Lowell Weicker Expounds
Photo by Steve Kotchko
Posted 6/21/10
Political reporters love Lowell Weicker because the man always has been a quote machine. The 79-year old former governor and U.S. Senator carefully burnished his image over the decades as an outspoken “maverick” uninterested in political etiquette or conventional wisdom. Weicker is still at it, as he proved in an address at the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) annual meeting in Cromwell last week.
Weicker was asked to offer recommendations on how he would handle Connecticut’s continuing budget crisis, and in the process he dished out samples of his legendary skewering of elected officials, and just about everyone else, including the voting public.
Republican Gov. Jodi Rell has racked up high numbers in the polls over the years, but Weicker views her as “disinterested” in the issues of the day. “She’s very popular, but maybe it is because she didn’t do much,” said Weicker. “A governor should be an activist,” he said. “I look at those crises that came along where she could have exercised leadership—and I think she ducked.”
If there were any Democratic state lawmakers in the audience snickering at that put-down of Rell, they weren’t smiling by the time the speech was over. Weicker accused Democratic legislators who control the General Assembly of being “sauced up on spending and borrowing.” He said: “The time has come for them to understand their responsibilities. It doesn’t show when it comes to the voting. That tells you what you did—and it’s a bad report card.”
Weicker also chastised the citizenry for allowing state elected officials to nibble and scratch at Connecticut’s budget problems instead of taking bold action to end them. “Us, the people of the state of Connecticut, have sat on the sidelines sopping up all the good (state spending) and not saying ‘no’,” he charged.
The former governor said the next legislature and governor are in for a difficult time in 2011 coping with structural deficits that some claim could reach multi-billion dollar levels. “It’s going to be a very cold shower for a very drunk state,” said Weicker. “You know it and I know it, and we can’t fake it anymore.”
While he blasted Democrats and Republican (and the public) for inaction on the budget, Weicker’s own recommendations for erasing the deficit don’t exactly amount to radical new ideas. “Cut spending, and I mean big time,” said the former governor. When asked for specifics, Weicker did not have any to offer. He also advocates an end to the state’s penchant for borrowing. “We’ve got to stop bonding, and I mean just about bring it to an end,” said Weicker, adding: “We’ve reached our limit, we’re way past it, and we have to be on pay-as-you-go, whatever that entails.”
Despite that fiscally conservative advice, Weicker also told mayors and selectmen he thinks it’s time for a major shift in education financing. “I think K (kindergarten) through (grade) 12 education should be paid for by the state of Connecticut,” he said. Weicker claimed that would equalize the quality of education around the state, and take the funding burden off municipalities. He did not offer a detailed proposal for making the funding shift.
However, Weicker hinted he believes the “land of steady habits” with its 169 distinct towns must embrace regional cooperation and regional spending in the future. “I understand we’re very proud of local autonomy but times have changed, and we can’t keep up our pride while the whole fiscal ship of state goes down the drain.”
It was also clear in Weicker’s appearance at the CCM meeting that the hallmark of his term as governor, passage of the state income tax, still burns bright in Weicker’s memory bank. He compared the handful of demonstrators that protested his speech in Cromwell with the 40,000 who rallied against the tax on the lawn of the State Capitol in 1991. “We’re making progress,” said Weicker.
The former governor took pleasure in pointing that the state income tax, controversial for decades in Connecticut before it became law, has survived. “Everybody’s had 19 years to repeal it,” Weicker noted. “It hasn’t been repealed, but it has certainly been spent.”
Before departing the CCM meeting, Weicker took shots at old rivals and new critics. “I have seen very little that is civil coming out of the Tea Party,” Weicker said. “To say that they are nuts, that doesn’t cover it, because the people I’m sure are well-intentioned, but the way they present themselves is just plain scary.”
And Weicker still remembers that he lost his U.S Senate seat in 1988 to then Democrat Joe Lieberman. Weicker ran for governor in 1990 as an independent, and Lieberman now fancies himself as an “independent” Democrat. Weicker won’t put himself in the same category as Lieberman. “I really don’t think he’s an independent,” said Weicker. “I think he’s for Joe Lieberman.” Zap!
Reporters closed their notebooks, and turned off their digital recorders and TV cameras knowing full well they contained a wealth of new Weicker zingers to write a plethora of stories. The quote machine is alive and well.
Former U.S. Sen. Howard Baker (R-Tenn) may have the best description of Weicker’s penchant for incendiary quotes on politicians and political issues. Said Baker: “Lowell Weicker is the only man I know who would light a match to look into a gas tank to see if it was empty.”