Professor Hex: Usefuls Idiots

There's a lot of interest in Connecticut politics these days. Democratic nominee Ned Lamont is playing the usurper to Senator and former presidential candidate Joe Lieberman, who is now running as an independent. Meanwhile, the Republicans have nominated Alan Schlesinger, a former mayor of the City of Derby and a six-term State Representative. Despite the nomination of his party, Schlesinger has had little support from Republican power brokers. He seems to be merely a placeholder. President Bush has refused to endorse his candidacy as have other GOP bigwigs. Schlesinger has gambled extensively in the past and lost many thousands of dollars. On the surface this might make him a liability, but that doesn't seem to have hurt William Bennett's standing among the party faithful. Schlesinger's web site is amateurish and the Latest News links on the front page haven't been updated since April. What kind of candidate is he?

This may be a good time to look at the last Connecticut Republican Party nominee for Joe Lieberman's senate seat, Philip Giordano.

Phil Giordano was an up and coming GOP hotshot. Young, handsome, and an ex-Marine, Giordano seemed to have the entire package. He'd served as a state representative and was serving his third term as mayor of Waterbury. On paper, Phil probably looked like a good candidate. Unfortunately, Waterbury had a corruption problem and the FBI was investigating. In the course of their investigation, the Feds recorded some of Giordano's phone calls. What they heard on those recordings chilled the blood.

It seemed the married Giordano had a girlfriend on the side. As political liabilities go, that one's probable not fatal. Look at Bill Clinton. But Giordano's girlfriend was a prostitute with a young daughter and niece - age 8 and 11 - and soon investigators overheard the depth of Giordano's depravity.

"I want one of the little girls."

Giordano juggled his secret life smoothly, glibly moving between pervert and politician. Here's Giordano making arrangements with his girlfriend (called "Doe" here) to rape the children:

Giordano: "Hang on, I gotta go. Hang on, I gotta go, I gotta go."
Doe: "Okay."
(Second Call)
Giordano: "Hello."
Lauren: "Hi. Mayor Giordano?"
Giordano: "Yes."
Lauren: "Hi, my name is Lauren. I'm Bill Hanson's assistant at the Department of Education. How are you?"

Today, Phil Giordano sits in prison serving a 37 year sentence for violating the civil rights of his prostitute girlfriend's young charges - girls he sexually abused, in some cases, in his office while mayor.

He recently claimed he was owed money for unused vacation and sick days.

But Phil Giordano's "sick days" are over.

I'm not implying that Schlesinger has the disease that infected Giordano, but it does seem odd that Connecticut Republicans have shown very little interest in fielding a strong candidate to take away Lieberman's senate seat. I wonder why?

posted by Prof. Hex at 8:09 PM

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