Dreaming of Reagan, and being governor

Nobody will be accusing Republican gubernatorial candidate Martha Dean of pandering to the news media after she announced her candidacy last week by calling the reporters who will cover the campaign “vermin.” This is seen as a departure from the usual announcement of the intention to run for governor — in Connecticut, at least.It was one of several applause lines at Dean’s formal announcement that drew literally dozens, counting some print and TV vermin, to the Old State House in Hartford last week. By vermin, we can assume the candidate was referring to the secondary definition of the word, which is “very unpleasant and offensive people,” although the principal definition, “objectionable animals (as lice or fleas) that are difficult to control or to get rid of,” presumably fits the Dean view as well. Dean’s antipathy toward journalists is strange because they made her what she is today. This was accomplished by merely recording the outrageous things she has actually said in her unsuccessful career as an office seeker. True, what she says sometimes requires interpretation and that’s where vermin who write editorials or opinion columns come in.Last week, for example, she offered the following observations that cry out for additional reflection:Her candidacy is further evidence that she was put here to be God’s blessing on Connecticut.If elected, she would work to repeal the state income tax, she would seek the elimination of public employee unions and she would repeal the post-Newtown gun control measures. The latter is her most important promise, as she is the darling of the gun law resisters.u u uDean is known for making two losing runs for attorney general against Richard Blumenthal in 2002 and George Jepsen in 2010, but she became even better known, notorious even, for posting a video on her Facebook page soon after the Newtown massacre that claimed it was all a hoax perpetrated by anti-gun and anti-Second Amendment forces of evil. I wrote in this newspaper at the time that she claimed the video was posted “only because she’s a believer in sharing ideas.” These particular ideas ranged from the incredibly bizarre — the killings never happened, what you saw on television was a movie — to the incredibly hurtful — parents lying about their children being dead.She questioned why the killer was able to kill everyone and not wound some, whether people stopped in the vicinity were accomplices and whether the government of the United States had a role, which, she conceded, was highly unlikely, though “theoretically possible.” She did disown those saying a smiling parent seen on the video was evidence the killings didn’t happen, but suggested the smile could be “a red flag” to investigators.u u uCandidate Dean’s gun nuttiness was also on exhibition in her last campaign against Jepsen when she promised, if elected, to see to it that all school children, Boy and Girl Scouts and little campers be trained to use guns.“We teach sex education in school, yet we omit the most basic skill needed to exercise fundamental constitutional rights,” she said and still got 480,000 votes. In the Old State House last week, Dean also spoke of once having Ronald Reagan, bearing a caged canary, no less, come to her in a dream. (Even news vermin don’t make this stuff up.)Now, here was a statement by a candidate for high office that surely required amplification. A supporter in the audience suggested Dean’s seeing Reagan in her dreams indicates the late president was handing down his legacy to Martha but she got a bit confused as to why the Reagan legacy came equipped with a bird in a gilded cage.The woman observed that real life, caged canaries once accompanied miners into unventilated coal mines to determine if the veins contained deadly gases. As long as the canary kept singing, the mine was safe. But Dean wouldn’t go along with the supporter’s theory, saying she didn’t know why she dreamt of Reagan and his caged bird but the dream did inspire her to read Reagan’s books. Dean probably peaked with the announcement, God’s blessing and Reagan’s canary, but she may prove to be an inconvenience for the Republican campaign, the pre-primary debates and candidate Tom Foley, who has not appeased the gun nuts completely. Simsbury resident Dick Ahles is a retired journalist. Email him at dahles@hotmail.com.