Sunday, February 1, 2009

Our tone deaf speaker of the house


Chris Donovan just doesn't know when to quit. First we find out that he wanted to hire the just-ex-speaker Jim Amann as his special assistant at a salary (read: cost to taxpayers) of $120,000.

Both Donovan and Amann, who is planning to run for governor, decided it wasn't a wise plan, after it was publicized and the tax paying constituents went apeshit.

Now this. Donovan, who seems to have a special gift for making decisions which will resonate like a sour note to constituents, has hired a press secretary at a salary of $165,000 a year.

As a writer, far be it from me to complain about one who has figured out how to pull down $165,000 a year. And he was making $245k at his last gig. But it pains me to think that I own a communications business, with employees, and we all pay taxes to hire a state employee who is pulling down a good bit more than me, and has a benefit package that is the envy of any private sector employee.

And his job?

To make the Speaker of the House look good.

Well, it looks like the speaker will need someone to burnish his reputation at this rate.

BTW, kudos to Jon Lender and the Hartford Courant for the diligent work and the good sense to expose the weaknesses of our leaders. It seems to be a common thread among the Courant's columnists, as Colin McEnroe and Susan Campbell and Kevin Rennie and Helen UbiƱas take up the same theme.

Look up the word feckless in the dictionary, and it's illustrated with a map of Hartford.

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