Cross-posted at The Next Hurrah
Reading JamesB3's piece on Kansas reminds me that we could do worse than live in Connecticut. Okay, so the UConn basketball teams both lost this year (a rarity - for the graduating senior women, it's their first ond only NCAA tournament loss) but other things are happening around the state as well.
The State of Connecticut will sue the federal government over President Bush's signature education law, arguing that it forces Connecticut to spend millions on new tests without providing sufficient additional aid, the state's attorney general announced yesterday.
Although a handful of local school districts, in Illinois, Texas and other states, have filed legal challenges to the law, known as No Child Left Behind, Connecticut would be the first state to do so.
Its suit would open a new chapter in a struggle between states and the federal government that has seen legislatures lodge various protests over the law, and at least one state education commissioner, in Texas, issue an order this year that appeared to directly contradict a federal ruling.
Connecticut's attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said he was announcing his plans now because he was going to be contacting attorneys general in other states, in the hope that they would join the suit. He said he expected to file within weeks.
Dick Blumenthal remains a very popular Dem politician in CT, although what he'll do with that popularity is unclear... run against Jodi Rell, who replaced
inmate No. 15623-014 - (Republican) as governor, run a Senate campaign if Dodd goes for Gov, or stay where he is and do a very credible job.
Oh, and speaking of CT and KS
As other states pass constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage, Connecticut lawmakers are moving closer toward voluntarily allowing gay and lesbian couples to enter state-recognized civil unions.
The Democrat-controlled Senate is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a bill that would make Connecticut the first state to recognize civil unions between same-sex couples without needing intervention from the courts to do so.
"Our responsibility as a state is to have laws that ensure the well-being of each of our citizens," said the Rev. Davida Foy Crabtree, conference minister for Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ. She hopes the state will eventually allow same-sex marriage.
Proponents said Tuesday that they have enough votes to pass the civil unions bill. They also believe they have enough support in the House, also controlled by Democrats.
But opponents, including the Catholic Church, believe there is still time to scuttle the bill or possibly amend it with language defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. And if the bill passes both chambers, opponents vowed to pressure Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell to veto the legislation.
All politics is local, and Rell will undoubtedly be under considerable pressure to kowtow to the national wingnuts. Here's betting that she'll sign, giving pause to the idea that anti-gay rights legislation is inevitable and inexorable.
It may as well start in CT, and why not under a Republican Governor? After the events of last week, the Republican party can use a few more cracks in the foundation:
The danger for the GOP is that the political dialogue is being structured less as a choice between Republican and Democratic ideas than as a referendum on Republican ideas alone. And some of those aren't faring so well.
An overwhelming majority of Americans opposed congressional and White House intervention in the Schiavo case; Bush's Social Security plan is lagging in the polls too. And it's difficult to imagine that many Americans outside the GOP's conservative base applauded House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's (R-Texas) fevered rant against the courts last week following Schiavo's death.
Republican strategists like Stephen Moore, president of the Free Enterprise Fund, believe that even with these near-term reversals, the central focus on Republican ideas will benefit the party over time. "In the long term, this is the way you win in politics," he says. "You plant the seeds of your ideas, and you effectively blockade the other side from advancing any of its ideas."
Conversely, Democratic thinkers like veteran pollster Stanley B. Greenberg believe Republicans are planting the seeds for a voter backlash by overreaching. "Democrats have an opportunity in pushing off this agenda, which may seem extreme to many," he says.
Only future elections will settle that debate. But both analyses point to the same conclusion: The fate of both parties hangs mostly on the public's verdict about Republican ideas.
In CT, the verdict is coming in and it ain't gonna be pretty for Republican 'values'. So if those are the the terms of the debate, based on what's happening here in Connecticut, bring it on.