Rosa DeLauro

Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro's charmed life has come to an end. For the better part of two decades she has dwelled with hubby Stanley Greenberg, pollster to the powerful and well connected, and then come back to CT and pretended she was just some well meaning neighborhood politician.

Well, now she has an opponent ready to demand accountability from someone who reeks of political insiderdom and self-dealing.

From the mornings' New Haven Register, the district's preeminent newspaper.   

DeLauro, Labriola spar over BP, response

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, Thursday said she welcomed a criminal probe of BP executives and officials and said her husband’s polling and public relations company no longer has a contract with the energy giant.DeLauro’s GOP opponent, Jerry Labriola, asked why she hadn’t disclosed the contract and accused her of being an “insider” who had failed to say anything about the disaster currently unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. 

DeLauro's defense to the fact her family has profited immensely from her husband's "greenwashing" of BP's hideous environmental record.  Oh,  he stopped working on that account.  When you may ask? Oh, less than a year ago.

So , of course the decade BP had a powerful congresswoman's husband on retainer as an image consutlant ought to be completely overlooked by CT voters.  

Republican Jerry Labriola has a different attitude about the meaning of public service.

Labriola asked if Greenberg’s BP contract conflicted with DeLauro’s ability to represent the 3rd District. He said when he is elected, “you won’t have to worry about someone in my family getting rich because I am a congressman.” 

Rosa DeLauro may not be quite as bad as "Dollar" Bill Jefferson. But now the cost of crony capitalism and insider sweetheart deals is coming to light. And this makes career hacks like Rosa DeLauro look rather, hmmm, oily.  CT 3 is a reach by the CPVI, but DeLauro's political skills have atrophied from disuse and the district will back some Republicans, having supported every Republican gubernatorial nominee in CT since 1990.

Jerry Labriola is the antithesis of a political insider. He's a small town lawyer and a soccer coach.  He may not have DC lobbyists on his side, but he has been going the shoe leather route around this district.  Here's his website.  Let's help him out!

There are two massive environmental disasters going on. One is BP's fault. The other is the oily, slick relationship between congressman, lobbyists, consutlants and special interests. That slick, covering most of Washington DC, will require the election of dozens of new congressman to disperse.

Let's clean up the Beltway spill. Let's elect Jerry Labriola in CT 3. .

Here's something you probably don;t know about the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

One of the top media consultants for British Petroleum gave free rent to a politician who became White House Chief of Staff.

And, no, this was not Karl Rove giving a freebie to Andy Card.

No, the recipient of the favor was Rahm Emanuel and the benefactor was Stanley Greenberg.   

Stanley Greenberg is an interesting guy. He is married to CT Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Grrenberg is the principal of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a large polling and public relations firm. They do both political campaign work and "corporate communications" work.

The DCCC has paid Greenberg's firm in excess of $500,000 during the 2006 and 2008 election cycles.  They are also Dick Blumenthal's pollster

But let's look at the corporate side, where Mr. Greenberg promises to  "help corporations increase competitiveness and profitability, improve reputation, and take advantage of global trends."

Who are they helping?  British Petroleum

Greenberg Quinlan Rosner helped BP plan and evaluate its successful re-branding campaign, focusing the company's branding on energy solutions, including the development of solar and other renewable energy sources.

Real accurate, you think?

Let's see what the honest Left thinks about Stan Greenberg's work on behalf of the worst corporate polluter in American history.  He's been accused of being one of the top "greenwashers" out there.  BP is charged with spending over $200 million on efforts to assert alleged environmental consciousness. (Meantime they cut corners to save money on the Deepwater Horizon) It's been called "greenwashing of epic proportions" Obviously, BP would rather spend money on high priced DC PR consultants than on boring stuff like oil drilling safety.

And Stan Greenberg was the mastermind for BP's faux concern.

So when Nancy Pelosi starts pointing fingers about the oil disaster,   maybe she can look a little closer to home. Like to her loyal ally Rosa DeLauro and her husband, who profited immensely peddling the fiction BP cared about the environment.

If Nancy Pelosi is serious, she ought to immediately ban the use of Stan Greenberg's polling firm in all Democratic House campaigns. If Richard Blumenthal is serious about blaming BP, he ought to fire Greenberg himself.

And we really ought to ask how credible that "boot on the neck" on BP the Obama White House claims to be applying really is when the Obama Administration's Chief of Staff lived rent-free thanks to the largesse of a BP consultant.

Yep, this is the "most ethical congress ever". Right.

The longer you look at this, I'm not sure what's oilier, the Louisiana coast or the slezoids running the DC Democratic establishment.

From a CT blog tonight (the picture are AG Dick Blumenthal and CT's 5 Democrats in the House)

   Is anyone safe?

We may have a new ally in fighting the onward march towards socialism. Organic farmers are up in arms against Rep. Rosa DeLauro's "farm safety" bill.

Republicans may not have been at Woodstock, but we also don;t think the New Deal was too timid, either. 

And why shouldn;t there be fear. It's not like the thrift store industry hasn't been jerked around. 

Our granola famers are now confronted by the fact that they are bit players in the world of Corporate Democrats.  And Ms. DeLauro is the poster child. Former Chief of Staff to Chris Dodd.  , whom she had a funny looking land deal with.  Landlord to Rahm Emanuel . Spouse to millionaire political consultant Stan Greenberg.

Message to cabbage growers in Killingworth. Maybe the party that is more aligned with small business might work out a little better for you. Some of us already eat organic food. Time to make a deal, I say.  

The flip side of Palinmania is Palinhysteria. Yesterday the CT Democrats put on a fine display of this at their campaign kickoff rally in Hamden, CT

http://www.newhavenregister.com/articles/2008/09/07/news/a1obama.txt

HAMDEN – U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd took aim at Republican presidential nominee John McCain and his newly appointed running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at a Barack Obama rally Saturday, telling the crowd of almost 2,500 people that Democrats are going to send Palin “back to Alaska.”.....

Dodd also accused the Republicans of resorting to attacks at their convention and he countered claims that Palin is going to bring change to Washington.

“If all you do is attack, believe me, we are used to that in Washington,” he said, adding: “There is nothing fresh about Sarah Palin.”

This is coming from someone who has been in Washington only two years less than Joe Biden. Chris Dodd's "sell-by" date was at least a decade in the past.

The Democrats have also recently discovered that not all of the electorate drive Volvos  and shop at Whole Foods, as Rep. Rosa DeLauro said

When we elect Barack Obama, we will have the opportunity to put the middle-class first,” she said. (Attorney General Richard) Blumenthal echoed the economy theme in his speech and called out Republicans on their new message of change. He said: “There was a lot of talk about change at the Republican convention, but there wasn’t a lot of talk about the middle class. What we have seen over the last eight years is a contempt for the middle class.”
 

Reality check, my friends. Here's our allies of working folks :

a) Chris Dodd is the son of a U.S. Senator and has used funny mortgage money so he can own three homes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Dodd#Personal_life  While Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sank under the waves since Dodd's Bailout bill failed, Dodd himself spent the month in August vacationing in Ireland.  http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-rennie0817.artaug17,0,6806840.column

b)Rosa DeLauro's  husband Stan Greenberg is a millionaire consultant for corporations that do business with Congress such as British Petroleum, British Airways, Monsanto and General Motors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Greenberg

c) Richard Blumenthal is married to the heiress to a  prominent NYC real estate lawyer and developer. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9803E0D6153BF93BA15755C0A964948260 He lives in a multimillion dollar mansion in the Greenwich backcountry (trust me; I'm not going to go lefty invasion of privacy and show you the house and Zillow appraisal;  his family has young children and deserves their peace) 

So take all this bleating about the "middle class" from the Porsche Populists with about a shaker load of salt.

Bottom line; They see that Sarah Palin has their former supporters right in her sights and they are desperate to stop this from happening. Even in deep blue CT 
 

Another week in Navy Blue CT