Just One Thing for August 8th.
You couldn’t blame a voter for being cross-eyed and woozy from paying some attention to the race for the Republican nomination for attorney general. The 2010 edition of Martha Dean is very different from the version that ran for attorney general 8 years ago. She’s made some reckless charges against her opponent, Ross Garber, (he’s not a mob lawyer) since the May convention, so she invited a counterattack.
Garber, who tries to present himself as the serious-minded candidate in the contest, has burst the bounds of credibility with his claims that Dean wants to open some spigots and let heroin and cocaine flow.
If you read just one thing about the race, it should be the Journal Inquirer’s Chris Powell on Garber’s campaign and broader record. The essential point:
Garber well may be as clever a lawyer as Dean but he earned his renown entirely as office counsel for Gov. John G. Rowland in 2004, when Garber strove to contrive excuses for kickbacks, to impede the General Assembly’s impeachment investigation, and generally to prevent the public from learning about its own business. Garber’s work was not a matter of criminal charges, against which everyone is constitutionally entitled to a vigorous defense. Rather, it was a civil and political matter, a matter of open government, with Garber doing his best to defeat open government.
13 comments
I know Kevin & Chris Powell want to refight the Rowland downfall like Southerners reenact Gettysburg; but the one thing voters ought to read is “Martha Dean: In her own words” on RossGarber.com
Is Dean a radical extremist or an incoherent political panderer? You decide
If it is radical to oppose the death penalty and look at drug decriminalization, so be it. Shows how far we’ve come when these classical liberal positions are seen as ‘radical.’
How about advocating civilians own military machine guns? Or prepare to face the government with arms? Maybe this works in Ruby Ridge; not in Ridgefield
Face it –
ABC could take this year’s entire Republican slate and create a TV show and call it “The Biggest Losers.”
{What? On NBC? Really?? OK….}
Actually, forget the whole thing.
I’ve been preaching what Powell is selling on this issue for a while. Had Ross been representing Rowland personally as his criminal counsel, he could not have ethically resigned. But as counsel to the governor’s office, he was free to leave at any time.
For anyone who thinks it would be unprecedented or odd for a legal adviser to an executive to resign his post rather than pursue a particular course of action that they found unethical, consider Watergate’s infamous “Saturday Night Massacre,” in which special prosecutor Archibald Cox was fired for refusing to compromise on a subpoena of the White House and Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General Elliot Ruckelhaus resigned rather than comply with President Nixon’s directives.
Lots of smoke; guilt by association et al. I’ve yet to see anyone explain what specifically Garber did representing the Governor’s office besides make the impeachment committee prove it had a case. Garber then got the rather sensitive post of running the Judicial Review Council. Attorneys of poor ethical reputation do not get named to that post
While running the Judicial Review Council he delivered a slap on the wrist to Judge Curtissa Cofield after she was stopped by cops for Driving Under the Influence and used a racial slur towards a police officer. This is conduct grossly unbecoming a judge. She should have been asked to step down for the manner in which she disgraced her office.
The issue with Garber is not his representation of Rowland— it is his use of corrupt political connections to ascend the political ladder. If that weren’t enough, you have the heavy-handed and unethical manner in which high ranking state party officials conducted themselves in the course of the convention for AG. Last add in the Nixonian campaign tactics employed by Garber and you have a picture of the man that is truly problematic.
Judge Cofield was suspended for the better part of a year. Maybe she should have been fired, but if that’s a “wrist-slap” then maybe Judge Dredd is your model of leniency. Cofield got the longest suspension the JRC ever issued; perhaps they were willing to let the General Assembly decide whether to fire Cofield at reappointment
Once again I ask for a specific act of poor ethics by Garber and receive in response one judgment call and a cacaphony of invective and innuendo. Might I suggest the 1950’s era Republican the Dean camp emulates is Joseph McCarthy?
Once again
Mr. Cheshire,
Well said.
A judgment call? Let’s ask Kevin, he’s a lawyer. Kevin… do you feel you could have continued to represent the office of the governor once Rowland, Ellef and Alibrozek’s abuses became apparent, or would you have resigned or at least refused to fight the General Assembly’s subpoenas?
Ok folks Martha’s husband/ campaign manager trespassed on private property in Canton and beat up a woman exercising her First Amendment right to put up Ross Garber signs. Malcolm McGough is facing criminal charges
So much for the Constitution and the right to private property. We have people who are reckless and out of control who want to be the state’s top law enforcer.
Based on the argument Garber should have quit representing Rowland I suppose you will all call on Martha to withdraw from the AG race
>>”beat up a woman”??
Far cry from what really happened, ie, he raised his voice. Beat up a woman indeed. I guess some people just can’t themselves…
Mr Cheshire, Be very careful with what you say. Breach of peace lowest level. He has a witness that the police interviewed at the scene and who confirmed that no contact was made. Ned