Brunelle Brouhaha, Part Deux

by: Tim C.

Fri Mar 04, 2011 at 23:45:41 PM EST

Hatchet job? That might be giving them a little too much credit. It's more like a bad indie remake of "The Lizzie Borden Story," where Lizzie is drunk, blindfolded and armed with a herring.

So the Committee on Legislative Administration, a full standing House committee charged with examining the matter and providing its considered opinion to the entire House, is now, courtesy of Chairman Paul Mirski, instructed to surrender its capacity for debate and judgment to a single unelected political appointee, who owes his position and salary to the erratic anger gnome -- the worst holder of the House gavel in living memory -- whose crony he is.

And with the sole honorable exception of Rep. David Kidder (R-New London), who's intelligent enough and been around long enough to recognize a baseless partisan attack when he sees it, and who is a sufficiently decent human being to refuse to take part in it (is that really so hard a thing to expect of every representative?), every Republican on the committee lined up behind the Honorable Paul Mirski -- and sure, he is an honorable man -- and voted for his stage-managed motion, as semi-competently mouthed by Rep. Marilinda Garcia. (Whose good looks, youth, femaleness and willingness to carry the hierarchy's water make her a preferred mask on its ugly, obsolescent and overwhelmingly male face. She has shown no evidence of having the zealously pro-ignorance ethos and monstrous personality of Sarah Palin, but make no mistake -- whatever prominence she is given will be for exactly the same reasons that Palin was given hers.)

What will Edward Mosca tell the committee to do? Well, that depends on whether petty preening potentate William O'Brien's hatred for the Democratic Party and all it represents outweighs his fear of the contempt that his tinfoil-hat crusade is fomenting, or whether he does a gut check, finds himself lacking, and bails on the whole process by telling Mosca to throw up some legal cover while he cuts and runs.

Watch next week's Brunelle work session to see if the Big O is capable of going all-out against an enemy. If Mosca comes back with plans for show trials, he is. If he comes back with "homina homina homina," not so much.

And that's this week's report on the laser-focus-on-jobs House, incorrigibly iniquitous inquisition edition.

Oh, and hey, here's just a little bonus about why you parents shouldn't be all frivolous about divorces, like you always are:

(Background: this is testimony on HB587, banning no-fault divorces for couples with minor children. [Surprise! O'Brien's gung ho for it, because you're such selfish and irresponsible people, so you'll "have to identify some cause to enter divorce, and not that you just decided you don't want to invest in the relationship any longer". Because, yeah, that's totally why people with kids go through the horrible gut-wrenching process of divorce these days, because they're all, "Meh, I don't feel like this anymore."] Y'all couples who just plain loathe the very sight of each other now get to flip a coin to see who gets to be accused of adultery, and who gets to perjure him/herself. Family values!)