Apparently UCONN basketball coach has gotten all the support he needs, including a call from Connecticut Senator Creepy Joe™ Lieberman, and the head of the NCAA. According to the Hartford Courant:
Sen. Lieberman and all those other phone calls from around the country — from the head of the NCAA, all the other various people — that's all I've really needed," said Calhoun, a cancer survivor.
I find it strange that Courant sportswriter Mike Anthony identifies Calhoun in this context as a cancer survivor. Because there's no other reason to use that description here, one can only assume that Anthony was attempting to drum up sympathy.
And if I recall correctly, Lieberman also supported John McCain and Sarah Palin.
Constitutional scholar Bobby Knight supports Calhoun's First Amendment rights.
I watched the UCONN men's game Saturday (yes, I'm still a fan), and was appalled when commentators Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg climbed on the Calhoun bandwagon and claimed that Calhoun had been "conned" (their pun not mine), when Ken Krayeske asked the now infamous question.
In the end, all those who are in the tank for Calhoun seem to be re-framing the controversy as if it were somehow about Calhoun's generousity, which doesn't seem to be the issue being questioned.
There are three issues: Does Krayeske, or anyone in the press have the right to ask any question they please at a press conference (or is the post-game press conference sacrosanct)? Should the highest paid state employee be questionned about the economic problems facing the state? And did Jim Calhoun handle the question correctly, and with the dignity required of a top state representative?
The answers seem pretty clear, and it's become obvious that Krayeske has made his point.
