Edith’s Outrage Reflex

There was something familiar about Edith Prague’s unhappy letter to the editor in Wednesday’s Courant, defending state Senator Toni Harp in response to an August 18th column I wrote about the New Haven Democratic primary for mayor. The holder of a make-work commissionership and former legislator, Prague has dipped into her barrel of bile before when I’ve pointed out Harp’s shortcomings as a guardian of the public trust.

In 2005, I wrote about Harp proposing legislation to give state funds to her employer, a New Haven community health operation. Harp was not pleased to have a light shine on her gambit.

Prague loaded up on Boost, headed for the keyboard, and consulted her tiny thesaurus. “Ashamed,” “drive-by attack.” and “cheap-shot” were the predictable notes of her raggedy aria of outrage.

Unflattering truths about Toni Harp are among Prague’s “slowly-I-turned” trip wires. That’s the old routine from vaudeville that Prague may recall from her youth. You can watch Lucy doing it here.

Events of the day prompt this warning. If employees of The New Haven Register see flying monkeys landing on the roof, they’ll know the Columbia Democrat was not pleased with the paper’s emphatic endorsement of mayoral candidate Henry Fernandez and the editorial’s criticisms of Harp’s preposterous explanations of her family real estate business’s status as the state’s number one delinquent taxpayer.