FUN AND GAMES 

Serious talk fills the corridors of the State Capitol and Congress, but every once in a while, some touches of humor crop up to lighten the load of the denizens who work within the halls of government. This week we offer a few recent examples:

An e-mail was sent from the State Senate Republican press office to reporters with a request that seemed very odd. It directed that when media stories are produced featuring Sen. Sam Caligiuri (R-Waterbury), reporters should use "headshots" authorized by Caligiuri instead of "candid shots" by news photogs. A stunned press corps quickly asked, is it possible that an elected official actually wanted to limit the number of his photos in the media?

By coincidence, I ran into Caligiuri minutes after the confusing   e-mail and asked: "What's the deal? You don't want your photo taken?" The Senator reacted with healthy horror. When I mentioned the e-mail, Caligiuri said: "That wasn't my intent at all!"

Minutes later, reporters received a new e-mail from the GOP press crew. It read in part: "Senator Caligiuri is providing these headshots as a convenience…in no way is he discouraging the media from taking their own photos of him." Ah, crisis averted.

Later that same day, House GOP leader Lawrence Cafero (R-Norwalk), who dabbles in stand-up comedy, decided to have a little photo fun of his own. First, Cafero left voicemails in the press room asking reporters to avoid using stock photos of him in his current hair-challenged status, encouraging them instead to post pix from the halcyon days of his youth.

To cap off the joke, Cafero brought reporters an obviously "photoshopped" personal headshot, which we've posted on this webpage for a chuckle.

Meanwhile, in Washington, yet another Connecticut pol raised some eyebrows by getting a bit too chummy with President George Bush. You'll recall that last year, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman was shown giving Bush a big hug during the president's visit to Congress for the State of the Union address. Lieberman's liberal critics used the photo against the Senator, lambasting him for being too close to Bush.

This year, it is U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays cozying up to the Prez. During the State of the Union event Jan. 28, Shays gave Bush what a CNN pundit dubbed "a peck on the cheek" as they greeted each other in the House chamber.

The staff of Jim Himes, a Democrat running against Shays for Congress, quickly posted the scene on that viral video magnet YouTube.

Finally, just when you thought the state was safe from Rowland-era scandal, Democratic Attorney General Richard Blumenthal revealed an $80 million dollar boondoggle that went down in 2001, involving the Rowland regime's Department of Administrative Services (DAS).

DAS officials, dogged by a big backlog of workers' compensation cases, decided to "privatize" the process, farming out resolution of numerous cases to two consulting and financial firms, instead of letting state employees handle the load.

The result? Blumenthal's investigation claims one firm charged the state expert rates, $105 an hour, to analyze and process the claims. However, instead of experts, the firm supposedly used college students (buddies of the son of one of the firm's execs). The investigation report notes the college kids had "no experience whatsoever in the insurance industry."

According to Blumenthal, when DAS officials learned of that practice, instead of going ballistic and demanding a refund or reforms, they told the consulting firm using college kids could "raise a lot of questions" and urged them to conceal the situation by referring to the college "interns" as "junior staff" in all invoices to the state.

Blumenthal is trying to recover some of the money paid to the firms, but said it's unlikely anyone at DAS will be charged with any crimes tied to these fiscal follies.
 

Posted 2/04/08

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