Yesterday the Senate Democrats released a five point ethics reform packagethat has nothing to do with Senator Tom Gaffey yesterday.  The plan, co-authored by Senators Ed Meyer, Martin Looney, Gayle Slossberg, and the irascible Senate Democratic Leader, Don Williams (which has nothing to do with the recent revelation that Meriden Democrat Tom Gaffey was having a “personal relationship” with a legislative liaison while attempting to secure a $1 billion bond package for her employer) consists of five points:

Revoke pensions of corrupt officials.

Require ethics training for legislators and municipal elected officials.

Examine Extending restrictions to State Officials who lobby legislators.

Create a permanent bi-partisan process for investigating alleged misconduct by legislators.

Enact a code of conduct and a criminal penalty for elected officials who fail to report a bribe.

The Democrats’ ethics proposal would - among other things - “examine extending restrictions to State Officials who lobby legislators”, like if a legislative liaison for the Connecticut State University System had a “personal relationship” with a Senator who is the Chairman of the Education Committee, for example. 

The Democrats took another whack at a dead horse - former Gov. John Rowland - in a particularly brazen attempt to gloss over Sen. Gaffey’s growing scandal that has nothing to do with the proposal:

“The Democrats responded, however, that they had been working on most of the proposals for years, including the pension revocation plan that dates to 2003 when then-Gov. John G. Rowland’s deputy chief of staff, Lawrence Alibozek, pleaded guilty in a corruption scandal that eventually led to Rowland’s resignation and prison sentences for former co-chief of staff Peter Ellef and contractor William Tomasso.

The Democrats have controlled both chambers of the legislature since then, but Republicans say that the Democrats have balked at revoking pensions because it could extend to state employees. In addition, Republicans say, Democrats were concerned that a pension revocation could have extended to former Democratic state Rep. Jefferson Davis of Pomfret, who pleaded guilty in 2004 to risk of injury to a minor after admitting to committing a sex act with his former foster son. An arrest-warrant affidavit said that the boy had told investigators that he was assaulted 50 to 100 times by Davis.” - Courant

The good thing about the proposal from the Senate Democrats is that it has absolutely nothing to do with Sen. Tom Gaffey.  You don’t have to take it from us.  Speaking to reporters about the plan, the Hartford Courant quoted Senator Ed Meyer saying: “This has nothing to do with Sen. Tom Gaffey,” Meyer told reporters. “If the media and the people of Connecticut think that what we are doing up here at this podium with these proposals relates to Sen. Gaffey, you are wrong.”

If you say it enough times, maybe it will become true!

Promotion:  This makes its way back to the top of the page because Congressman Murphy’s interview on WNPR is being played on CTN right now and the Republican Presidential debate was really boring.

Freshman Congressman Chris Murphy made his views on the United States Senate known last Friday, saying: ”the Senate has really become a threat to democracy as we know it”.  The comment came on the WNPR program “Where We Live” on Friday, December 7th.

Take a listen for yourself.  The - shall we say curious? - comment came 43 minutes into the program, between 43:14 and 43:18.

Senators Dodd and Lieberman would probably be surprised by this revelation, to say nothing of the other 98 U.S. Senators or the United States Constitution.

Update 3:48pm: The debate is over, thankfully.  The FOXNEWS team is mocking the moderator and her stilted, unhelpful moderating skills that made this debate less colorful than her rosy red cheeks.  And rightly so.  There isn’t much else to comment upon on the debate, other than to say it was boring. ***

The Republican Presidential candidates are rebelling against the colorless, poorly made-up moderator of the debate today.  Senator Fred Thompson is the leader of this rebellion, rejecting her call for a “show of hands” regarding global warming, and further asking for more than 30 seconds to address the issue.  When denied it, Senator Thompson refused to answer.

Alan Keyes has picked up the flag and protested the unfair allocation of time for speaking.  It seems that the firepower is targeted on the moderator, not other Republicans.

If you’ve got the opportunity, tune in to FOXNEWS, MSNBC, or CSPAN right now to watch.

Uncle! Uncle! Please no more debates! We’ll give you whatever you want, just stop having debates!

That’s the sentiment that many Americans are expressing these days as the Republican candidates for the Presidential nomination congregate in Iowa for an Iowa Public Television/Des Moines Register Presidential debate.  The afternoon debate, starting in less than one hour (2pm Eastern), will be the last for the Republican candidates before the Iowa caucuses on January 3rd. 

This one could promise to be somewhat more interesting from a purely bloodsport point-of-view, as Governor Mitt Romney attempts to regain some steam in Iowa amid the so-called “Huckaboom”.  Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has been soaring in the polls in recent weeks as Evangelicals rally around the Southern Baptist minister and self-described “Christian Leader”.  Former MA GOV Mitt Romney (did you know he was Mormon?) may look to halt the Huckaboom with a devastating series of attacks - making it likely that the icy atmosphere won’t just be outside the television studio in Johnston, Iowa today.

At her regular press conference after the State Bonding Commission meeting, Governor M. Jodi Rell said that Senator/Mayor Bill Finch ought to resign his seat in the State Senate and serve the people of Bridgeport full time. 

Add it to yesterday’s list - the Monroe Town Council, Rep. Chris Caruso, Rep. Jack Hennessy, Rep. Andres Ayala, Rep. Bob Keeley, and Rep. ‘Don’ “It’s Not a Crime If I Don’t Say I Saw a Crime” Clemons.  That’s quite a list that Senator/Mayor Finch has going.

Actually the Governor had a really great idea.  She suggested that she was going to get business cards printed up with “Mayor Bill Finch” on one side, and “State Senator Bill Finch” on the other side - showing the Governor’s considerable skill when it comes to making fun of Bill Finch.

Two special elections were held yesterday to fill the Congressional seats in Ohio’s 5th Congressional District and Virginia’s 1st CD, and happily, the Republicans won in each case.

Ohio 5

On September 5th, 2007, GOP Representative Paul Gillmor, 68, was found dead in his Arlington home in an apparent accidental trip-and-fall down the stairs.  In the special election to replace him, State Representative Bob Latta scored a 57%-43% win for the Republican over Robin Weirauch, the Democrat.  The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had been crowing about an impending upset in the past few days, but alas it was not so.  In a district where President Bush won 61% of the vote, now Congressman Latta received 57% in a low turnout special election.

Virginia 1

Republican Rep. Jo Ann Davis died on October 6, 2007, losing a tough fight with breast cancer.  GOPer Robert J. Wittman handily defeated Philip Forgit by a margin of 60.72% to 37.3%.  A solid Republican district, Mr. Wittman held a commanding fundraising advantage over his opponent and never looked back.

A Footnote

In both of these cases, Ohio and Virginia - each of them double the size of Connecticut - I am able to access election results quite literally hours after the polls closed from the Wood County Board of Elections in Ohio and the Virginia State Board of Elections.  In both cases, you can even get a breakdown by county - effectively equivalent to our towns.  Posting this same information, in a far less accessible and user friendly format would not be available from the Secretary of the State’s website for days after an election, to say nothing of a special election.  Were it that we had a more innovative Secretary of the State, what useful tools might we have? But alas it is not so.

While the Republican blogosphere continues to grow, we at The Everyday Republican are committed to helping our “friends in battle” by featuring some of their best content here at our site.  We regularly browse our Blogroll and pluck out interesting posts, in a feature we call “Down the Blogroll”.

We are constantly hunting for conservative-minded blogs with good content to feature.  If you have are a Republican blogger, or are starting a blog, leave a note in the comment section and we’ll be happy to add your blog to the blogroll - then you are in!  Anytime you have something that peaks our interest, we’ll post the link and a brief clip of your work.

Tonight we’ve added the blog Fly to the Right, and look forward to adding more in the future.