leadership that can deal with the tremendous problems facing our state?
Peace,
KK
7 toucan // May 3, 2007 at 10:34 am ·
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The Rell team have spun it well with the rationaliztion that “the list is public”, which nobody has ever denied. This is a non-issue for the CT populace just as the I-84 drain debacle is a non-issue. The bottom line remains that Rell, Amman and Williams are together on raising taxes and all of them including Cafero and his gang are together on maintaining the status quo in CT as long as they get to tweak to their core constuencies.
8 Genghis Conn // May 3, 2007 at 10:34 am ·
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Rell was the best of the candidates who were presented, and the only one advocating fiscal discipline. I stand by my vote.
9 ken krayeske // May 3, 2007 at 10:56 am ·
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The problem lies with the system that promotes lousy candidates.
10 theeble // May 3, 2007 at 11:14 am ·
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How is the 84 debacle a non-issue? It’s wasting a TON of taxpayers’ money!
11 toucan // May 3, 2007 at 11:18 am ·
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Every single department in the state of CT wastes a ton of taxpayer money every year and every two years those who oversee that waste get re-elected with the help of the complicit media. The I-84 drains should be an issue, the outrageous state employee benefits that are enjoyed by unions and political appointees alike should be an issue and many other things should be issues BUT they never are when election time rolls around.
12 toucan // May 3, 2007 at 11:21 am ·
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Need I point out that even Cafero and his gang want to either maintain or increase spending across the board - they just don’t propose increasing taxes to pay for it becasue they spin the surplus that is nothing but an illusion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13 Jack Dobb // May 3, 2007 at 12:17 pm ·
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Explain how the surplus is nothing but an illusion. Then try and explain why we need a 10% budget increased, balanced on the backs of 1% of our population.
Also, we’ve already recovered 75% of the costs of the I-84 repairs from the surety on the project and we are going after the bad guys for the other 25%. This could end up not costing taxpayers a dime.
14 Al // May 3, 2007 at 12:31 pm ·
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Ken,
I do agree with your post # 9…. Clearly there is something wrong with this system because you would think in general, we could get far better candidates than we do.
This is one reason I strongly wish we had term limits. I do think the difficulty in unseating an incumbent in the General Assembly while certainly not impossible, is very hard for any political new comer to do. Governors at least do come and go more frequently.
Toucan,
IMO your post # 11 is right on. I agree with every word you wrote.
I just cannot understand how so many of us can just totally ignore what goes on around us as if it has no impact on our lives. I’m already dreading the thought of another election cycle with the same people telling us all the good they are going to do us as if we can get everything for nothing, and so many of us just saying…..sounds good to me!!!! Just as long as someone else pays…. Of course in the end the cost of this appathy to us all is staggering.
15 toucan // May 3, 2007 at 12:53 pm ·
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OH Jack, I didn’t say anything about a tax increase - Rell’s or the Dems - as you tried to spin my posts - try reading #11 again.
As for the I-84 debacle, the bottom line issue - if only it were an issue - is that it never should have happened in the first place if Rell had competent bosses in place instead of an old Rowland hack (Korta) and now her own hack (Carpenter) as the Commish - you can only blame the unions and the contractors so far unless you don’t beleive that old one about the buck stopping somewhere at the top. And on the bucks issue, you’ll never fully recover the costs becasue it costs time and money just to recover them that can’t be collected.
And the current surplus is an illussion as others have pointed out becasue 1) the state doesn’t use GAAP - Rell, Nappier and Wyman can’t even agree on what the surplus is and 2) the state ain’t paying it’s long term bills like teachers’ pension funding and not to mention 3) CT has Keynsian debt levels.
16 toucan // May 3, 2007 at 12:59 pm ·
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Oh Jack, there’s also a concept of discounted cash flow (compound interest) that you are forgetting about in your rosey cost recovery scenario.
17 toucan // May 3, 2007 at 1:03 pm ·
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Whoooops, and I forgot that no decent contractor is willing to bid on DOT work these days and there hasn’t been any for a very long time - does the Q Bridge ring a bell? Maguire had long time ties to Tomasso and DeFelice was just another reinvention of the same characters that consistently screw the state.
18 Tim White // May 3, 2007 at 1:25 pm ·
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Someone told me that the state is six mos behind in paying vendors. And that was one of several factors why the DOT isn’t getting anyone for the Q bridge.
Is that true? I really don’t know, so wanted to ask.
19 toucan // May 3, 2007 at 2:12 pm ·
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Don’t know about that Tim but delaying paying vendors would certainly prop up the so-called surplus and the sorry cash flow situation that often has to be bailed out with the selling of short and even long term bonds. What I do know on the Q-Bridge issue is:
1) reputable highway builders - and they are nationwide for such a job - don’t want to deal with ConnDOT becasue they know whatever happens they’ll get the finger so they consistently take a pass
2) the bid docs were realy bad and, for example, didn’t allow for escalator casues for things like petroleum based asphalt so the contractor was supposed to buy petoleum futures or something
3) the contractors DOT hires are just reincarnations of the smae old people they’ve used for twenty years that go belly up and then reorg, etc.
20 RedFive // May 3, 2007 at 3:01 pm ·
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Somehow - and maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think so - somehow I just don’t think there’s all that many people sitting around this afternoon wishing they had voted for Cliff Thornton after all.
21 Tim White // May 3, 2007 at 4:19 pm ·
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“delaying paying vendors would certainly prop up the so-called surplus”
may make for an interesting news story if any of the newspapers look into it. again though, I don’t know if it is true.
22 Al // May 3, 2007 at 5:11 pm ·
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Tim, Jack
Your post #18 and Jack your post #12…..This is why we must require the state to use GAAP acounting methods…. The surplus you hear about is smoke and mirrors…We are not paying all our bills… The teachers finally caught on… But the state workers pension’s are in worse shape than the teacher’s pension fund is, and the retiree health care benefits fund, is billions (about 21 billion) worse. Far more than both those put together.
Ask yourselves a simple question…. Why would both Democrats and a Republican Governor be looking to increase our taxes if we really had a surplus?……Well I guess we do, just as long as we don’t pay all our bills, and expect our kids will do, that job for us.
23 thesea // May 3, 2007 at 7:50 pm ·
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Back to the topic at hand — Rell’s ethics. She ran on it and was elected on it. When she took over from Rowland the creation of an “ethics’ czar” was her executive order number one. But ethics czarina Rachel Rubin and Rell’s legal counsel Kevin Rasch are long, long gone.
Now — according to Lender’s story — Rell is relying on the legal/ethical advice of Anna Ficeto re: this arts and culture extortion list. Anna was in DAS when Linda Yelmini leaned on her for a contribution to Rell’s Marco Polo fund raiser. Anna duly contributed. Then Anna was moved from DAS to be — hold on to your chairs — Lisa Moody’s assistant in the governor’s office. Then Anna was promoted to Rachel/Rasch’s old job, now rolled into one, because who needs outsiders messing up your campaign operation running out of the governor’s office? Better to go with those who have shown their fidelity and can be controlled, rather than those with true moral character, like Rachel and Kevin.
Phony from the word go. Lender proves it time and time again. The people of CT have been entirely hoodwinked on ethics and money matters by grandma Rell. I know the Lt Gov. is posting on another thread here — maybe he’ll take some time to wander around and learn that not everyone is fooled by the Mary Jodi’s and Mary Lisa’s of the world. Count me out of the 74 percent approval rating — I’ve got a brain.
24 TrueBlueCT // May 3, 2007 at 8:05 pm ·
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RedFive–
I hate your guts, but comment #20 gets my vote for Best Snark of the Week!
(oh yeah, I do happen to love KK, honest I do….)
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