House Republican Press Release

July 7, 2008

Press Office: 860-240-8700

Perceiving the Obvious…..

By State Representative John J. Ryan

I hope you enjoyed the long holiday weekend; maybe you visited one of our adjoining communities to view their fireworks? I actually got to Tanglewood for James Taylor at the halfway point of his national Band of Legends Tour, and I would be glad to tell you about that, or Opening Night recently at Caramoor, or the NY Phil at Central Park (can you tell that I have made fewer trips to Hartford in the last few weeks ? ), but this is supposed to be a column about government…and while I am at it, if you get a chance, ask the Editor why his favorite team, the Cincinnati Reds ( no, I am NOT going to explain how that happened) is still struggling to reach .500, when the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Milwaukee Brewers are turning their franchises around ? Isn’t it obvious that this would be a much better paper if I did a music review column, and that Editor could babble about baseball?

And as long as we are kvetching about “the obvious”, why is it that the media never has any perception about what “obvious" is? Obvious examples of this phenomena keep jumping out all over and here are a few:

- “Hartford Blight Persists” : we mentioned not long ago the wave of bad publicity that has engulfed Connecticut’s Capitol in recent months with numerous stories on shootings, hit-and-runs, robberies…and the Hartford Courant ran an editorial this Monday with the afore-mentioned title discussing the ‘bad vibes’ exuded by decaying buildings in visible, prominent locations. So am I the only one who finds it odd that the ‘big Hartford daily’ never notes that despite the zillions of $$ from umpteen State programs pouring into their City on an annual basis, that on all of the basic issues, Hartford seems to be making steady “negative progress” ? Will there ever be any analysis of why all the spending and programs apparently are not working, and that maybe someone should rethink how to tackle this inner-city issues, or think about what sorts of things have proven successful ( or at the least, promising ) in other places ? Will the Hartford daily ever figure out that the same political party has had total elective control in the City seemingly forever (hint: the same folks with the legislative large majorities…)?

- “Polling shows drop for Rell popularity…”: Perhaps you saw several of these stories that the latest polling (how did mankind ever move out of caves and to the Renaissance without pollsters to tell us what we are thinking?) now indicates that Gov. Rell’s “approval rating” dropped (gasp!) to 65 %, and that Dodd and Lieberman also dropped. So did you assume that this earth-shattering news also contained a revelation about politicians whose ratings went up? Guess what…no one went up in approval ratings, as those being polled seem to be worried about the slipping economy. Aren’t you much better armed to face the challenges of a new day with this information? (I assume that there will soon be a news flash that Americans watch NASCAR racing and ‘American Idol’ on TV!)

- Charter Oak Insurance Plan startup: OK, I know this is an actual news item. You can go to Governor Rell’s website (once again at www.ct.gov/governorrell  ) for details on this new program that ‘opened for business’ on July 1, and how to apply and details about the coverage. Those daily papers actually figured out that there were more than 3,000 calls in the first 3 days that the hotline # was opened and that our State is one of the first to offer this state-sponsored effort to help the uninsured. But did anyone make the connection that the potential of this new plan just now being “rolled out” might have been a good reason for Republican legislators to oppose, and Gov. Rell to veto a few weeks ago, the large, expensive, and fraught with problems insurance coverage plan that passed the General Assembly ( on a party-line basis) this Session? Does daily newspaper ‘journalism’ consist solely of reprinting quotes from press releases?

- $10,000 for (another) study on Super 7 possibility: You must have seen this one…more of your taxpayer dollars on another study, and voters wonder what government does with your money? Never mind whether a new Super 7 is or isn’t a good idea, is there any chance that it will ever be built?

- And “Gas prices going up”: amazing, but true. And there was also a story that newspaper readership was declining.

Maybe I can hope that I have a chance of making it through the summer without yet another Special Session?

As always please feel free to contact me with your concerns and issues. As your state representative, it is my job, and my priority to represent you and to make sure that your needs and concerns are addressed at the capitol.  You can write to me at Room 4200, Legislative Office Building, and Hartford, CT 06106-1591, send me e-mail at John.Ryan@housegop.ct.gov or call my office toll-free at 1-800-842-1423.