{news} Old Greens, green Dems

[David Bedell]

http://newhavenadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:153151

Old Greens, green Dems
CT college Dems and Green Party hold conventions, eat food

by Advocate Staff - April 27, 2006

Last Saturday, April 22, a cold and drizzly Earth Day, two groups of 
idealists met separately to plot their political future. One group, the 
College Democrats of Connecticut, convened in the modern campus center of 
the University of New Haven. The other, the Connecticut Green Party, holed 
up in the aged home of the Greater New Haven Labor Council.The former 
mingled with Democratic pols. The latter made history.

About 40 students, bleary-eyed but sharply dressed at 9 a.m., attended the 
college Dems convention to hear some of the party's biggest names speak. 
Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, acknowledging she was "preaching to 
the choir," bemoaned that only one in four 18- to 24-year-olds votes in 
Connecticut. A show of hands revealed that most of the attendees vote 
absentee in their home states, and Comptroller Nancy Wyman beseeched them 
"to be on the front lines for us."

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, meanwhile, began with a confession: He 
has four kids, and he "can't get them interested in politics." And yet, he 
says, "In my view, we are living through the most lawless national 
administration in history". Even the lawlessness of the Nixon administration 
looks good by comparison."

The luncheon drew other notables, like Mayor John DeStefano, a gubernatorial 
candidate, as well as U.S. senate candidate Ned Lamont. The latter blasted 
his opponent, Joe Lieberman, for being the only Democrat in Connecticut "who 
supported the Bush-Cheney energy bill." He also discussed his key campaign 
issue: the Iraq war. He proposes an immediate withdrawal of troops, but says 
the U.S.-led reconstruction should continue.

Are you, I asked him, saying the Iraqi police force would protect American 
contractors?

"Yeah, I think that's exactly what I'm saying," replied Lamont, though he 
appeared unsure. He added that maybe the United Nations and the Arab League 
would pitch in, too. "We've got to eat a little humble pie," he said. 
"American troops on the front lines aren't doing us any good."

The Green Party convention in Fair Haven, meanwhile, was a much looser, 
livelier affair, as a similar number of middle-aged lefties cracked NPR 
jokes and noshed on Modern pizza, assorted cheeses and other snacks. They 
also approved their first-ever slate of statewide candidates, including 
gubernatorial hopeful Clifford Thornton, who had a different war on his 
mind.

"The drug war has done nothing but exacerbate the problems connected with 
drugs," said Thornton, thought to be the first black man to run for the 
state's top job. "I am tired of waiting for someone to have the courage to 
make this issue public, so I have decided to do it myself."

Thornton is as Green as they come, calling for the decriminalization of 
cannabis, which, he says, would free up $200 million for the state to spend 
on education and health care. Like Lamont, he's been called a single-issue 
candidate, and he didn't do much to dispel that notion. Citing insufficient 
knowledge, he refused to take stances on instituting a millionaire's tax, 
repealing the estate tax, and prohibiting bosses from making over 10 times 
more than their lowest-paid employees.

But Thornton did have some choice words for any liberal who says Thornton 
might "spoil" this fall's general election: "Tough shit." Several Green 
delegates suggested, with a chuckle, that he make that his campaign slogan.

—Ryan Kearney