"On
another occasion, a sober Rowland
adviser was deputized to warn another
Republican she ought to start wearing
underwear beneath her short skirts when
she was around the governor. Mrs.
Rowland was said to be especially
insistent that the message be delivered."
"Connecticut's political world is tiny
and given to ennui. Witness the fact
that the U.S. Attorney, Kevin O'Connor,
was barred from participating in the
prosecution of the Rowland scandals
because of his and his wife's close ties
to the former governor. Kathleen
O'Connor worked in the office of
Rowland's legal counsel. In most places,
that would raise an alarm. Connecticut
only shrugs."
My late father did not often talk
about his experiences fighting his
way across northern Europe in World
War II. When he did, however, he
would delight in talking about
arriving in German towns shortly
after the retreat of the Nazi
forces. The locals, busily clearing
away the rubble, would deny ever
knowing any Nazis.
When Richard Nixon resigned the
presidency in 1974, polls showed
that most Americans denied being
among the 60 percent of the voters
who had given him a landslide
victory only two years before.
When it all goes pear shaped, we
suddenly need to stare at our shoes
and shrug.
So the resolution of the bribery
case of Peter Ellef, his son, and
William Tomasso on the eve of their
trial comes as a particular
disappointment. It would have
offered daily opportunities to ask
those still in state government what
they knew as disaster danced through
the state Capitol.
Everyone in the Rell administration
wants to forget that they served
under federal prisoner John Rowland
for a decade. A trial would have
required them to explain what they
were doing during those years as the
demimonde seized our government.
Now, at the least, the public - not
just the judge - deserves a
definitive pre-sentencing report
from prosecutors when punishment is
weighed.
The tale of former Department of
Children and Families Commissioner
Kristine Ragaglia would have offered
the most vivid evidence of the low
state of the Rowland years. An
ambitious woman eager to get ahead,
Ragaglia made her socializing and
her public duties into a potent
cocktail. While ostensibly working
on the best interests of the state's
most troubled children, Ragaglia
ceded her judgment to Ellef, Tomasso
and Deputy Chief of Staff Lawrence
Alibozek.
"Keep a diary in your youth, and it
will keep you later," advised Mae
West. Hapless Ragaglia kept her own
secret account of her adventures in
state government. The trial would
have laid it bare.
The public would have been shocked,
but not the denizens of the Capitol
in the years when Ragaglia was
trying to become the next big thing
in Republican circles. Anyone around
the governor's office in those years
knew that Ragaglia was out of
control and that Ellef and Tomasso
were far closer to each other than a
powerful public official and a state
contractor should be.
Ellef's crude and obnoxious behavior
at public events and private social
affairs was well known to political
habitués. As the years went on,
Rowland's inner circle became
reckless in many ways. It was an
administration in which one close
aide was fished out of the gutter
outside a very public place not far
from the Capitol late one night. On another occasion, a sober Rowland
adviser was deputized to warn
another Republican she ought to
start wearing underwear beneath her
short skirts when she was around the
governor. Mrs. Rowland was said to
be especially insistent that the
message be delivered.
Paychecks, pensions and proximity to
power kept everyone from speaking
out. And Rowland was no fan of
dissenting voices. Still, there was
one person who worked in the
administration at the Capitol whom
he could not fire: Jodi Rell.
There's no reason to think that Rell
knew about the hot tub given to
Rowland by his cronies, improvements
at the Rowland cottage made for free
by a state contractor, junkets to
Florida and Las Vegas or the
diversions there. But she should
have observed the stunning rise of
lowbrows around Rowland. She must
have seen some of the unusual,
worrisome relationships. And in
early 2003, she certainly read
revelations about the abuse of
power. Was she not at all concerned
about the state of public affairs?
Connecticut's political world is
tiny and given to ennui. Witness
the fact that the U.S. Attorney,
Kevin O'Connor, was barred from
participating in the prosecution of
the Rowland scandals because of his
and his wife's close ties to the
former governor. Kathleen O'Connor
worked in the office of Rowland's
legal counsel. In most places, that
would raise an alarm. Connecticut
only shrugs.
As she begins her campaign for a
term of her own, Rell needs to
explain her silence. She ought to
tell us what she's learned about the
dangerous intersection of knowledge
and loyalty. Was she hopelessly
unobservant or did she choose to
look away at crucial times? She said
in her announcement speech that
she's always possessed the
attributes the public hails her for,
it's just they never had a chance to
see them. A campaign demands more
than the plateful of Pablum with a
side order of self-congratulation
sprinkled with tears that she served
in her formal announcement.
She didn't fire many Rowland
courtiers who were silent as the
public trust was desecrated. She
refused to cooperate with federal
investigators when they asked for a
limited waiver of the
attorney-client privilege as they
closed in on Rowland. She's done
nothing to remove Republican
National Committeewoman Jo McKenzie
from her position, though free
maintenance work done for McKenzie
by the Tomassos at her former
residence in Madison was going to be
revealed in the Ellef trial.
Worse, Rell is bringing back some
Rowland defenders for her own
campaign. The New York Times
reported Rowland legal counsel Ross
Garber will be advising her
campaign. Garber went beyond his
duty of defending Rowland when he
denigrated and delayed the
legislature's impeachment inquiry
into the governor's conduct. His
revival is a smack to the
responsible Republican legislators
who, unlike Rell, took on Rowland.
She's also revived the political
fortunes of former Republican State
Chairman Herb Shepardson, who sided
with Rowland over the interests of
the party and the state during the
scandal. Shepardson did nothing to
separate the party from its doomed
leader.
We've been denied a fascinating
trial that would have illuminated
the darkness that persists. Before
the campaign becomes a series of
short commercials and managed
appearances, Rell should explain why
her voice was stilled for so long.
She should tell us what she's
learned, why it won't happen again
and if she regrets her silence in
the hours of crisis. That ought to
make for a good story, too.