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When Nancy Sinatra bailed on a special sponsored by Plymouth, Petula Clark, who turns 90 on Tuesday, stepped in and headlined her first American television special in 1968. Clark co-wrote ”On the Path of Glory” and sang it with her sole guest star, Harry Belafonte.

Clark putting her hand on Belafonte’s left arm during their performance caused an uproar with Plymouth executives. Clark, her husband and director Steven Binder had the previous takes of the number erased so only this one was available for broadcast.

Binder tells the tale of what became an international story below in an interview with Archive of American Television. It’s 9 minutes and 50 seconds, a brush stroke of life 54 years years ago.

Published November 13, 2022.

A reliable Daily Ructions source reports receiving an unusual robocall Friday night. It claimed to be from Ed Rollins, the 1984 Ronald Reagan campaign manager who has been dining out on that victory for 38 years.

Rollins, no one will be surprised to read, was looking for some of the green stuff that folds. The pitch? He has not lost his touch. Rollins tells the mark the only way to keep MAGA alive is to support Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with a contribution.

DeSantis won a landslide re-election victory Tuesday. Growing talk of a 2024 presidential bid has inflamed the angry grievances of Donald Trump and inspired fundraising for money that will likely land nowhere near Trump or DeSantis.

Published November 12, 2022.

It started with a post-election declaration on Twitter by Whitney Mooney. She was the campaign manager for Democrat Rebecca Hyland, who lost her bid to oust incumbent Republican state Representative Craig Fishbein in the 90th House District (Middlefield and part of Wallingford).

Mooney deleted the tweet, but not before Fishbein (a white Republican man) expressed his dismay at the vulgar race and gender based assault. Mooney responded that she did not mention Fishbein when she posted her complaint, though he’d beaten her candidate the night before by a 10-point margin.

Fishbein retweeted a racist meme in 2020. An uproar ensued. Fishbein apologized and as a member of the Wallingford Town Council, voted to censure himself. Two years later, the Wallingford Republican is more sensitive about racially charged social media post than he was when his nearly took him out of office. His sensibilities have changed but his response to Mooney’s ugly tweet suggest Fishbein may want to learn a little about mixing one’s hashtags.

Published November 11, 2022.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski conceded to incumbent Democrat Ned Lamont Wednesday morning. Stefanowski fell 140,000 votes behind Lamont in unofficial returns. Stefanowski’s concession claimed “the outcome was not in our control.”

“We may not have won, but we changed the course of Connecticut by advocating for the people,” Stefanowski wrote. How losing by three times more than four years before changed the state’s course will require the fullness of time to confirm.

Stefanowski returns to Madison, where Lamont defeated him by 16% of the voter, after spending $12 million his second campaign. His following among Republican activists may be considerably diminished as they contemplate the wreckage.

Published November 9, 2022.

The far left is in full foaming-at-the-mouth stage in Old Saybrook. Extremist declarations on both the left and the right can seem inscrutable to the crowded center. These (posted above) are direct in their poisonous intent.

Old Saybrook Democrat Amy Elliott announced on Facebook that the rise of anti-semitism and “the general vibe of a pre-fascist state” make “voting for Martha and Colin is the only prudent and virtuous choice.” Martha is Martha Marx, a Democrat making her third bid for the state Senate in the 20th District. Colin is Colin Heffernan, Democratic nominee seeking to oust Republican state Representative Devin Carney in the 23rd Assembly District.

Laura Parker Gray, another Old Saybrook Democrat, added some touches that have often attracted fascists: scorn for religious affiliations. “Carney is a conservative Catholic,” she wrote. Carney is not a Catholic but he does know all about anti-semitism. His mother is Jewish. “He also has no women in his life.” Laura Parker Gray is a clumsy but ambitious striver in the wide world of smears. Keep an eye on her. She’ll soon accuse Carney of being related to a thespian–and this time she’ll be right.

The posts have been deleted but their intent lingers. Maybe the political weather that extremists have created is too frightening for candidates in the center–or pretending to occupy some space in the middle ground–to condemn malevolent militants. If more ground is not to be ceded, this would be a telling moment to repudiate them.

Published November 4, 2022.

Nobody has ever done it in the 5th District like two-term incumbent Jahana Hayes. The Democrat facing some national headwinds is in a tight race with Republican George Logan. Hayes told supporters last weekend that trailing in polls is an advantage, though her tone betrayed a different emotion. ”Listen up, Democrats, you ain’t never been through nothing? The polls have me down right now and that is probably the best news we could have gotten 10 days out….”

Hayes, emphasizing her well-rehearsed life story, declared to volunteers that the district finally has someone who does the job right–her. ”I have worked every day to be the representative I needed someone to be for me for 40 years.” All who came before were wanting. The video is included in a post from enthusiastic Hayes supporter Alfonso Robinson.

Hayes, a former school teacher, did not include an exemption for her initial political patron, Senator Chris Murphy, who represented the 5th for six years, from her condemnation of inadequacy. Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz nods and applauds. She would, wouldn’t she? It was Bysiewicz who in her losing 2012 Senate primary campaign against Murphy engaged in ugly low murmurs against Murphy that left deep scars.

Connecticut Democrats, who dominate every level of politics in the state, are unnerved by the rare high-stakes competitive race. The erosion of their traditional fundraising advantage adds to their anxiety and resentment. In her campaign trial, Hayes often be startled to learn that many Democrats do not sufficiently share her alarm at the prospect of 5th CD voters not giving her a third term. Some are perplexed at why Hayes has not buttoned down her district in the last four years after such a promising start. Others are not.

Published November 3, 2022.

Jack Fazzino is a candidate for state representative in a central Connecticut district. He has knocked on many doors, as eager young candidates who want to win do. Fazzino, a Democrat, made a new friend, a Republican, while hitting the pavement. He tells the story best in a piece he wrote for the Record-Journal.

Civilians may not understand the sustained pleasure that comes from months of knocking on doors of voters who are, for the most part, happy to spare a few moments. Fazzino writes a memorable 600 words. It has the advantage of sounding true.

He has a future.

Published November 1, 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared Friday that his nation’s war against genocidal Reassign invaders “will end soon.” Zelensky, wearing a shirt with a motto for the ages, “Fight Like Ukrainians,” made the announcement during a remote appearance at a forum sponsored by the Yale School of Management. Freedom’s staunchest friend was joined (also remotely) by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) before an audience of 350 students.

Blumenthal and Graham agreed they expect Congress to approve a major aid bill for Ukraine before the end of the year. Blumenthal is urging the Biden administration to double the air defense weapons the United States is providing Ukraine. Graham paid tribute to Blumenthal’s resolute support for Ukraine in its dark hour. “I want the people of Connecticut to know,” Graham said, “no one has been stronger and more consistent in supporting Ukrainians than Senator Blumenthal.”

Graham told the audience and Zelensky, “We cannot forgive or forget” Russia’s war crimes and the genocide it continues to inflict on democratic Ukraine.

Both senators were confident Congress will act to provide more support for Ukraine, which in the ninth month of the Russian invasion has inflicted a series of dramatic defeats on Russian forces. Zelensky attributed some of his army’s success on the flexibility given to its commanders. “Our field commanders are completely free to make their own decisions,” Zelensky explained. Russian commanders are not, and live in fear of orders from above.

The forum included Yale President Peter Salovey, Yale’s Levin Professor of History Timothy Snyder, and the event’s compere Yale School of Management Senior Associate Dean Jeffrey Sonnenfeld.

Published October 28, 2022.

Poor Bob Stefanowski. He can’t help it. He’s been busy working the Saudis for $36 million and paying little attention to seismic changes in the American political landscape. The Madison Republican dropped a clanger Thursday when he announced during an interview that he supports a woman’s access to abortion in the first trimester. That is a new stand on abortion rights from Stefanowski 12 days before Election Day and five years since he first began running for governor.

Stefanowski appeared not to have understood the magnitude of his blunder until Friday morning or needed more than 12 hours of head scratching to compose a risible explanation. Try to imagine how many versions of hummima-hummina-hummina he produced until he settled on his preposterous statement.

Stefanowski said he misspoke. He will support no changes in Connecticut’s long-settled abortion law. It is possible that Stefanowski believes that is Connecticut law and he was endorsing it in different language than he has previously used. Or the former payday executive has never been fluent in the law of the reproductive rights in Connecticut.

The second-time Republican nominee for governor made his explanation worse by trying to turn ignorance into a virtue. Stefanowski used the statement to highlight his considerable self-regard by declaring himself virtuous because he admits an “innocent mistake,” unlike, he writes, Governor Ned Lamont. Now Stefanowski would now like to move on, as would anyone who has blown a hole below the waterline of his self-financed $10 million campaign. But Stefanowski could not leave it at that.

Robert of Arabia used the conclusion of his statement to repudiate the tone he struck a few paragraphs before. Stefanowski blames Democrat Lamont for the attention paid to the former loan shark’s confusion on the state of reproductive law. Stefanowski says the abortion fiasco is a diversion from Lamont’s support the police accountability bill that the Republican has been highlighting in the frantic final days of the campaign. Just don’t ask him to explain it.

Published October 28, 2022.

CONECT is an organization comprised of “churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and civic organizations from New Haven and Fairfield Counties – representing more than 30,000 people from different races, faith backgrounds, and living in both cities and suburbs – that have joined together to take action on social and economic justice issues of common concern.” It held a candidate forum in Bridgeport Sunday afternoon.

CONECT had one requirement for attendance in person: please wear a mask.

It’s not a lot to ask.

Published October 24, 2022.