It’s the weekend after Thanksgiving, when many are wondering whether to buy a balsam or a fir or to plunk down for that 55-inch HD sucker on sale at Bernie’s. It is easy to forgetthat most voters are not engrossed with every bob of weave of the political players in Hartford or Washington as another year of incompetence and arrogance leadership is manifestedby the established political order – elected Democrats and the uneleted public sector unions who pull their strings.

The public may not notice that the Democrat political aristocracy will probably retire for the month of December, rather than face the growing state budget shortfalls and the deficit mitigation plan offered by Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell.  The Governor laid out a pretty clear roadmap for the House and Senate leaders to consider but it is unlikely they will follow it. Democrats believe the public doesn’t care right now.

After all, the Recession is over and recovery is just around the corner! That is what House Speaker Chris Donovan, D-Meriden, is telling everyone. And all that stimulus money, well, it’s getting all sorts of people working as well.  Senate President Pro Tempore Don Williams, D-Brooklyn, has been shoring up his members to not dump him before February while other longtime Democrats are looking to hit the silk if the state’s Campaign Finance Program is scuttled by the federal courts.

The budget shortfall, depending on which agency you believe, is probably near $500 million, barely two months after the  proposal was finalized. The numbers, as they say, are revealing.  Most tax receipts on sales, income and dividends are in free fall. The unemployment rate is near 8.8 percent, home mortgages continue to drown in default and each day another round of restructuring hits a major corporation. White collar unemployment, the drivers of capitalism and wealth, is very high. You see and hear about it everyday – someone got let go and hasn’t worked in a year or another has burned through their savings just to keep a house.

And the Democrats, well, they can wait.

None of the Democrats who have opened “exploratory committees” for Governor have offered any answers because any answers will alienate what has become of the Democrat Party in Connecticut. None of the Gubernatorial wanna-be’s will say that the government must be chainsawed and programs must be vaporized for anything to get better.

Add a few tax cuts and a total reform of the education and health care systems and maybe Connecticut might find a way toward being an opportunity-based society.

The Republicans looking to run for Governor, Lt. Governor Mike Fedele, House Minority Leader Larry Cafero, R-Norwalk, Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield or former Ambassador and Greenwich businessman Tom Foley, all get the situation.

Yet,  Speaker Donovan will more than likely not act on Gov. Rell’s request and hold a Special Session on December 15. He will let the deficit continue to grow until the state reaches that magic moment when it runs out of cash to pay bills. The problem here is simple – there is nothing to tax anymore and the numbers the Democrats thought they would get by going after those evil rich people didn’t materialize. So, Donovan will try and renege on the partial reform of the estate tax, hoping that will help once the evil rich people check out to a better place.

That is the Democrats answer to everything, just make someone else pay, even after they are dead.

By February, an exhausted Connecticut voter, worried about employment, watching their neighbors struggle with their mortgage, will see what they helped elect over the years and how they respond to an adult challenge. Then, Republicans will be there to explain there are options here – like leadership.