CT Blue

We folks here in Southeastern Connecticut have had to watch the slow decline of the New London Day, which used to be a good newspaper with a reasonable editorial policy. It has now become, essentially, an automatic supporter of all but the most insane Republicans, and even they get a second look. One of the worst offenders is columnist David Collins, who has this thing about state employees. He can’t understand why they should get the pensions to which their contracts entitle them. Apparently it is there fault that the State of Connecticut has not properly funded those pensions, and it is only fair that they should be screwed out of them. Who knows, maybe the Day screwed Collins out of his pension. Misery loves company, after all.

Anyway, recently Collins let it be known that though he can usually be reliably expected to heap praise on all Republican candidates, he was going to institute a new policy. No Republican would get his support who didn’t follow Chris Shays and unequivocally renounce Donald Trump:

“I would suggest calling this the Trump test, one I intend to try on every state Republican candidate I encounter this election season.

It’s pretty simple: A pledge to renounce, like Shays has, is a pass.

Everything else — like still thinking about it — is a fail.”

Three days after he wrote that column he did a puff piece about a Republican named Nicholas Mullane, who, according to Dave could pretty much do no wrong. I took keyboard in hand (I know that makes no sense) and penned this letter to the Editor:

On June 17th Dave Collins wrote one more in a series of endless columns shilling for yet another Republican candidate, this time Nicholas Mullane. We can, of course, expect more columns of this sort, one for each Republican running for office in the immediate vicinity. 

But I was a bit surprised. Just three days ago Collins announced that he would challenge each Republican candidate to denounce Donald Trump. This would be his pre-sycophancy acid test. He said: “I would suggest calling this the Trump test, one I intend to try on every state Republican candidate I encounter this election season.” Did Mullane pass the Trump test? We are not told. Perhaps Collins has decided that, after all, busting unions is more important than avoiding fascism.

After a decent waiting period, imposed on all letters written by we of the left (they once waited a month to publish one of my letters, by which time almost no one could remember the article I was writing about) the Day published the letter.

I’m not saying it was in response to that letter, but today’s Day contains a column by Collins in which he tells us he has administered the test to a number of Connecticut politicians, including Mullane. We’re not told when he tested Mullane. In any event, here’s what Collins wrote:

One of the first Connecticut Republicans I put to the Trump test was Nicholas Mullane, the former first selectman of North Stonington who is challenging state Rep. Diana Urban for her 43rd District House seat.

Mullane gets penciled in, with a crafty answer in which he said he would like Republicans to find a new candidate at a brokered convention.

He gets to stay on the list, I suppose, at least until Trump officially wins the nomination at the Ohio convention.

Well it sure has gotten easier to pass the test, hasn’t it. A few weeks ago there was this:

Everything else — like still thinking about it — is a fail.

Now, a crafty answer will do. Methinks the standard for passing the test will get even more relaxed as time goes on. Apparently it is also alright to be still thinking about it, as Collins says State Senator Paul Formica is still doing. And you don’t fail the test if you fail to return phone calls posing the Trump test from a guy who has been writing paeans to you in the past:

These include Rep. Aundre Bumgardner, Rep. John Scott and Senate candidate Heather Somers, all of Groton.

So, it turns out that contrary to what we were told, it’s really quite hard to fail the Trump test. You have to really work at it. Here at ctblue we’ll be keeping our faithful reader(s) posted. The time, we assume, must surely come when final grades must be passed out. How, we wonder, will Collins justify his upcoming sycophancy, particularly the praise he will surely lavish on Heather Somers, a long time politician who can proudly say she has never accomplished anything of note other than winning the hearts of the folks at the Day, if she doesn’t come through on the Trump test? If I were Heather I wouldn’t worry. She will surely avoid ever answering the question, and Dave will find a way to argue that while she may not have passed the test, she hasn’t quite failed it either.